Saturday, June 07, 2008

Paris 2008 - 5 Juin

Jeudi - Hooray! Laundry day. So exciting. So expensive.

I mentioned a time or two, that we were thinking of buying one of those wheeled carts that is used for grocery shopping here. Robb was digging through the hallway closet one day and guess what he found? Yep. A wheeled cart. A nice, big one, too.

So, I filled it with my dirty clothes (not all of them by any stretch of the imagination) and wheeled them down to the Laverie just around the corner. I had way too much for one of the little machines and used the large one. Unbelievably, there is only one large one. Luckily, no one was using it. It cost €7.50 for thirty-five minutes. That's $11.75. On top of that, if one dries their clothes, and I noticed that most of the French people don't, that's another €.80 per ten minutes. I figured at least forty minutes, which brings my total to €10.70 or $16.75 for one load of laundry. It's cheaper to buy new clothes That same wash in the US would have cost no more than $4.00, probably less..

While we were waiting for the drier, we walked down to rue de la Roquette to a nice Chinese restaurant (picture by Robb). I had Poulet au Curry on Riz Cantonnais. Robb had beef on Riz Cantonnais. We drank Cote du Rhone. It was the least expensive meal of any kind we've had here so far. And it was very good.

Back at the apartment, Robb took his wash from the washer and decided to take it to the Laverie to dry it. After he left, I thought I would download the pictures we had taken, but I couldn't find my camera. I looked everywhere and determined that I must have left it in the Laverie. I tried to call Robb but as usual he had his phone on vibrate and had no idea he was being called. I grabbed my jacket and walked over. As soon as I entered, I saw the camera was not where I would have left it. I told Robb I had lost it and he told me I didn't. He had found it on the table when he got there. A huge sigh of relief.

We went back to l'Artiste Café for dinner. Where I got to sing Happy Birthday to a young French boy who was sitting with his family at the table across from us. We were surprised when the place closed around midnight. They actually started folding their tent around 23h30. Even so, they did offer and bring us our after dinner café. Shortly after we arrived at the café, I got to see them light the outdoor heaters for the café terrasse. It's surprising how much heat they put out. I was hoping some of it would come inside with the wind and the cigarette smoke, but no such luck.

Plus à venir, mes amis.

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