It’s Saturday, so I decided to sleep in, and stay in. I figured it was a good day to relax and clean the house, or « faire le ménage » as they say.

I love my little apartment here in the 6th arrondissement. I chose it for its proximity to L’Alliance Française, and for a host of other reasons, namely the many conveniences nearby à pied (on foot). Now that I’ve been here a full two weeks, I can say that I chose well — which involved a little luck, a lot of legal pads, and Google Maps.

The old lock on the door is something to behold. A key must always be used inside and out. It’s intense, and charming in its way.

Once you enter the apartment, there’s a small hallway with four doors (toilette, kitchen, shower, and closet). And to the right is the large entryway to my living space and sleeping area. There are 3 floor-to-ceiling double door/windows that have the lovely traditional wrought iron ornate gating outside that you see everywhere here. I have a tiny desk, a sofa, a table made of 4 moveable cubes, and a lovely archway that leads to where I sleep. The ceilings here are 10 or 12 feet high throughout.

Did I mention I don’t have a clothes dryer? Yeah. I had to make concessions. I know, poor me. Location was most important, and the price was right, and when I narrowed things down, I went with the apartment that didn’t have a dryer. I didn’t think about the cement texture of towels at the time.

The shower is another event. It’s a full foot off the ground, so you step up and into it. It’s the size of a phone booth for those of you who remember phone booths. There’s a certain kind of minimalistic gymnastics required to maneuver about, but it works!

While I don’t have a dryer, I do have a washing machine, and it’s a whirlpool! But that’s where the familiarity ends. It’s as wide as me, and you have to unlatch this steel rolling drum which is inside. It resembles a colander one uses to rinse off pasta. The landlord when giving the tour said, « Have you ever used one of these before? » LOL! Can’t say that I’ve ever seen one before. It worked beautifully and I was really happy with how quickly my clothes dried on the rolling rack. I was also shocked at how soft they were too, because of those hard towels.

That’s when I realized I’d washed them with laundry softener. LOL!

P.S. I listened to some American music today, and I may or may not have grooved alone here to Barry White while cleaning. LOL!