Random Thoughts

Here's just one of the things going on in Paris right now: A Thousand and One Lives of Barbie. "This exhibition shows Barbie in her many different guises throughout the last decades, including new, more modern versions." Musee de la Poupee. A Doll Museum!

I have this fabulous gift certificate for the spa at the Georges V, and I have the telephone number. All I have to do is call but I'm completely intimidated - not by the Georges V (I'm too old for that) but by using the telephone! I'm too stubborn to resort to English when I call, although I'm sure that everyone there speaks perfect English, and speaking French over the telephone is daunting.

It's a good thing I left my "French" figure behind several decades ago (that would be the figure that fit into French clothes). There are so many cute things in the shop windows this year, even I'm tempted. Me, with my four pairs of black trousers and four black sweaters. But with the current exchange rate, everything would be very expensive anyway so it's just as well.

My French homework requires a lot of work, evidenced by the fact that I'm sweating like a pig by the time I'm finished! Don't know the French equivalent for an English word? Try to look it up using one of the on-line "free translation" websites; however, that doesn't always work because the free translations tend to be very literal or give you only one of several definitions or it doesn't even "know" the word so it just gives you the French word back again. (I may actually have to invest in a French/English dictionary though I've been trying to go without.) Don't know a French word? Look it up in the French/French dictionary, then look up the words in the definition that you don't know! Reminds me of my mother's complaint about The Joy of Cooking!
One of the chairs in the apt has a rattan seat, and there was a hole in it when I arrived. As this is the chair I use most often at the desk/dining table, the hole in the rattan was getting larger. So I took the small ironing board that was in one of the cupboards, put it across the chair and piled a few cushions on top of it - et voila! Ingenieux, n'est-ce pas?! I no longer have to worry about falling through and landing on the floor or worse, getting stuck halfway down (despite the amusing picture that presents!). When Christos (landlord) and I discussed the hole in the chair when I arrived, I told him I had no problem using the chair but that the hole might get worse "comme je ne suis pas mince!", he said "Attention au deuxieme!" ("be careful of the floor below!") which I thought was hilarious. :)

Near St Placide metro stop: Shop called "Brownies & Bagels." Why does this irritate me? After all, in the US we have Au Bon Pain. Maybe the French think it adds cachet to the name for it to be in English the way we do to have a French name.

There are wooden accordian doors that can be closed to divide my AF classroom into two rooms. Much nicer than the ones I'm used to seeing.

I haven't used a single paper towel since arriving in France. I haven't even bought them. I use a little sponge and a dish towel for everything.

I wonder if the words "Institut de Beaute" mean that the shop is licensed.

I'm using weather.com to find the forecast in Paris, rather than a French website, because the temperatures are in degrees Fahrenheit rather than Celcius! call me lazy but there it is. :)