Settling into Paris life
Sitting on the Eurostar back to London, I finally have a few minutes to write something for my blog.
My first day at the office went well enough. There were a few misunderstandings which meant that I got the extended tour of the area (as I had to walk back and forth a few times, not realising that my meetings were in different buildings) and a hectic schedule meant that my relaxed lunch at a nice restaurant with my new partner was replaced with a quick Extra Value Meal at McDonalds.
My secretary has taken pity on me and is showing endless patience, although secretly I think she’s probably not delighted to have been saddled with ‘le Yankee’. Nevermind, I’ll be out of the office frequently enough that I shouldn’t disturb her too much.
We’ve unpacked most of the boxes, but the house is still a chaotic mess. We’ve agreed that we need a system of “a place for everything, and everything in its place” if we’re going to make the space work; to that end, we went to Ikea the other day (an adventure in itself) to buy a few new pieces of furniture. I suspect we’ll need to buy a big wall unit for the living room if we’re going to make everything fit.
There weren’t too many casualties of the move – a few dishes were chipped, and one or two pieces of furniture were damaged, but we’ve been assured that they’re all covered by insurance and will be repaired accordingly. The only other casualties seem to be a broken toe (I managed to kick something that was strewn on the floor) and a gashed hand, although that happened as I was filling my tyres at a petrol station rather than during the move. Still, hobbling along to the office yesterday, I did look a bit sorry for myself as I did my best impression of the walking wounded.
The kitchen is definitely petite, with barely room to swing a cat (unlike our elevator, which is barely big enough for a cat and which has an alarming habit of stopping between floors). It should be interesting to see what sort of meals we can come up with in that kitchen – so far, it’s been mostly reheating prepared food from the supermarket.
We’re clearly the only people in the building who work (and possibly the entire neighbourhood, if my early morning tours are any indication). Our lights are the only ones on in the early morning. We’re working hard to befriend the gardienne (caretaker) – we’ve already offered flowers, and will shortly offer the more popular social lubricant – money. I’m sensing it’s a good idea to keep her on-side.
The car, unfortunately, has to go. I’ve put it in a multi-storey car park for the time being at some astronomical price each month, but the car parks in Paris aren’t really designed for a car as big as my Audi, so there’s a lot of backing-and-forthing to get it around the tight corners in the garage, and all four wheels have already suffered against the kerbs.
The bike, on the other hand, is the ideal way to get around Paris. I took it out for a spin over the weekend – the first time I’ve ridden in ages – and fell in love all over again. There’s parking just around the corner, so I’ve decided to keep the bike for a while.
That’s it – our first few days in Paris. I’m off to London for the rest of the week (the irony of being back in London on business so quickly isn’t lost on me), then back in Paris for the weekend.
