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! 

Sweet Good-Byes

This has been a hard week because of having to say our good-byes to some great friends.  Even though I've had many, many opportunities to practice saying good-bye all my life, I am not very good at it.  I don't like to say good-bye so instead I usually say, "See you later".  It hurts less.   And there is always the possibility that I will see them again sometime, somewhere.  :-)

I will miss my Hungarian friend, Judit Varga.

Our landlords, Peter and Eva Kiss, invited us to lunch at their house this past Sunday, which was coincidentally Easter.  We spent 4 hours with their family and had a great time!  Peter and Eva have been studying English for the past 1 1/2 years and Glenn and I understand a smidgen of Hungarian, so we could communicate reasonably well.  When we got stuck, one of their 3 sons would translate for us!

Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of it (and now it's packed and on it's way to France), but our landlord's family gave us a beautiful tablecloth with traditional Hungarian flowers (the blooms of the paprika peppers that are so common here) that was made and hand-embroidered by Peter's mother.  It is gorgeous!  For years I had wanted to buy one of those tablecloths at the market but they are waaay out of my price range so it is really special to me to get one from my landlord's family and then on top of that, to be hand-made by Peter's mother!  What a wonderful gift!  (I'll try to remember to post a  picture of it once it is unpacked in France.)

The moving truck was at our house at 8 am this morning (Tuesday) and with the 6 men they had our goods entirely loaded into the truck in 1 1/2 hours!  We had packed everything in boxes, broken down the furniture that needed to be taken apart and wrapped some of the more fragile pieces before they arrived.  Glenn had brought EVERYTHING from the top floor downstairs so the movers didn't have to attempt our dangerous spiral staircase!

We had never seen this creative way to carry a piece of furniture!  Instead of carrying it with their hands, the two men carried it in a huge sling of webbing that was crossed over their shoulders, using their hands only to balance the cabinet.  That particular piece of furniture is extremely heavy and they made it look so easy to move!

This is our empty living room.  (For some reason, it looks huge in this photo! It's not.)   Such a nice home. (Sad to be leaving it.)   I'm sure we will love living in France as well, but I get a little teary eyed when I think of all the wonderful friends we've had for meals in our home over the past 8 years.   Lots of great memories I'll be taking to France with me.

This is our neighbor that lives on the other side of our landlord's parents (who live behind our house).  She is the lady who brings Glenn a honey comb or jars of honey from the bee hives in her back yard, home-made freshly baked goodies or some organic home-grown fruit to say thank you for mowing the 4' x 4' section of her grass that is attached to our landlord's parents' yard.  Just as the moving truck was pulling away with most of our earthly belongings, I waved to her as she was headed to the bus stop.  Evidently word had traveled around the neighborhood that we were moving because when she saw me she realized "today was the day" and told me not to go anywhere because she had something for us.  She ran home and brought us back a small loaf of her ground walnut pastry bread!  How thoughtful and kind of her! 

We couldn't ever really "talk" with her, but she was always so friendly to us whenever we saw her.  Her sweet gestures of appreciation for Glenn's cutting of her tiny section of grass will be one of our special memories of our time in Budapest!  

On Sunday after our meal with our landlord's family, Glenn and I went to say good-bye to their parents living behind us, taking them a small gift to say thank you for watching our place, getting our mail and putting our trash out when we traveled.  This morning, just as the moving truck arrived, the grandmother came running over to our house and gave us gifts: a traditional Hungarian doll and this hand-embroidered doily which SHE MADE HERSELF.  These are the traditional paprika flowers that I love so much!  Another very special gift that I will cherish forever.

We finished our final cleaning by noon, and met up with friends and co-workers Mike and Terry for one last meal together of our choice.  I chose Johnny's Diner which specializes in American burgers.  This is Glenn's hamburger!  Notice the burger is taller than the soft drink can next to it???  Can you imagine?

My last photo in my yard.  

Hyacinths, Daffodils and Tulips are in bloom and everything else is pushing up through the ground!  I will miss the yard for several reasons, but Kathy has left me about 15 blooming bushes on the balcony of our apartment in Paris that I will enjoy.  Azaleas, Rhododendrons, and more!  When I was there last month helping Kathy pack up their belongings, the bushes were in full bloom even though it was mid-February.  I guess their balcony is the perfect hothouse!

Tomorrow we continue our journey in member care but from a different location.  We fly to Paris mid-afternoon, landing about 6 pm.  From the Charles de Gaulle airport on the northeast side of the city, we'll catch a train going south that will take us to a metro/bus stop in Gentilly, which is the name of a suburb just outside the city limits and where we will live.  From that metro/bus stop, we'll catch a bus and go 3-4 stops to our neighborhood, then walk about 5 short minutes to our new (new to us) apartment, dragging our suitcases behind us.   Doesn't everyone travel via plane, train and bus and then walking a couple of blocks to their domicile ??  Will soon seem normal to me! 

HOME SWEET HOME!