Another good day

Samuel and I had a good day today.

We took a trip to the covered market this morning. This was our first solo trip to the market.

Discovered that all of the vendors speak some English.  It was interesting as a fish monger said that he would prefer to speak English as he was learning and I told him the same in french.  For the most part the vendors spoke English slightly more than half the time and I spoke french about 80%.    I think I ordered everything correctly.  Julia will tell me when she gets home if I bought the wrong item(s).

After lunch Samuel and I took the metro to the quatre temps mall at la defense.  A intimidatingly large mall.  We were able to find almost everything we were looking for.  Most importantly we found a space heater for Samuel's room( as the temperature is supposed to be in single digits(c) this weekend and we do not know when our shared heat will be turned on.  We were also able to find the Leonidas and pick up some good Belgian chocolate.  Julia and I usually have 1 piece after diner each evening.  Unfortunately I was unable to find a book.  I was unable to find a book by an author that I am familiar with.  I think it will help me greatly with my french learning curve to read french but I also think it would be best if i read an author with whom i am familiar.  Discovered this morning that teenagers are the same throughout the world.  As we were returning from the market(Samuel was in his stroller) and walking down the avenue Longchamp, there is apparently a high school on this street.  I figured this out as about 1000 the sidewalks and the street were completely blocked by teenagers.  Cars were honking hoping to be able to navigate the street. I was shouting, Pardon!!, some of them moved but some did not.  I was forced to run into a few ankles with the stroller to get the space to move through.  Reminded me of the neighborhood where I lived in Kentucky.  I was across the street from a high school and every  morning the kids stood and walked in the middle of the street and refused to move out of the way of the cars.

Good news, we have heard from the agent at our new apartment and they had difficulties when they attempted to clean the walls.  Because of this they are going to paint the walls and this means that we may not be able to move in on October 1st.  But we are encouraged that they are willing to do what is necessary to make the apartment livable and that they are also communicating with us about the details.

We still have yet to hear anything from the current management company concerning our impending move.

Weather depending we will go out this weekend and reconnoiter the neighborhood of our new apartment.  It will not be as easy living as the market, boulangeries are not as close or as numerous.  But there is a monoprix (large grocer) directly across the street and they do deliver.

Will post ore after we have seen exactly what we have available to us.

Samuel is scaring me.  As I have been typing this he has rolled/scooted more than 6 feet and rolled over.  Appears that we will have to keep our eyes on him at all times.  Wonder what will happen when he actually starts to crawl.

-Dave

Good times, bad times

This parenting thing is going to be difficult.  Samuel now rolls from his back to his front with ease.  We have been awake for about 1 hour this morning and he has already rolled over twice.  The first time he completely rolled himself off of his activity mat.  Keeping up with this kid is definitely gong to keep me in shape.

Samuel and I had a good day on Tuesday.  We went to the park and fed the ducks. We learned that pigeons and ducks do not like to share.  We were feeding about 30 ducks when a flock of pigeons decided to descend on the walk next to the water.  Immediately 3-4 ducks came out of the water violently flapping their wings to scatter the pigeons.

Our housing situation is nearing a breaking point.  Last week we saw again the apartment that we bid for when we made our house hunting trip in June(The original deal fell through when the leasee was unable to sell his home).  We put in another bid and Julia received a call on Monday asking a few questions and she was told that the owner would make a decision and we would be informed by Tuesday morning.  Well, Tuesday morning passed with no news.  Our confidence is waning that we are going to get this place.  With no evidence, we just have a feeling that the owner does not want to rent to non-french.  We have instructed our agent that if we do not hear by close of business today that I will look at apartments on Friday.

We have reached the point where if nothing comes from the Friday search that we will consider renting a house in the suburbs,  It would not be ideal but we would have a place to call home.  Living with rented furniture is a pain in the a**.

It is difficult to grasp that it has only been 7 weeks since we left Cincinnati, it seems like an eternity.  I had the flu over the weekend and Julia has it now, so she will be staying home from work today.  We are both control freaks and neither of us feel as if we are currently in control of our lives.

As Roseanne Rosanna Danna(An American TV character) used to say, "Never mind."  As I was writing this Julia was in the bedroom speaking to our agent.   

 WE HAVE THE APARTMENT.

We just saw this apartment again last week and while there are a few issues they are minor and can easily be addressed by the owners or us, if necessary.

For those of you that are curious our new address is 109 Avenue Charles de Gaulle, Neuilly-sur-Seine, 92200.

It is a very nice apartment. It is on the top floor(5th) with 5 bedrooms though they tend to be on the small side.  We will have a dedicated guest room.  It is a much nicer apartment architecturally with elaborate molding on the ceilings and around the light fixtures.  It also has an Ikea kitchen but it is only 2 years old.  The apartment size is 163 M2 which is smaller than the Madrid apartment.  Never thought I would say this but smaller seems better in this case.  de Gaulle is much more intimate and homier than Madrid.

There is no problem with noise, unless we open the windows that open onto de Gaulle.  There is some ambient background noise but if you live in the city that is acceptable.  Luckily, the kitchen will hold the equipment that we purchased for Madrid.  We will not have quite as much storage space in the apartment but we will have a larger than standard cave(cellar).

We are still living near a metro stop. The le Sablons stop is no more than 50 meters from our front door.  The bois de bologne is actually closer, though the walk is not as nice.  We are closer to the area of the bois that has a very nice children's play area.  We are also closer to the Neuilly pool where Samuel will be taking baby swim lessons beginning in January.

