I talked before about how odd it seemed that the French were surprised I would walk 2 miles to work. Haven't we heard how much more Europeans walk than we Americans? Well 1) the largest city in France barely has a radius of 5 miles (you have to go further than that to get out my neighborhood in Texas), and 2) they do a lot of walking between bus/metro stops and their destination, which is at most a 1/4 mile, except on weekends when some such services are limited and you have to walk 1/2 mile. In my case here, I will walk about 3/8 mile to the bus stop (on days I take the bus to work, for example), wait several minutes, get on bus, ride it a little over a mile, switch buses, arrive near work a mile down the road, walk maybe 1/8 mile to work (220 yards/200 meters). Do this twice, coming to and leaving from work, and I have walked a mile per day while commuting by bus. What Europeans do not seem to do is forsake the bus or mass transit and just walk the 2 miles...
Yes, they are as car crazy as we are, and their traffic is much worse; not because they drive in crazy manner, but there are so many cars on the road gridlock is the norm. The big difference here is the taxes on fuel, which makes their gas prices 4X our gas (the Al Gore option for curtailing fuel usage), and they do not get in their cars, they put them on, or at least that is how it appears (the cars here are so small a Mini-Cooper looks big, as one actually pulled beside me at a cross walk and I noted how big it looked compared to the cars near it).
Now today is the last day/night in the Grand Hotel LePlessis, my home for at least 4 weeks over the last couple of months. I will migrate a guitar and suitcase to the apartment, inventory the light fixture needs, go to IKEA regarding kitchen issues, stop by Bricorama (the Home Depot of France) and get a couple of fixtures, install the fixtures, and call it a day. Using buses for transportation should make for a full day of adventure.
A demain!
UPDATE
OK, it WAS going to be an ambitious day. I did go by the apartment with guitar and suitcase as planned. I put everything from the suitcase into its proper closet space. Left, got on a bus, voila!, I am back at the hotel. I took a very light lunch before heading out to IKEA, and the dreaded kitchen. When you go there, there is an hour wait for any kind of personal assistance, but they do have a few computers on which you can work your design while you wait. The folks are really helpful when they are available for things, like reminding you that you must select handles and or knobs for your cabinets. I work the design for that hour, trying some free-standing stuff, but the free standing elements were all on the large size, like someone in France is trying to emulate an American kitchen. The design series with which I had started was still the best option, so I shuffled that design a little bit with the IKEA dude, and after about 2 hours in the store, I think I am comfortable with the kitchen design.
I wandered around IKEA as I was exiting and realized I had no glasses of any kind, so I could not even draw myself a drink in my new apartment! OK, had to shop for that. From there (there is a little mis-adventure I am too embarrassed to tell in detail, but needless say, another hour lost), I got on the bus and took it straight to Sceaux, another 12 minute walk to the apartment to deliver the goods, back on the bus and then the hotel.
For my 5 hours being out, I have a revised kitchen plan, a half-dozen glasses, no light fixtures, and a cold, half-liter, three euros bottle of Evian in my hand...must be 'cause its cold.
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