We had a lot of fun at BHV department store today. On an earlier visit I had asked a sales assistant if it was possible to select and purchase a list of items to be held for delivery in November. "Oui, c'est possible," she said. So we have spent more than just a few hours compiling a list of items, adding the product name, the colour, the price, the number required...and today we were ready. Well, what mademoiselle should have said was, "Yes, it is possible...but perhaps not"! The salesman I initially approached today indicated it was too big a question for him...and brought over another salesman, who spoke perfect English (merci!). Neither - in a mixture of English and French - knew if it was possible...and then another salesman joined us, and another, and then another two or three popped in and out just to find out what the gathering was all about and to add a shake of the head and a sympathetic smile in our direction.
Someone rang the warehouse outside of Paris to pose our question...everyone was in a meeting until 5pm. They tried another number...no, it was not possible to get an answer today. Eventually we agreed to call back tomorrow afternoon, find our helpful English-speaking salesman, who is hoping to become our personal shopper for the exercise, taking us from floor to floor to arrange purchase and delivery! Il est un homme magnifique! I may be singing his praises too soon...mais croisons les doigts!
Et voilà...the apartment in course of renovation...
4 comments:
Hi Sally & Brent, Well the good news is that your French is improving at a rapid pace! Good luck for when you return to find your English speaking assistant, and settle your November deliveries. What an experience. L&G
I love the first photo of the open door and what is revealed behind. Can you take the same photo again in a year, but open the door a little more widely? I look forward to seeing the shape it takes, and if you need any art works for the walls, you know who to call. Fi
Hi Sally and Brent
Well there certainly is some major surgery going on inside that apartment of yours. But I think the patient will pull through despite its guts half hanging out and tubes everywhere.
But I must say that to my inexperienced eye the place looks nice and neat and organized. I can’t imagine Australian builders stacking the material so carefully, leaving such a neat work bench with no paint splattered radio on top and leaving the floor so clean. A typical apartment renovation in Melbourne at the end of the day would be full of takeaway wrappers and half-drunk giant bottles of Coke. Also, the radio would be left plugged in so that as soon as they arrived it could be quickly turned on at full volume so they didn’t miss the Chisels four-play on 666 Classic Shit FM. There would definitely be an imprint of a bum crack on the dusty plaster wall left there when Davo accidentally backed into the wall.
Your guys probably turned up in spotless tailored overalls, bowed and insisted that their co-workers enter first and in their break set up a little table, covered it with a white table cloth and nibbled on delicate pastries while sipping brewed espressos and arguing good naturedly about whether building, while ostensibly a practical exercise, is at heart an existential philosophical undertaking and a metaphor for life.
I was momentarily surprised when looking at one of your photos after reading that you still had to buy furniture and other items for the apartment. For a few seconds I thought that you had already purchased a decorative centerpiece and moved it in. I was in the middle of thinking that a breathtakingly beautiful life-sized Greek statue of Aphrodite must have set you back a bit when I suddenly remembered that I had seen that fetching enigmatic smile before.
Cheers, Paul
It is real, it is happening - I am so happy for you xoxo. Missing you, yet somehow don't want you to have to leave.
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