Settling In

Our hotel. 

Saturday was a busy day!  We checked out of our hotel and took two bus trips over to Cesson-Sévigné to get our three large suitcases and computer bags to our apartment.  (The Magenta was a typical hotel near the train station with a small café area for breakfast and no more than thirty rooms.  We liked it.)  We have our annual unlimited bus passes already, so it was very easy—no digging for change while managing a bulky duffel bag!  We really like the apartment and hope that you come visit soon!  We’ll have furniture by the time you arrive—in fact, we should have most of our furniture by Thursday morning! 

After breakfast and bag-moving, we went to the marché in Cesson, where we found local cheese, butter, the best apples we’ve ever had (Elstar is the name; do try if you get the chance!), and lots of local vegetables.  Aaron made a solo trip into the grocery store to buy cereal, milk, and olive oil.  He made it out without having to speak too much French!  We made a ratatouille for dinner to go with bread from a local baker and mini artichokes from a local grower. 

Saturday afternoon we went to Ikea, and this was Aaron’s first trip to such a store, despite his constant singing of Jonathan Coulton’s song “Ikea.”  Please go to YouTube to hear this song if you do not yet know its glory.  We are listening to it as we write this.  Luckily, there was an Ikea catalog waiting for us in the mailbox when we got the keys to the apartment, so we could scope out our options before we even got to the store!  (My mother and I actually visited the Pittsburgh Ikea store before I left the States to see what all would be available.)

We put one of the closet shelves on top of a suitcase.  
No furniture does NOT mean sacrificing gourmet meals.

Not surprisingly, our first purchases were pots, pans, plates, and glasses so that we could prepare our own food.  We figured we could make it a day or two sleeping on top of a comforter and eating dinner on the floor.   We did indeed make it!  We have since upgraded to an almost-table and a mattress with Monday’s visit to Ikea.  The same closet shelf is now on top of the table base; they were out of the table top (see beautiful picture below of Aaron, complete with cowlick and slippers).  We carried the stool, chair, table base, AND mattress back to our apartment on two buses and one metro ride.  We definitely got some strange looks, but we are living much more comfortably and are very much looking forward to Ikea’s delivery on Thursday of the furniture we couldn’t carry on the bus.  It turns out loveseats are difficult to manage on public transportation.  Who knew?

We’ll let you know more soon!  (We should have internet and phone in our home in just a few days.  The last three posts have been from McDonald’s free wifi.  And we thought we weren’t the sort who supported McDonald’s...)