We've Moved!

I don't know how many times I've said that "we've moved" over the past 3 months, but hopefully this will be the last for a while.

Going back a few days, we signed the lease for the apartment on Wednesday, February 7. The apartment owners turned out to be a really nice couple not too much older than we are. Amalia is Spanish and Eduardo is Italian, and this was Amalia's apartment before she moved in with Eduardo. She explained the brightly colored walls with: "Paris is so gray in the winter. So I painted it like Spain!"

Anyway, they're both engineers, too, what are the chances. We spent a lot of time chatting while Magali (the relocation company rep) and the rental agent worked out the contract and did an invetory of the apartment. Dave and I picked out all of the furniture we wanted to stay and they agreed to remove the rest that night.

Thursday morning, the movers beat us to the apartment as were stuck in typical Paris traffic (we should have known better). Their English was limited to only a few words, but we managed to communicate enough to put everything in the appropriate rooms. We had to send away a few items that we didn't have room for, which was a little sad because Dave has had some of those things since he was a kid.

We were thoroughly amazed that Amalia and Eduardo were able to move everything out of the aparment the day before. They must have been working all night. And who knows where they put all of it.

The movers were done by noon and we were left with piles of boxes and the impending fear that we wouldn't have the space for everything. We spent all day Thursday and Friday unpacking and organizing, and finally took a break on Friday night to meet Irantzu and her boyfriend Ludovic for dinner.

Irantzu and Ludovic live in Pontoise, which is only a few minutes from the town where we were living in the hotel. They have a cute little home with all kinds of charming (or irritating, depending on your height) slants in the ceiling and steps up and down into various rooms. We had a small feast of raclette, which we both really enjoyed.

If you don't know what raclette is, I already wikipedia-ed it: raclette is a kind of cheese, or typically a meal made up of melted raclette cheese with boiled potatoes and a variety of meats. Back in The Day, herdsmen would sit around the campfire at night, place their round of cheese next the fire, and scrape off bits as it melted (the word racler means "to scrape"). In more modern times, a heating device sits in the middle of the table, and everyone has a little square ceramic dish they put a slice of cheese on and place on the heat. About 30 seconds later the cheese is bubbling and you can slide it right onto your waiting potato with its little hat of meat. It's quite rich but very tasty.

Today we woke up early (Oliver won't let us sleep in anymore) and walked down to the market area. The covered market wasn't as active as we expected, only a few stalls, but we managed enough elementary level French to get a few days' worth of vegetables. We visited the fromagerie to see our favorite English-speaking cheese guy (he says "have a good trip" when we leave..I wonder how long it will take for him to realize that we live here) and the Picard for some interesting frozen foods. We're still intimidated by the bucther shop, so we went to a local grocery store for meat. We also picked up a quiche lorraine for lunch.

We've learned that stocking a kitchen is difficult when you have to haul everything by hand.

The weather has been mild, so Dave went for his first good run since we got here. He ran down to the Bois de Bologne and back and was disappointed in the lack of hills. While he was stretching in the park, a French college student took his picture and asked him to write in a little notebook for her art project. He came home with a poloroid photo of himself crouched on the ground writing in the book.

I'm guessing she chose him for her project because he stuck out like a sore thumb in his bright blue running shirt and white running hat. Not to mention he's taller than almost everyone else on the street.

Anyway, we're still on hold for internet access. Magali promised to call and make the arrangements for us, but we don't know what the status is. Luckily, there are a few unsecured wireless networks in the area we've been using at a snail's pace.