January 28, 2012

Saturday and Ross is home all day-yea!  We headed out to do some much needed shopping, both food and electrical things.  We knew we’d have to buy all new electronics as the voltage is different, so this was a planned day, but oh, such a full list!  First off to “DARTY” the French version I guess of Brandsmart or Best Buy.  Anyway, the clerk follows you around and you tell them ( or in our case, point, translate, and try your best) what you want, they write it down and at the end they bring it all up front for you at the delivery desk.  First was a washer and dryer……oh what a production.  I had done some online research and been at the stores website ( thank you Google Translator), so I knew I wanted more than the average 3kg- 6kg washer.  We’re not little people, I’d like to wash more than one thing at a time!!  So I had picked a nice Electrolux washer that holds 8kg of laundry, plus they sell the platform drawer for it.  Being 6 ft tall, the washers were like little kid toys for me, so the platform was a necessity.  Got a dryer too, (with a platform drawer) but what was funny is that there is this dispenser at the front, top left of the dryer that holds water.  I tried and tried to find out what it was for, several salespeople tried to explain , I understood water.  Then voila, they found one salesperson that spoke fairly decent English, my new best friend.  WELL, in France you don’t vent your dryer with that long silver coil hose thing to the outside.  The moisture collects from the wet clothes into this container and when it gets full of water, you empty it out. Who knew?  So our trip to Darty became fun with our salesgirl who spoke no English and the occasional help form the salesguy who did.  We purchased our:  washer, dryer, electric kettle, Tassimo coffee maker, microwave,television, printer, cd player, 2 alarm clocks, hand mixer, crockpot, little grill thing like a George Foreman grill, home phones, extension cords, ink, vacuum and a toaster. Phew, by the end we were tired, but everyone was laughing so we didn’t turn them off Americans, just had them thinking we’re a bit nuts.  Then at the end I think I embarrassed Ross when I asked if there were any discounts for such a big order.  I had been told sales and discounts are very rare here.  I told him “hey , if you don’t ask”.  Well she toddled off to her manager, keep in mind we’d been here two hours now and had them scrambling all over the store with us.  Well she came back and lo and behold they offered us 20 euros off or an extended warranty on some things. Well, we don’t need the extended warranty J , so I said we’d love the discount.  At the end the manager came up, said something about our huge order, plugged in some codes, and in the end they smiled and gave us 10% off. YAHOO!

I have my standard French lines memorized about how we just moved here for Ross and his job and are learning French and will be here two years etc.  People seem to help then!  So, most of the items we took with us, but my washer/dryer and tv come Wednesday. YEA.  We have the rental tv, but Ross left his dirty laundry here two weeks ago and we’ve got all of what we’ve accumulated this week and last, so I’ll be excited to have the washer and dryer here. 

Then a quick lunch, potty break (photo attached).  Many public toilets  here are okay, but honestly some of them are disgusting.  The oddest thing to me is that in a ladies room, toilet seats seem to be an optional item. REALLY?!  Tall woman with artificial hip here, hello!!! 

Off to Auchon (which we pronounce O-shun and they laugh at us).  It’s kind of a Walmart type store where you can get food, but also household goods and misc. items.  We will never shop again without translating first.  In fact I’ve already got my list done in English, and had Word translate each item so I’m not stumped in the stores again.  I didn’t think it would be that hard to figure which was soap for dishes, laundry, floors, dishwasher, etc. I just figured I’d know and there would be pictures to help. HA!  We have a fabulous itranslate app now too, which will be a lifesaver. We managed to make our way aisle by aisle kind of aimlessly wandering and grabbing things.  Keep in mind for almost 30 year of marriage I’ve done my grocery shopping alone, so this was a real treat for Ross, who hates shopping of any kind and this has become an all day event. 

I threw him at first when I wanted two carts (they’re small)  I had to tell him that when the boys were teens and Duey lived with us and they ate so much that I always  pushed one-pulled one cart to get all the food, and our carts were much bigger.  Here you put in your half euro coin to get a cart (like at Aldi’s) and you get it back when you return the cart.  This was our first stock up grocery shop too, so things like salt, ketchup, mustard, etc are needed too.  We had fun, and this is my first shopping for two only experience in years and years, so I had to re-program myself a bit.  Only 4 apples, small bag of oranges, two pieces of meat, etc. 

We survived and really had a fun day.  Then home to open and put our electronics away.  For a while we’ll shop together, Luynes has a farmers market each Saturday so next weekend we’ll walk to town and see what we can get.

Lastly, someone asked how I came up with the title “A Broad Abroad”.  Well, we love the show An Idiot Abroad, and I wanted something clever but not plagiarizing.  I asked for suggestions on facebook.  Thought you’d get a laugh, so here is a short list of samples:

-A flying Pilgrim

-A Bather in the Land of the Great Unwashed

-An Amazon in France

-A Freak in France

-Exceedingly Altudinous Madame

-Ooh la la Lisa

The Musings of Madame McCulloch

-A Great Scot (in Paris)

-Excuse-moi

I appreciated all the suggestions and went with A Broad Abroad which was partially suggested by a friend who didn’t want to reveal her name, and then Lindsay kind of changed it to its current name.  Honestly, who spends that much effort naming something?  Only me!