A couple of updates

The swingset

I haven't mentioned it for a while for one simple reason, not much has changed. Two major support pieces were missing from the delivery leaving me unable to finish assembling it. Worse than that was the thought of trying to procure said pieces. Even in the U.S. while using English, I could see this being a task. In French, forget it. So, I asked for help from one of our French tutors who come out to our house every day. Patrick is a favorite of both myself and the kids. He is an excellent teacher and is always willing to help. So, before we left for Paris, he called Castorama and explained. They claimed that the pieces would be delievered by the time we returned from Paris. Great, I was impressed.

Was impressed. It didn't happen. Patrick seemed genuinely surprised, a good sign I thought, and offered to call again. "No problem" he said, "It should be in the mail". Now, I, obviously, don't know much about the nuances of the french postal system, but somehow I doubted that 2 roughly 3 foot 2x4s were going to just show up in the mail. Which they haven't yet. Patrick called again and claims I should have them by Thursday next week. I'll let you know.

The weather

I heard that the heat index in Illinois was near 100 yesterday. Sorry, can't say I'm missing it. I don't want to brag, but.....ok I do. I hopped in the car this morning and at 10:00 it was 13 degrees C. Here is how you convert, its easy. Multiply by 1.8 and add 32. Go ahead, try it. Do it again if you have to but I assure you that you did it correctly. At 11:00 last night I could see my breath.

The amazing part is that in addition to this, they assure me that it during the winter it is warmer here than in Illinois.

To top it off, almost zero tornadoes here. We have some heavy rains, thunder and lightning, but almost no "severe" weather. I guess there was a tornado somewhere near hear this spring and I heard it was the first in several decades.

School

Still hasn't started yet. Kids are ready to go and I'm ready for them to go. We'll be sure to take pictures and tell stories. There should be opportunities for plenty of both.

Misc.

Went shopping for a armoir yesterday. We wanted to collect at least one nice piece while over here. We went to a brocante (antique dealer) yesterday and bought a piece that was 200 years old. I'll post pics as soon as I get it home, but they don't deliver; soooooo, I'm guessing there'll be a story to go with my getting it home.
The brocante itself was something. Hundreds of pieces of antique furniture. From chairs, to armoirs, to old ice boxes. The nicest was a 350 year old dresser that had been in a Chateau for it's life. It was built with probably 3/4 inch thick solid wood. Luckily everything in the store was 20% off ( an August sale). What is 20% off of 9,000 Euros? I didn't bother to ask.

Paris is done, what's next? I'm already busy planning another trip for when the kids get a 2 week break at the end of October. We're thinking Normandy, but not sure yet.


Visitors. We welcome them. I know I've told people this but wanted to reiterate. We know it's a lot of money and time to get over here, but if you want to see France, we'd love to show it to you.


Final Update. FRANCE has won the gold medal in Men's handball!!!!! You don't care? Me neither, at least you didn't have to watch that instead of the Gold medal basketball game. Seriously, French or not, would they really rather watch handball over basketball?