So now the challenge was to go furniture shopping (aller faire les courses pour les meubles). Earlier I told you that the rooms in French apparts have four walls. I hope you didn't forget that little tidbit because it will come into play right now.
Mon appart was called a deux pièces. In France, they don't count the kitchen or the bathroom when marketing les apparts. In the case of 90, rue de Longchamp, I had a spacious living room (une salle de séjour spacieuse) that also doubled as the dining room (salle à manger), a spacious bedroom (chambre à coucher spacieuse), and a gally kitchen (une coquerie) containing only the sink (l'évier). The salle de bains -- best outfitted room in the entire appart -- was actually larger than la coquerie and included a shower-tub combination (une baignoire-douche), une toilette, a hand-sink (un lavabo); a medicine cabinet (un armoire de médicine), and a mirror (un miroir).
No kitchen cabinets (armoires de cuisine) ... no kitchen shelving (étagères) ... no bedroom closets (placards ou armoires). What!!! No armoires ou placards dans la chambre à coucher ??? What about the valise full of shoes (chausseurs) ???
I told you ... four walls ... nothing else.
The cuisine would need everything but the évier; the living room / dining room (la salle de séjour / la salle à manger) and the bedroom (la chambre à coucher) were as stark as could be. In order of priority came the bed (le lit), the armoire, the stove (cuisinière), le réfrigérateur, and the washer-dryer combination (la lave-séchante). I set off for Samaritaine, Paris' version of Macy's, veritably skipping in anticipation.
The appliances (les appareils ménagers) were no problem at all, and in fact, they were much more reasonably priced than I had imagined. Lucky for me, everything was on sale (les soldes) at Samaritaine. A half-hour (une demi-heure) in the appliance department (Eléctroménagers) was sufficient to purchase la cuisinière, le réfrigérateur, et la lave-séchante, with delivery (livraison) the following Saturday (le samedi suivant).
Buoyed by my first set of purchases, I skipped over to the bedding department (Literie), only to encounter a sales associate (vendeur) whose French was so rapid that I felt as if I were listening to my French tapes being played on fast-forward. (No amount of asking him to slow down would help.) Fortunately, two friends (deux amies) were with me, so with the three of us understanding every third word, we managed to purchase a bed (un lit), two bedside tables (deux chevets), a mattress (un matelas), and un armoire, with livraison le samedi suivant. L'armoire would come in April (avril).
Further buoyed by success, the three of us went to have lunch (le déjeuner) and celebrate (célébrer), only to discover over our salads that le matelas was of a totally different size from le lit. Helas! (A subsequent phone call took care of that problem.) We also discovered that dreaded phrase that is so often seen on the invoice (la facture): "à monter soi-même" ("Some assembly required.") A variation -- I have discovered since then -- is "montage par le client" ("assembly by the client"). In other words, do it yourself! Thankfully, l'armoire included the welcome phrase "montage par le livreur" (assembly by the delivery person). You will soon learn why I was thankful for that.
Lesson #3: Look for the phrase "montage par le livreur" on your facture. Better yet, ask in advance. It will make your life much easier unless, of course, you are particularly handy with outils and/or have brought your entire boîte à outils with you.
Coming up: Deliveries (Les Livraisons)
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