Published 15th September 2014
Week 2 of the ‘déménagement’ (move) and most of the ‘cartons’ (boxes) are unpacked, but not yet ‘rangés’ (tidied away). I cannot bring myself to spend as much money on a ‘cintre’ (hanger) as the item of clothing that is going to be hung on it, so I’m waiting for a trip to ‘eee – kay – ah’ (Ikea).
Couldn’t wait for a kitchen table, so went to visit the local ‘Emmaüs’ (warehouse size charity shop). You don’t find Oxfams on the high street in France; everything is sold at ‘vide-gréniers’ (car boot sales), online, or is donated here. Picked up ‘une trouvaille formidable’ (a real find); an (extendable) pine table ‘avec rallonge’ for 20 euros and 6 rather pretty cups for 1 euro!
We are still cooking on a single ‘plaque de cuisson’ (hob) while we try to decide which ‘cuisinière’ (cooker) to buy. I am tempted not to buy one at all and use my cookerless state as an excuse for not being able to cook for anyone vaguely French.
I have not been to Paris, or to a museum or eaten very many croissants yet, though I am managing to drink a fair amount of wine which as I am a wine idiot I choose at random. In fact, my daughter chose the last bottle because it had my middle name on it – Château de Ruth – which turned out to be equisite! Still, whole days go by when I could easily be ‘en Angleterre’, were it not for the baffling French tradition of ‘écoliers’ (schoolchildren) being allowed home at lunchtime. No sooner have I breathed a sigh of relief and sat down at my ‘ordinateur’ (computer) than it’s time to prepare lunch and do the whole “Have you got your ‘carnet’ ?” (school-diary) routine AGAIN!
‘Pour résumer’ (to sum up) a week of ‘le train-train quotidien’ (daily grind) peppered with some lucky finds and the slow realisation that I am going to have to learn how to cook and choose wine or go back to the mountains and become ‘un ermite’ (a hermit) again.