It’s been a couple days, I think, since I posted, and I’ve probably forgot some of what we’ve done, but I’ll try and give you your money’s worth. Of course you’ve paid nothing…
Sunday the rain finally stopped and blinding sun appeared. But it was damn cold and windy. Job one was to recharge our Metro passes for the upcoming week. Last year we bought fancy rechargeable Navigo Decouverte passes. They cost 5 Euro, have our pictures on it, encased in plastic and apparently can live through at least one inadvertent wash cycle.
For now, on Saturdays or Sundays, we load them with a weekly pass good Monday through Sunday. Takes about 60 seconds at a kiosk with a credit card. Costs 31 Euros and good anywhere in Paris, even out to Versailles. On November 1, we’ll load a monthly pass, which is 91 Euros. Eventually we’ll switch to an annual pass, which when we figure out how to prove we’re old, will end up paying around only 42 Euros per month. To go anywhere in Paris. Bus, Metro, RER. As much as we want. Is that a good deal or what?
Since it was such a nice day and we were looking to do stuff, we took the Metro across the Seine to the Les Halles area where Sketchers had a flagship store. On a whim, Jeri picked up a pair of Sketchers from Costco just before we left, and it turned out they fit her very well. That’s no small thing, because she has “Princess Feet”.
When we popped up from the Metro, we looked around to get our bearings (coming up from the Metro you never really know which direction is which) and we realized this all looked very familiar. We had been here last year to go to a Five Guys burger place. Sure enough, looking down the street we could see it. Since it was just after 11 AM, and way too early for the French, we knew it would be nicely empty, so it suddenly was lunchtime. Sketchers could wait.
OK, ok, halfway across the world I can hear some of you moaning, “You’re in Paris, land of exquisite food. Why the hell would you go to a Five Guys??”
Ahem. First or all, their burgers are damn good, easily on par with In-n-Out. Second, they are fully Americanized. It feels just like walking into a Five Guys in SoCal, but cleaner bathrooms. But most important….their drinks! They have those same US magic self-serve drink dispensers that offer dozens of different kinds of carbonated goodness…with as much friggin’ ice as you want!! So yeah, we’re not food snobs. We likes us a good burger and iced drinks. Oh, I should add that ordering is done via touch screens, switchable to English, so no having to place an order in French with a human.
After that, we finally got to Sketchers and Jeri brought Princess Feet stuff. We then just started meandering and were generally headed to Notre Dame to see what it looked like, when we got diverted by a permanent street market selling plants and flowers. It had always been closed for our prior visits, so Norte Dame would have to wait. It apparently will always be there. Then it started to rain a bit, we were tired, so we retreated back to the apartment via Metro.
We watched TV a while, then headed out for our afternoon wanderings. I’ll be damned if I can remember specifics, but I do know we hit Luxemburg Gardens, maybe picked up Amazon crap and also baguettes. Always baguettes. Daily. By the time we got back a second time, we had covered a lot of miles that day and were beat. Sometime during the day we did our first load of wash, using one of those wunnerful European combo washer and driers. For Americans they are nightmarish and take 4-5 hours per load to get sorta, maybe dry. I’ll probably do a separate post on these horrors.
Monday was sort of rainy again, which is getting old. I haven’t been in shorts since leaving SoCal, wearing solely big boy long pants. It was generally too much trouble to get out of the apartment in the morning, so we malingered.
By around lunch time I finally had worked up enough guilt to force myself out for a run. It had been a solid month since my last run, what with the stinking SoCal heat and vacating our place, it was time. The nearby Montparnasse Cemetery seemed like a great choice, so I headed there. I barely made it through the gates before I got nicely bounced out because apparently running isn’t allowed there. Do the dead really care?
My fallback option was Luxemburg Gardens, which required backtracking past the apartment. I wasn’t thrilled, because I was not yet dialed in to city running and there was a fair amount to get there. But once at Luxemburg, it was great as ever. Ended up doing 2.6 miles, which given my sad state of conditioning, was OK. So big achievement. Next one is to get back into a gym.
In the afternoon we had a video call with our relocation service housing specialist. She explained the next steps for us. One constraint we have is we are needing furnished unit. They are more common in Paris, but less so in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Other than that, we’re golden in terms of what we can afford. Apparently we are able to move as soon as we see a unit we like.
We have access to an online spreadsheet where she’s placing potential units for us to look at, and online links to them. We then give them an online look, and if promising, our representative will setup a visit. We are allowed five “free” visits, and 200 Euros each after that. Five visits should be sufficient.
She already had three listings in the spreadsheet, but one had already been reserved and was no longer available. The second one was huge, considerably pricier than our budget, and on the ground floor. That’s not great for security. But it was an extremely nice unit.
The last unit had a really nice ground floor but the upper floor was sorta nuts. Access was via a spiral staircase, and that’s where the two bedrooms and bathroom were. Ultra modern design with a fully open and exposed bathroom. Nopey, nope. Jeri and I aren’t performers. Also headroom was an issue since it was the top floor of a remodeled old building and there were open, ancient beams to bang heads on. Oh, and did I mention part of the upstairs floor was glass and open to the living room below. It was a unicorn in that it had A/C(!!) but that wasn’t enough to offset the weirdness.
And on a final note, we got Jeri setup on WhatsApp as that’s what our relocation service likes to use. I suppose she can give video tours to others who are running WhatsApp. Once she figures that part out, that is.