The busiest week

I posted this picture last week as we packed and wrapped up our life in Budapest, Hungary.  We now live in France, just 5 minutes outside the city limits of Paris.  Welcome to our new life!

We live in Gentilly, which is pronounced closely to "Gen-tea-ye" (the "Gen" is nasal and you don't really hear the 'n').

And this is our apartment building.  For those who live in the U.S., our balcony is on the fourth floor to the far left.  (In Europe, the lobby level is called the rez de chausee, and the first floor is actually what is called the second floor in  the U.S., so here in Gentilly we live on the 3rd floor.)  You might be able to see our pine armoire out on the balcony, which is gold colored.  :-)

Ugh!  Unpacking is not my favorite thing to do.  We have way too much stuff for this apartment.  We parted with a lot before we left Budapest and as we've unpacked we are parting with even more.  So far, two moving boxes full (and overflowing) of things we've decided we can (or will) live without in order to not be cramped for the next 5+ years.

We arrived on the evening of the 8th and our belongings arrived on the 9th.   It took 6 men 1 1/2 hours to load our belongings into the truck, but there were only 2 men to unload our stuff in Gentilly.  Les Pauvres!  (The poor things!)  It took them 6 hours to unload from the truck and haul all those boxes and furniture via elevator up to our apartment on the "third floor", and they worked straight through lunch without a word.

Everything made it in good condition.  Only one small thing broke; the stem of a cheap wine glass that I used as a votive candle holder, so nothing important at all.

The 10th was Glenn's birthday.  He turned 60!  He doesn't look 60, does he?   I made him his favorite:  German Chocolate cake from a recipe I got from a friend of the family, Emogene. Since we don't have any friends here yet (doesn't that sound pitiful?), we decided to do something special -the two of us- to celebrate such a momentous occasion by WALKING from our apartment to ...

... the Eiffel Tower!  Google Maps said it should take 1 1/2 hours but it took us 2 1/2 hours because we stopped along the way to buy pastries (pains aux raisins), take a few pictures, window shop, rest on park benches and frequently double-checked our map to make sure we were going the right way!

This is the underside of the Eiffel Tower, in case you've never seen a picture of it!

From the Eiffel Tower, we strolled along the Seine River and browsed among the books and souvenirs up to Notre Dame Cathedral (another hour of walking).  We had perfect weather the whole time and enjoyed the break from all the boxes, wrapping paper and bubble wrap!  It was a very nice way to celebrate Glenn's 60 years and the good health he has!

Sunday, for our Sabbath rest my thoughtful husband asked if I wanted to walk to a Starbucks!!!

You bet!

We walked to one that was 2.9 kilometers away (1.8 miles), but a couple of days later I found out that there is one even closer that is only 1.9 kilometers away, a little over a mile away!  Should take me 15-20 minutes to walk to it!  Yea!  I can walk off the calories in my white chocolate mocha frappacino!

The Starbucks is on the left with the white lettering.

Monday morning our boss and his wife arrived at our apartment from London to help us unpack and put together furniture!  Bob helped Glenn with lots of "projects", one of which was putting together this tall Ikea cabinet for my craft supplies!

Bev helped me with unpacking boxes, lining the shelves and drawers in the kitchen, putting dishes in the china cabinet, finding places for our food items, organizing my craft cabinet and oh, so much more!  I gave her all the overwhelming tasks!

They were such a big help!  I was feeling overwhelmed by it all, but with Bob and Bev working so hard to help us get unpacked and settled in, it forced me to stay focused.  We zipped through those boxes and got so much done in 3 short days!  What a blessing they were to us!

We've been in Gentilly now for 11 days.  The boxes are unpacked and -for the most part- things are put away.  Pictures are hung on the wall but not all the clocks are up yet.  (I kind of have this thing for clocks.)  There are still "projects" to tackle, such as adding shelves to our armoires, building a box to hide all the wires for our TV, internet and telephone, arranging the books on the shelves, making curtains for the windows, getting rid of the empty boxes, disposing of the things we aren't going to keep in order to not be so cramped, buying things like a dish drainer, paper towel holder, and the list goes on and on and on.  

We really miss our basement in Budapest when Glenn is working on these projects!  He's using our balcony as work space, and though the balcony LOOKS large in the photo above, it is only about 5-6 feet wide and 11-12 feet long, and he's sharing the space with a lot of beautiful flower pots and an armoire.  

We are glad to be here but there are some things we will have to change about the way we live. Our downstairs neighbor has already come to us to complain about the noise we're making.  He said it really nicely and even brought us a copy of the local ordinances concerning making noise but I cringe now when we drop a coin or scoot a piece of furniture to try it in a different location.   I think we're going to have to invest in carpet or lots of rugs in order to cut down on the noise we make!!!

Well, maybe next week I'll post pictures of our neighborhood and some interesting sights!  See you then!