With Samuel now being awake earlier in the morning our schedule can adjust. Today, Samuel and I walked Julia to her car and then we went to the butcher and the market. The weather has improved so that we could do this. High today almost 50(10 c). It was good to see everyone and have them remember us. We especially miss our produce people as we had not seen them since before Christmas.
Upon returning to our building, Beatrice, our gardienne, was in the hallway cleaning the mirrors. We did not have an intellectual discussion but I was able to comprehend what she was saying/asking and I was able to tell her that Samuel is feeling better. A small victory.
Had my first encounter with the French bureaucracy today. I had to meet a consultant at the Nanterre prefecture to pick up my carte de sejour(residency card). Julia being an EU citizen allows me to receive a cart de sejour that allows me to reside and work in France for 10 years. With the aid of the consultant I was able to receive my carte with ....update(not for the squeamish).....Samuel is on the floor under the desk and he has just been exposed to many germs as he just put two of my toes in his mouth. Now he is crying...........very little heartache. The only obstacle is that the card was issued with our old address, so the consultant kept my carte as she was meeting with an official after our meeting who would be able to correct my address. If all goes well she will courier my carte to me on Monday.
Did encounter some difficulty today. To get to the nanterre prefecture I had to take the metro 1 to La Defense where I transferred to the RER A. I had, what we call in America a brain fart. when I got off the metro I took the escalator the RER not realizing that the RER went in two directions and I was on the wrong platform. My thought(?) process was that the metro line meets it terminus at La Defense and for reasons unknown I assumed that the RER line was the same. It was not. Fortunately I was able to call my non flustered wife and she listened to me patiently as I was able to determine what I needed to do. We only had to take the RER 1 stop so when we got off(on the RER you need your ticket to exit, this is different than the metro where no ticket is needed to exit) when I tried to exit the turnstile would not accept my ticket. I tried a few different turnstiles with the same result. Fortunately there was port near the turnstiles that someone had just used and we were able to sneak through before it closed to exit the terminal. As we returned to the terminal to begin our journey home the turnstile again refused my ticket. Again, my lovely wife came to the rescue as she determined that I had crossed zones and needed to purchase a different ticket to access the RER. The remainder of the trip home was uneventful.
-Dave
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