How to Stay Dry in Paris

I caught a cold at the end of the week. I knew it was inevitable when some students started complaining about their own, plus the weather has been wildly unpredictable: gorgeous and sunny one day, rainy and chilly the next, gray and windy for the rest of the week. I have a limited wardrobe until our grand shipment arrives, and I didn’t account for unseasonably cold weather in Sept/Oct. Years in San Francisco prepared me for dealing with dramatic changes in the weather, but I hadn’t at all expected it in Paris. So I unfortunately didn’t feel well enough to go out last night and therefore missed out on Nuit Blanche, which I’d been looking forward to all week. It’s an annual event organized by the city in which free art and multimedia installations are open in several neighborhoods until late-night and one Metro line runs free all night. Well, there’s always next year.

I felt well enough to brave some errands yesterday. Once again, navigating certain parts of the Marais was crrrrrrrrrrraaaaaaazy. I know I’ve mentioned this before, but it continues to astonish me how widespread this is—people really just stop right in front of you in a very crowded street or on the stairs exiting the Metro, as if they’re the only ones on the planet. Yes, I’m walking behind you, but no, I really didn’t want to actually GO anywhere (heh). Anyhow, during our travels we discovered an odd yet valuable piece of information: key copying shops are not also hardware stores, but double as shoe repair places. Do metal cutting machines also work well on leather? Huh. Kind of like the logic of the ubiquitous donut shops in SF that also serve Chinese take-out (if the deep fryer is already on, just keep putting stuff in it!). Aside from tending to mending some shoes, we bought a washer and dryer – we’re very excited to have laundry in our apartment. This is especially a dream come true for me, who has never had laundry on the premises since I lived at my mom’s. And for those of you who are wondering why we’d bother to buy appliances at all…That’s just how it works here. Any empty (unfurnished) apartment in France comes unequipped. You must supply all of your own appliances (fridge, oven, all of it), your own curtains and curtain rods, and even your own light coverings. [It’s true that there are a lot more overhead costs to moving into an apartment here than in the US, but consequently utility bills are cheaper.]

Whereas Saturdays in Paris are busy and boisterous, Sundays are quiet and contemplative. Most businesses are closed, traffic is calmer, the streets aren’t as crowded—it’s a day usually reserved for family visits and simply lounging around. This morning, we rushed out to the one market we knew was open until the afternoon to buy some groceries, thanking our lucky stars for the one épicerie out of 20 that was open for at least part of the day. It’s a rare gorgeous day in Paris, so afterwards, we had wanted to picnic in the gorgeous Jardin du Luxembourg in the 6th, but I wasn’t feeling up to the trek. Instead we took a stroll around another part of our neighborhood only to discover a tucked-away, thriving Sunday scene. Who knew?! On Rue de Bretagne, just around the corner from us, several businesses and shops are indeed open on Sunday, not to mention the Marché des Enfants Rouge – a covered outdoor market with overflowing produce stalls, milky chevres, tasty salamis, fresh fish, tons of other fine foods and wines, flowers, and take-out crepes, Moroccan, or sushi that you can eat on the many picnic tables on the perimeter of the market. After admiring the bounty, we walked up the street to Square du Temple, an adorable little park with benches galore, a sizable playground, gazebo, ping-pong tables, and a nice swath of grass. Lots of families were out to play and so we enjoyed some people-watching in the sun. We took some smaller streets back home and discovered lots of cute restaurants and shops that we plan to indulge in at some point. We’re glad we abandoned our too-ambitious (for the sick girl, anyway) Sunday plans to uncover a bit more of our neighborhood. Each time we do, we get even more excited that we live here. Come visit and you’ll see…For the time being,check out the remaining pics in this post for some other interesting local discoveries we made today.

Back on the home front, this weekend brought another victory: we finally won our battle with the shower. For those who have been to this country, you may have already experienced the oddities of French showering. Unlike in the States, where showerheads are permanently attached to the plumbing and always positioned well above your head, showerheads in France are at the ends of metal hoses and if they can be held in position at all, you’re lucky to find ones that sit higher than the top of your head (we’re among those lucky few). Getting wet in the shower isn’t even so much the issue as is keeping the rest of the bathroom dry. Our hotel didn’t have a shower door or curtain – only a small glass pane that barely jutted out past the location of the showerhead. There was always a huge puddle outside the shower, even when we turned the head as far away from that part of the bathroom as possible. Our apartment has a shower curtain rod, but because of dimensions of the bathroom it has to be L-shaped and really closes you in if a shower curtain is pulled all the way around. OK, there’s not much we can do about that, but what was even more puzzling was that the previous tenants had a shower curtain that wasn’t longer than the top of the tub, and thus only succeeded in funneling water right outside the tub. Isn’t the point of a shower curtain to keep the water inside the shower? The solution was clear: buy a longer shower curtain.

And so I shopped. And shopped. And shopped. And every single store I went to did not carry a shower curtain longer than 200cm, the same length as the original curtain. What we had chalked up to poor thinking on the tenants’ part was soon replaced with utter disbelief: if this is the standard longest length, what about those of us who have shorter bath tubs? Is the entire country so precise at showering, or just not bothered by stepping out of the shower into a giant puddle?! Anyhow, upon coming to the conclusion that the perfect shower curtain just wasn’t out there, I had a eureka moment in a store: lower the shower curtain rod. Of course! I rushed home eager to investigate, only to be deflated. One end of the shower curtain rod is connected to the wall right above the tiny bathroom window. We couldn’t lower it. After another day of despairing over our watery dilemma, I finally figured it out: buy more shower curtain rings. We now have three rows of rings holding up our curtain, the bathroom floor is dry, and showering is now the stress-free experience it’s meant to be.

In other household news, our shipment arrives tomorrow – it’s about time! A real bed, dishes, warmer clothes, electronics…just a few of the things we’re very excited to finally have.