Oh, yeah, now I remember!

Ok, ok, so we’re back in good old France. There were several ‘home sweet home’ moments upon our arrival, some less pleasant than others. Lets see it started with…

…Our arrival… when we found that once again the water heater/heater was no longer working. See, that means that after 15 hours of airports and flying there was no nice welcoming hot shower to enjoy and the temp inside the house was a balmy 64 degrees. We spent about half an hour trying to re-light the pilot to no avail and ended up just turning on the oven and burners to at least warm the kitchen and office. We wound up boiling water for quick baths, just to get the travel germs off of us.

Then of course was the inevitable refrigerator moment when I opened said fridge to find nothing, well nothing except some very chunky milk and cream and some tomatoes that had reverted back to a green color that seemed to be growing hair. Of course we arrived home on a SUNDAY which you know means that nothing was open to rectify the empty bad refrigerator problem. There was however a conveniently located and OPEN Shell gas station where we were able to purchase some emergency supplies i.e. bread and milk.

But of all the weird unpleasantness, the bug carcasses were probably the most bizarre. Apparently the spider spray that I use is very strong and lasts a good long time and the fact that no one was home for several weeks to sweep up the carcasses means that they were just piled up against the walls, in corners and hanging about the ceiling. Yeah, the house was one big bug tomb…I guess that that’s a bit of a grim description.

On the other hand, I had forgotten certain pleasant aspects of life in France. First of all I love how polite and courteous drivers are. No one is in such a big fat hurry that they’d just as soon run you off the road than give up one car length to let you in. I’d forgotten how cut throat California driving could be.

The pregnancy thing was an especially pleasant surprise to return to; where as in the US if you even look like you might be considering hinting that you might need special treatment or assistance due to your condition, people give you that ‘Hey you got yourself pregnant so deal with it’ look. In France people bend over backward for pregnant women, from special parking and grocery check out lines to some of the nicest most chivalrous men you’ve ever met.

I was in the grocery store on Monday trying to restock the house, when I found myself in the soda aisle looking for Pepsi – And let me say that if shelf real estate is any indicator of market share, Pepsi is floundering big time and even I can’t save them. In the pop aisle the Coke is stacked four shelves high and about a meter and a half wide, where as the Pepsi has two upper shelves and only the width of a six pack. (Well eight pack really; Pepsi in a desperate bid to get their product out there, is packaging their cans in eight packs, buy 6 get two free.) As I reach up for my pop, mind I don’t have to lift my arms higher than my shoulders, a man springs up next to me, lifts the pop off the shelf and deposits it into my cart with a smile. I have the same experience in the bottled water aisle, where I was trying to decide whether to buy the 6 pack of 1 liter bottles or the six pack of 1.5 liter bottles. Before I’d formulated a decision there was a nice man to ask if I needed help putting the bottles in my cart.

I can feel feminists all over the country flinching at this very moment, but I’ll tell you, it’s nice to see chivalry at its finest.

It’s good to be home for many other reasons too. Well this is enough for now, I have a pile of mail to get through and bills to pay and I must contact the insurance company about repairs to the house. The roof was fixed in our absence. (Yes imagine that, the landlord actually discovered that there was indeed a leak in our roof!) Now the repairs to paint, plaster and wallpaper must begin so we can began buying baby furniture and setting up the baby room. The initial repair estimate has come in at 5,200.00€, will have to look and see what our deductible is on that.

I also must get busy sweeping up bug bodies – eeewww.