July

Week 1: Settling In

Our Traditional Midnight Outing on Our First Jet Lagged Day

After an endless day of travelling and another day of recuperating in a temporary hotel, we finally got to move to our apartment.  When we arrived, it was about 80 degrees out.  We opened the front door and a blast of heat came out.  There was no air conditioning—pretty much a constant in all of the old buildings of Paris—and we needed to get some air flow through the apartment to cool it down.  Opening the front door and bedroom window creates a draft through the apartment that works quite well if you secure the windows and doors so the wind doesn’t slam them shut.  (See separate blog entry describing the apartment.)

We settled in and Toto adapted quite well to the new surroundings.  The only catch is that if we open the front door, he can get out.  At first, he was being well-behaved and stayed in.  But later the first evening, we heard a dog barking urgently outside.  Expecting Toto to leap up and start barking back, I looked around to grab him.  But he was nowhere to be seen.  Suddenly it hit me.  “Where’s the dog?” I said.  John ran out the front door and followed in the direction of the barking.  Sure enough, it was Toto.  He had gone into an apartment a couple doors down and was barking at a toddler.  John ran in and the parents calmly asked him of the dog bites.  Needless to say, we had to come up with a better solution for containing him.  I made a makeshift fence out of a metal clothes drying rack.  Folded, it stands about two feet high and three feet wide—just high enough to keep the dog in and low enough for us to step over.

The next morning, Elizabeth discovered a collection of kids’ DVDs in the apartment that were playable in multiple languages.  We sat on the couch and watched Là-Haut (a.k.a. Up).  Suddenly a large grey cat sauntered out from our kitchen into the living room in front of the couch.  Luckily, Toto was the last to notice it, so Elizabeth had time to grab him before all hell broke loose.  He naturally started another barking fit, alarming the cat.  The cat headed for the front door, but was stuck by the makeshift fence.  I had to go remove the fence and guide the cat out while the dog went absolutely nuts.  I figured that the cat must have jumped through the bedroom window.

The following morning, the lady next door knocked on our front door (the one that opens into the bedroom) and got my attention by calling through the open bedroom window.  She was an elderly French woman who turned out to be our next door neighbor on the left.  She he first asked if I spoke French.  When I said yes, she immediately warmed up. She told me she had been kept awake all night long by a noise that she thought was coming from our apartment.  She saw the fan in our bedroom and asked if I could turn it on to see if that was the source of the noise.  I said sure and opened the door for her to come in.  I turned on the fan and it was practically silent.  I then remembered that we had run a load of laundry the night before and mentioned the dryer to her.  But that didn't go on all night long.  She said that couldn't have been it.  Then she invited me to come next door to listen to the noise to see if I could figure it out.

We went into her apartment and I got to meet her husband.  No one introduced themselves; it was just Madame and Monsieur.  I followed her through the kitchen and into the living room. It was gorgeous!  It was at least twice the size of ours, with beautiful oriental rugs on the floor and very elegant furniture to match.  It made our place seem like a trampled showroom at Ikea, whereas theirs was the lobby at the Ritz.  I couldn't help but say how pretty it was, but she didn’t seem to take the compliment.  I figured she thought it was a given.

She stopped in the living room and told me to listen towards the wall for the noise.  I've always prided myself on my hearing ability, but I heard nothing.  I tried as hard as I could to hear a noise that could possibly have kept her awake. Finally, I remembered that Elizabeth had a small table fan on top of the desk in her room.  Even though that fan is also pretty silent, I thought that she could have possibly moved it so that it rattled the desk against the wall.  I told the lady about that and we went back to our place.  I was embarrassed to bring her through our sparsely decorated, tiny apartment with luggage still out and dishes on the kitchen table.  The dog came running to boot.  Luckily, she said he was cute.  I brought her into Elizabeth's room to listen to that fan.  She listened intently and agreed that it was too quiet to be the source of the noise.  We couldn't figure it out so she said she would go talk to the concierge.  That always makes me nervous.  I hope we are not now on the watchdog list!

Later, I went to shower and felt the towels in the dryer on the way into the bathroom.  They were still damp so I turned the dryer back on. It was so loud. I wondered if it had indeed run all night and kept her up. 

 

 Walking the Dog in the Rain

Week 2: Rain, Rain Go Away!

Shortly after we arrived, the weather became cold and rainy and continued that way for over a week.  To get out of the rain, we decided to go to Aqua Boulevard, an indoor water park in Paris.  It is the most amazing water park I have ever seen.  There were only about three lifeguards in the whole place and the water slides were more adventurous than anything I’ve ridden in the States.  I rode down a couple of slides where I went up the sides of the slide and, when I rode them on inner tubes, I was seriously afraid I’d flip because I was going so fast around the turns.  There was a rope swing, which Elizabeth and I swung on.  However, instead of gracefully swinging up and jumping off into the water, we each swung down too low and dragged ourselves into the water shortly after launching.  It was harder than it looked.  The wave pool was a lot of fun, just like the one at Soak City in Chula Vista.  The funniest part of all was that men were not allowed to wear bathing suits; it was speedos only.  I later found out that’s due to hygienic reasons that are beyond me. 

