The Sunday Newspaper

In the US, the Sunday newspaper is the biggest of the week. More ads, more sections to read, often a magazine or two.

Sunday morning is a time to relax with a cup of coffee, lazily reading the paper. It is delivered to our front door early in the morning. It is something I've always looked forward to. There is something for everyone in the paper, including the comics, which are in color and bigger on Sunday.

In Paris, we only have the Saturday-Sunday edition of the newspaper. We get both the IHT and Le Figaro. The IHT says Saturday/Sunday on the masthead, but it is really a Saturday newspaper. Same with Le Figaro except that it has three really nice magazines included, so at least there is something left over to read on Sunday.

There is a Sunday paper, Le Journal du Dimanche. It comes out only on Sunday but it is thin and you have to go out to buy it, I don't think they deliver it.

I guess that there is no Sunday newspaper to speak of here because of French labor laws and the French way of life, but I don't know for sure. I'm sure that no one wants to work on Saturday or on Sunday morning in the US either, but we do it if it's part of our job.

I notice that more and more stores are open on Sunday so maybe it's a matter of time before I start getting an actual Sunday newspaper here.

Taking the RER

We can get around central Paris easily using public transportation. But, we are hopeless when we have to venture outside of Paris.

In preparation for an upcoming visit, we decided to see how the RER ride is to Charles de Gaulle airport. We've already learned that trains arrive at the stop that don't service the desired destination, so you have to learn the name of the train you want and check the front of the train to make sure you're on the right one.

I looked at a map and it appeared to be a straight shot on the RER B. And, the RER B has a stop on the other side of the Luxembourg Gardens, this is easy.

So, our dry run to the airport happened this morning. We survived and it was pretty easy. It cost Euro 17 round trip per person. Including walking time, it took 1-1/4 hours, which includes some looking around time and some asking question time.

This is do-able!

The last time we took the RER, we got on the wrong train. We got off the train and had to walk MILES to get to another station that serviced our destination. We learned our lesson and we feel destined to take more train trips this summer.

Blue-ing the table, OR, the table is "blued"

"Blue" is the equivalent of Windex in the US. A window cleaner.

When we lived on rue de Seine, we had a dining table with a melamine finish. The best way to clean it was to spray "blue" and clean it with paper towels. So, if I was cleaning the table and Terry asked me what I was doing, I would say, "blu-ing the table".

Now we've been away from rue de Seine for a few years. The table that was lovingly "blued" every day now resides in our cave. I didn't use that much "Windex-equivalent" until recently when I realized that it works well on many surfaces -- the shower, the cook top, the counters. So, bring on the "blue".

It's getting hard to wrestle it out of my hand. I hold the "blue" in the left hand and the paper towels in the right. The movement is swift and efficient, a second or two and the surface looks perfect.

Our new dining room table is topped in white glass.

"Blue" is therefore a daily part of my life.

Bye, Bye, Olga

Olga was our downstairs neighbor for almost three years. I remember the day she moved in. It was the evening of Good Friday. It seemed that her boyfriend of the instant had moved them into the place while she was out of town. She arrived and started screaming at the top of her voice the minute she arrived in the building, swearing and throwing her belongings in the hallway. I went out and asked her what was the problem and she told us that she was "expressing herself". I'm all for self expression, as long as it doesn't interfere with others, but in this case, the calm of the building was destroyed. Until now.

She infringed on us in a myriad of small ways. She played the same phrase on the piano, in a minor key, over and over and over. Many times at 2 or 3 AM. Then, she would bang on the keys and slam the cover closed and start to scream.

Many of the things she did violated the rules of the building, including leaving a lot of "stuff" in the hallway and posting her photo (above) on the front door. She had so much stuff outside her door that I had to kick it out of the way to pass. Shoes, a baby stroller, boxes, a small table, a motorcycle chain, grocery cart, umbrellas. It was a hazard for everyone, yet no one complained. For awhile, she left her baby stroller in front of the ground floor apartment, blocking their door plus the door to the cave.

One of the most annoying things that she did was to install a flood light on the kitchen window ledge. It pointed up and flooded our kitchen with light. Terry tried to stop them when they were installing it and got into a verbal tit-for-tat with the (new) current boyfriend. Terry accused her of being Russian and the boyfriend accused us of being American. Hmmm, kind of embarrassing, now that I think about it.

