Attempting to do Laundry

Part of the series: Paris and Tuscany

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Ladurée >>        Day 3 - Stairs, stairs, and more stairs!! >>

One of the perks of renting furnished apartments during this trip was that we would be able to cook and do laundry for ourselves, saving both money and luggage space.

Upon arrival in Paris, after flying for 6 hours, making our way by transit from the airport into the city, and then having the washing machine explained in broken English/French, it is no wonder that when we actually tried to use it on Sunday evening, we were just a little bit puzzled by the different symbols that we could pick from.

It's also possible that some of our confusion came from my thinking that the appliance was both a washer and a dryer...

At any rate, on Sunday afternoon, we decided that we needed to do a load of laundry - Lynn had an unfortunate incident with a pigeon on Saturday, and we figured we might as well test the washer out.

We happily loaded it up, found the detergent, got it started and went out to do the Red Bus tour. About two hours later, after having thoroughly enjoyed the tour, we came back, expecting to find our clothes washed, dried and ready to be put away.

What we found instead, were soaking wet clothes. I'm not even sure they'd been spun out.

So, being optimists, we restarted the machine, picking slightly different settings, and went out for supper.

Approximately two hours later, the machine stopped working, and we pulled out very wet clothes. Again.

Did I mention that we are optimists? Third time's the charm, is what we all thought, and so we started the machine again, because SURELY the picture of a feather floating meant a dry cycle, right!?!!?

After a nice dessert and a relaxing evening, we noticed that the washer had not, in fact, stopped this time, and was running through again.

I decided to go to bed, sure that although it was running through again, it would eventually stop, and we would have very clean clothes. I put on my sleep mask, and put my ear plugs in, and dropped off to sleep while Lynn puttered around the bedroom packing and Barb was reading in the living room, where she was sleeping on the pull-out couch.

Three hours later, I groggily came to with the realization that the light was on, and people were talking...

"It's starting to run through again!!! What should we do?"
... mumbled  discussion... (remember, I had ear plugs in...)
"I just don't know what to do - I can't get it to stop!"
... more mumbled discussion... people leaving the room...
... and coming back in...
"I can't even get it open!!!"
... mumbled discussion...

At which point I gave up every pretense of being asleep, and sat up, a little bit grumpy at being disturbed so insistently.

To learn that the washer was on the verge of starting AGAIN, the door was locked, and no amount of button pushing had any effect whatsoever.

Finally, about half an hour later, with all three of us anxiously pushing buttons, resetting the timer, turning the power on and off, and ANYTHING else we could think of to make the machine stop, it unlocked itself.

I'm still not sure what made it decide to do that; by this time, all of the buttons had taken on almost sinister meanings to us - a floating feather meant run forever, apparently.

We opened the door, and pulled out our boiling hot dripping laundry, hung it up in the bathroom, and fell back into bed.

All I could think was - tomorrow is going to be a VERY long day...

First day in Paris

Part of the series: Paris and Tuscany

The train ride into Paris >>       The Champs-Élysées >>       The Arc de Triomphe >>       Ladurée >>       Attempting to do  Laundry >>       Day 2 - Les Cars Rouge >>

We made it!

After two years of planning and fretting over logistical details, we showed up at the Toronto airport on Friday night, boarded the plane, and 6 hours later, landed in Paris.

On a side note, I don't think I have ever travelled anywhere that I didn't have to wait in ANY lineups! It was wonderful. I got to the airport at 5:00, was the only person in line to check my bag, the only person in line to go through security, and, being seated at the back of the plane, one of the first to board, in a relatively short lineup.

Arriving in Paris, we went through customs (I got a stamp in my new passport, much to Barb's dismay) and our luggage was shortly picked up. We decided to take the train into Paris, and that worked great until I missed the exit due to being run over by a gentleman in a wheelchair.

After rejoining Lynn and Barb, we made our way to the exit, where thanks to a very nice lady, I was able to exit from the train station. For other travelers, note that when traveling between the RER and the Metro in Paris, exits are controlled by your ticket. DO NOT MISPLACE IT! And yes, as always, I am happy to share advice that will spare others from my mishaps.

We then proceeded to the Franklin D. Roosevelt subway station, and having arrived at the street our apartment is on, we were checking to see which way to go for our address when a man walked up to us and said "Anna? Is one of you Anna?" after that, it was very easy to find our apartment, just a matter of following him down the street into the building.

We are on the top floor of the building, in a very nice one bedroom apartment.

First on our agenda was a nap, which we did as soon as we finished the business of checking in and having all the appliances explained to us. (please note, we have washed one load of laundry three times, and are hoping that this time through is a dry cycle... Although we just heard water running again... Should have paid better attention, apparently)

Three hours later, feeling very much refreshed, we headed out exploring. We wandered up the Champs-Élysées to the Arc de Triomphe, where we took our time appreciating the workmanship and the general atmosphere of being in Paris.

Wandering back down the street, we came across Ladurée, so we stopped to buy some patisseries for dessert.

Unfortunately, as we were re-orienting ourselves on the street, Lynn stepped under a bird, and so she very quickly wanted to get back to the apartment and refresh again.

Barb and I went back out to the grocery store and picked up supper, which we then ate, with Ladurée meringues for dessert.

I'm not sure when the others went to bed, but I crawled under the covers and when I lifted my head, it was Sunday morning at 6:54 am.

One wonderful day in Paris over, 3 to go.