Aqua Boulevard, an Indoor Water Park in Paris

It was supposed to rain all day on Bastille Day.  Undaunted, we went to Avenue Champs-Elysées to watch the parade to celebrate the people’s freedom from oppression.  Wow, the French certainly know how to do a military parade.  The parade began with fighter jets flying overhead with red, white, and blue smoke coming out of them—the colors of the French flag.  While many different types and formations of airplanes flew overhead, one after another, finely dressed troops marched to band music down the avenue in front of us.  There were soldiers with swords, machine guns, feathered hats, capes, berets, and more.  After 45 minutes of the marching parade, soldiers came out mounted on horses.  After the cavalry passed, rows and rows of police on motorcycles began the vehicular parade.  There were tanks, jeeps, trucks, boats, and a whole assortment of construction vehicles, among other things.  This lasted another half an hour. 

We slipped out after an hour and a half of standing and went to a nearby café for lunch.  To our surprise, there was a big screen TV in the restaurant showing the parade.  We got to see the rest of the vehicles, and then military helicopters flew overhead for the grand finale.  Six parachuters jumped out of the last helicopter.  We got to follow them closely on the TV, from jumping out of the helicopter to aligning themselves in midair to landing precisely in front of President Hollande in Place de la Concorde.

We went back to the apartment and rested up for the evening’s festivities—fireworks at the Eiffel Tower.  The fireworks were great!  It was a disco theme and the Eiffel Tower had a giant disco ball hanging down from the 2^nd tier.  They pumped 70s and 80s disco through a massive sound system that seemed to entertain the entire 7^th arrondissement.  They do the fireworks over the Seine, so they light up behind the Eiffel Tower.  They turned off the lights in the tower so it showed up dark against the bright fireworks in the background.  At times they had spotlights moving around the tower, and they also lit the tower up in sparkly lights at times.  They were great effects.  The best part was that we only had to walk three blocks to get home after it was over!

Bastille Day Fireworks

Week 3: French Music

I had my first French flute lesson.  It was great!  The teacher makes house calls, so it was very easy for us.  The French don’t call music notes by letters, like A, B, C.  They use Do Re Mi, like The Sound of Music.  I thought I was on a roll, because I had that one hands down.  But it turns out that Ti (as in a drink with jam and bread) is old fashioned.  Si is how it’s said these days.  It’s been a crash course in vocabulary, starting with the simplest things, like “music stand” and “piece of music.”

I was jubilant after my lesson.  She said I could join the flute choir if I practiced a bit over the summer.  The music she had was very hard!  I was hoping to join the flute choir to play music with and meet other people.  Elizabeth wasn’t as happy about her lesson though.  She refused to speak French, or even play her flute, and said she was going to quit flute altogether.  You can imagine how that went over with the flute teacher.  Actually, the teacher was amazingly understanding.  She said how hard it is to make such a transition with moving and not speaking the language, and she has a 2-year-old and is quite familiar with childhood stubbornness.  I was more upset about it than anyone.

Joanie and Elizabeth Practicing Flute

(no music stands yet)

The dog has gotten used to the French way of life.  We have taken him to a few different cafés now.  He likes it!  We worry that he won’t want to come home with us.

Cafe des Officiers

Week 4: Another Neighbor

I lost most of this week to being sick from food poisoning.  24 hours, my …!  But another fun French experience I had was meeting another neighbor.  She is an older lady with an older dog.  One morning she walked by our place on the way to the entrance to her place.  Needless to say, Toto went lunging for the gated front door with all of his tiny little might.  I came over to see that the woman was talking to him.  She and I ended up talking for a good 15 minutes about the differences between France and the US and the American east vs. west coasts.  She thinks the US is so wonderful because there is so much change.  Paris is too static.  I had never thought of it that way before.  New York is her favorite city.  I ran into her later in the week and she gave me some neighborhood tips, including where there is an open air market and where and when everyone walks their dogs.  Even though Paris is a big city, the neighborhoods are like small towns.  You have to learn the ins and outs, as well as perforate the barriers to the local customs and hang outs.  It helps to have an insider bring you in.  Tipping at the café you hope to become your regular is also a good strategy.

Elizabeth and I have kept up our regular lives from back home over here via Skype.  We have Skype karate classes and I have Skype workouts with my trainer, Nick.  It’s working out quite well.

Skype Karate Lesson

(see Sensei on the computer)

 Skype Workout

(see Nick on the computer)