So, her stuff was all over the hall, her photo was on the door, her piano was clanging and her light was illuminating our apartment. Oh, I almost finished this post before I described the plants. She put huge planter boxes filled with tall climbing plants on every window. In the winter, she covered all the plants with white material. No one complained.

She smoked, holding her cigarette out her window, so the smoke wafted into our open window. I started leaving that window closed to avoid dying prematurely of second-hand Olga smoke.

Now it's all gone. She left while we were gone and the new people are calm and quiet.

For Janet

She'll know why.

What Did I Do Before The iPHONE?

I used my iPHONE to take this picture. I also used it on a walk a few days ago to take some incredible pictures of Manhattan Beach.

But, the most important thing I use the iPHONE camera for is documenting everyday things. The photo above is an example.

This is the electronic control panel on my refrigerator. It's also my finger pointing out for future reference how to turn it on and off. I'll forget.

I had to turn off the refrigerator before we left in December. We have an electrical ghost in our house. For no reason, the entire electrical box pops off. It happens in the middle of the night, when we're not home and other odd times when there should not be a dramatic surge to cause this. We've replaced almost every suspect appliance. It could be in the wall, one of our wires could go out to the hallway, or anywhere else in the building. We could have some awful electrical problem or we could have a real ghost. The building is 200 years old so I'm sure there are a few ghosts floating around.

Malevolence aside, this is a minor problem except when we are gone for long periods of time. If we leave the refrigerator closed, with food in it, and the electricity goes off, it will not go back on again without someone flipping the switch. Barbara, the woman who watches our apartment for us, was planning to be gone for a month, so we couldn't take any chances -- we turned off the refrigerator, cleaned it thoroughly and put towels in the door to hold it open.

This all took place 3+ months ago, hence the importance of the photo. Even though it will take 24 hours to cool down, I will at least have some form of documentation about turning the refrigerator back on.

Ordering Provisions

After an 11-hour flight, hours of waiting at the airport (first for the plane and later for our luggage which always seems to be the last to come off the plane) and two taxi rides, I'm not in the mood to go to the grocery store.

If it were right around the corner and easy, I might do it. The closest store is about a 10 minute walk each way. Grubby, sticky and jet lagged, it's not my top priority to grocery shop.

But, we have to eat and we will want coffee in the morning. Morning on the first day back is usually around 4 AM.

I've found a system that seems to work. it will only fail if our flight is dramatically delayed. Order groceries on line for delivery after our arrival. All the big stores offer on-line ordering. If you order enough, they will deliver it at no charge for the delivery. I also like this service when I need a lot of heavy stuff.

Now I am faced with which store to order from. In the past I've used Franprix. Their delivery service is called "coursengo", roughly translated to mean "run your errands and go". The service itself has been excellent. They arrive on time and the things I order are correct. The problem has been that they don't have a good selection of the things I want and several items that they've delivered have been a little bit past their prime.

I am a consumer advocate. I do not like to get cheated, so when the items delivered are not fresh, I feel compelled to call and get credit. Being France, the phone line is not manned most of the time and they won't call you back. I have to be persistent. I ususally have to call at least three times and also email a few times. One of my simple pleasures is that they have to speak to me in French; they have to figure out what I'm saying, what I need and then repeat whatever they're trying to say to me, slowly, about five times. In the end, it's worth it, they have always credited me properly for everything that is rotten.

Once I got a bag of potatoes and every one was soft. In the same order, I got yellow broccoli. Once they broke a bottle of vinegar and it got all over everything and the whole order smelled. I got credit for the vinegar, not exactly compensation for having to leave the windows open for days during the winter.

I am considering trying a new store for my order this time, perhaps Monoprix. It will take longer to order since I don't have a list set up. The first order or two, you have to set up routine items on a list. After the lists are set up, all you have to do is empty the list into your "panier", edit it and you're done in about five minutes. To set this up the first time takes about an hour. Maybe it's worth it, I think Monoprix will have a better selection since they're a bigger store. They also have more volume so perhaps their products will be fresher. I've never seen yellow broccoli at Monoprix.

So, this will be another French adventure.