Hooray!

For those keeping track, today was the day that Castorama had so painstakenly scheduled for our delivery. In a stunning bit of similarity to the U.S., delivery was schedule for "le matin". Simply "the morning". Comforting. Glad the kids and I didn't have anywhere to go. Problem is that "le matin" came and went. At around 12:30, it happened. No, the swingset didn't show up. That would have been to easy. Instead the phone rang, it was the truck driver, lost. In hindsight its probably good he spoke no English. I say that because it would have been embarassing to speak the same language and still not be able to direct him to my house. As it happened, our conversation was almost meaningless (for him anyway). The only information we managed to share was that 1) I was "Monsieur Thomann" 2) I was awaiting delivery of a swingset 3) I was currently at home. The phone call ended with him saying "a tout a l'heure", which usually means roughly "I'll see you in a little bit". I took that as a good sign.

10 minutes later, the phone rang again. This time I clearly understood him (a shock). He was in Ronziere, our little village of about 15 houses. Trouble is, he wasn't in my driveway so it didn't help much. Just then I saw him on the main road below about 100 yards away. So, from my deck, I started waving like a madman and yelling "ici, ici" (here). Luckily he saw me. I understood his next question as well, he wanted to know if he could drive his truck up my little road. It was just then I decided it was time to adopt a common french philosophy. I said "Je ne sais pas" which literally translates to "I don't know", but really means "that your problem". As he hung up I could hear him downshift.

He made it up and delivered the 2 million plus pieces right to my door. As soon as he left, Audrey said, "When can we swing, daddy?". Great.

I'll be sure to update when I get it together. We leave for Paris on Friday. If I were you I'd bet on pics of the Eiffel Tower first.