Les Livraisons

The following Saturday (le samedi suivant) found us -- une amie et moi -- waiting at 90, rue de Longchamp pour les livreurs, who, it had been announced by Samaritaine, would be there sometime between 10:30 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. (10h30 and 18h30).  (I thought immediately of the similar eight-hour delivery "windows of opportunity" that we get in the US from such customer-friendly organizations as the utility companies.)

Nonetheless (néanmoins), promptly at 11h30, the buzzer (la sonnerie) rang, and le matelas and the bed slats (les lattes) were carried up the quatre volées de l'escalier sinueux.  It would have been impossible to get all of that into le plus petit ascenseur.

"Alas," we cried, "but where is the bed?" ("Hélas," nous avons crié, "mais où est le lit?")
"We don't have a bed, Madame," came the reply.  "It's not on today's schedule."  ("Nous n'avons pas un lit, Madame," Monsieur a répondu.  "Ce n'est pas à la date prévue."

A phone call (un appel) to Samaritaine by mon amie (who would be far better at negotiating) resulted in the announcement that le lit would not be livré until the following Tuesday (avant le mardi suivant).  An argument (un argument) ensued, with the following statement being made à mon amie:  "Après tout, Madame, vous avez le matelas."  (Logical ...)

The appliances (les appareils) arrived but moments later and were installés avec instructions détaillées on their use.

So (donc), I set le matelas on the floor (sur le sol) and used les lattes as a make-shift armoire until it arrived en avril.

Le mardi arrived; the à monte soi-même lit et les (aussi à monte soi-même) deux chevets were brought up the same quatre volées de l'escalier sinueux en quatre boîtes.  Les deux chevets were a snap to assemble (à assembler), but when I opened les deux boîtes avec le lit, I discovered (j'ai découvert) 100 vis of varying sizes.  Hélas !! Could I do this?

Indeed (en effet), dans une heure, j'ai tourné le dernier vis, et le lit seemed to be sturdy and looked about the same as it had looked à Samaritaine:  But wait! (Mais attendez!)  There were dix vis left over!  Hélas! Not to worry. (Ne t'en fais pas.)  They always give you extra vis.

Lesson #4:  Hélas is a very useful word (mot utile), as you have determined by now.

L'appart was starting to shape up.  I had un lit, un réfrigérateur, une cuisinière, une machine à laver séchante.  I could cook (faire de la cuisine)!  I could sleep (se coucher)!  I could wash my clothes (faire la lessive)!

Hélas!  I had no lights!  (Je n'avais aucune lumière!)

Coming up:  And there was light.  Et la lumière fut.