The water went out in our apartment this morning. I had to go to Franprix and purchase bottled water so that I could make my flu ridden wife chicken soup.  One wonderful thing about living in Neuilly.  To make chicken soup we walk around the corner to a butcher and purchase a rotisserie chicken(11 euros) cut the legs and wings and put into a soup.  We then have the remainder of the chicken for another soup, casserole or whatever our imaginations can come up with.

Samuel rolled over again.....

Samuel was laying on his back on his activity mat.  He was holding his favorite toy up in the air when it fell out of his hand and rolled away to his left.  He rolled on the his left side and was desperately reaching for the toy when he violently kicked his legs into the air(to the point where he kicked the arches on the activity mat).  He completed the roll and was able to grab his toy. Very impressive.

Had to punch out the gate that was preventing us from reaching the radiator in Samuel's room last night.  Unfortunately after this adjustment the radiator did not work.  Very, very frustrated with the management company/owners of this apartment.  Hopefully we will hear good news today from the apartment that we have bid for.

Frankfurt pictures

Pictures of Samuel and around Frankfurt.

Weary travelers

We are now back in Paris.  I hesitate to call it home as this apartment just does not feel like a home.

Above is a picture of Samuel and I atop the main tower in Frankfurt.

Long day on Wednesday.  Can someone who is familiar with european airlines explain to me why both of our air france flights did not de-plane at the terminal.  Are terminal fees too high or are their too many flights and not enough gates?  This is especially frustrating at Charles de Gaulle as the bus ride from where the plane eventually parked was over 10 minutes to the terminal.  This on top of the plane taxiing for almost 10 minutes to its designated parking space.  Overall, it was 35 minutes from the time that we landed until we stepped foot inside the terminal.

Enjoyed Frankfurt, it was a pleasure to visit after being in Paris for a month.  The people are friendly and courteous. The beer is, well, the beer speaks for itself.  Cold and large steins, filled to the rim.

Paris apartment news

There is no easy way to explain this but I will try.

We will be changing apartments in Paris. We moved into the Madrid apartment on the 13th of August. There are many issues in the apartment that the management company/owner are reluctant to address. The one issue that is a deal breaker for us is the condition of the hardwood floors. The floors in the living/dining/guest rooms are a very nice parquet design. When we visited the apartment for the first time, they were still working on the floors and Julia asked the agent what they were going to do with the floors. She was told that they would finish and repair the floor. Well, unfortunately, the floors in the hallway, Samuel's room and our room, have many cracks and gaps. Some of the cracks are more than 20 cm long and 2 cm wide. One of them is over 4 cm deep. If just Julia and I were living in the apartment we could cover most of the floor with rugs and we would be happy. However, with Samuel we cannot(and will not) take the risk that Samuel will start crawling and get his fingers, toes, knees caught on one of these cracks. For us it is a safety issue. The owners do not see it that way.

The other issue is noise. Double glazed windows were placed in our room. However, the windows do not fit tightly within the frame. The bedroom with double glazed windows is noisier than the living room with single glazed windows.

I will not detail all the issues we have. I will note that the workers that were in the apartment were not properly supervised. As an example, the radiators in Samuel's room and the guest room are behind screen doors. The workers painted the doors shut and took the handle off the doors. So we are unable to turn on the radiators in those two rooms.

Many of the window shades also do not work. This also adds to the noise issues.

We will keep you all updated with our new search. As strange as it seems. The first apartment that we bid on in July appears to be on the market again. Unfortunately we have tried to verify this through our agent but she is incompetent and she has not returned e-mails/phonecalls for 3 days.

Greetings from Frankfurt(edited-to amend ignorant American comment about tower

It has been a long day. Our flight was delayed due to weather. We were scheduled to leave Paris @ 9:50 and we did not leave until after 11:00. Samuel was pretty good on the plane. It was warm until they finally turned the air on. After the air was turned on, Samuel did calm down. He slept for part of the flight. The air crew was very good and gave us a couple of toys and a bib for Samuel

Julia attended meetings from 2 until 6:30 and then she returned to the hotel and pumped before attending a "business" dinner. Samuel and I had a good time reconnoitering around Frankfurt today. We found a nice park for Samuel to eat his lunch. Samuel had his first exposure to live opera as we walked past the opera and we could hear a rehearsal through the open windows.

Not sure if I should share this story as it does not portray me as a good parent. I was carrying Samuel facing away from me in his baby bjorn as we were walking around the Romer area of Frankfurt. A woman approached us and said how cute Samuel was and pinched his cheek(He will have to get use to this as he is an exceptionally cute baby) then, before I was able to stop her, the woman leaned over and kissed Samuel on the cheek. Samuel's first kiss was from a stranger on the streets of Frankfurt.

Have busy days scheduled for the next 2 days, as we do not depart for Paris until 1800 on Wednesday. Tuesday, Samuel and I will go to the top of the main tower(they could have thought of a better name(Edit-I should have known this, but I am stil sometimes an ignorant American. The tower is named for the river that runs through Frankfurt, the Main)), the tallest building in Frankfurt with an observation deck. We then may head to the woods outside of town for the view of the city or we may go to the zoo. On Wednesday we will spend the day in Museums. There is a film museum that I am looking forward to seeing. We will also plan on going to a modern and ancient art museum. If we have time we will go the home of Goethe.