9 June 2010
20:54 Toulouse
(Photos)
You know it’s going to be a good evening when your host interrupts your blogging to announce “life is tough in France” punctuating this remark with a plate of sliced baguette and pâté plus a glass of wine. Yes, tough indeed.
Today was brutal but it’s repay day so I don’t mind at all. We moved three appliances (fridge, washer, and dryer), a portable closet thing, a sectional couch/hide-a-bed, and the two tables we picked out yesterday.
Let me explain more. We drove to the appliance warehouse and exchanged the BMW for a Mercedes van and drove back with the three appliances to the Ikea in Roque where we picked up the two tables, then moved to a different part of that mall to get his closet thingy. After that, back to Toulouse into the downtown area where we hauled the hide-a-bed down four flights of steps, steps worn from centuries of wooden burden. Then Eric ran to get the van where he had left it. He stopped the van in front of the building and we took this modern couch out of that medieval door into that medieval street into our modern van and tooled away before we caused too many Toulousiannes to diminish their smiles.
Raced back toward Bonnefoy to stuff the items into a hallway in the building so that Eric could get the van back to the appliance people (who had another customer waiting). While he was doing that I managed to get all but the four largest pieces up the two flights of stairs (or four depending on how you count them) to his apartment. Then he and I did the last four pieces. Exhausted, we worked on what remained: assembling, arranging, and garbaging.
Eric and all his friends seem to occupy the top floors of buildings, and I haven’t seen an elevator since we left the airport. Don’t get me started on these tiny windy stairwells. Great to look at, pleasant for a nice constitutional, but lousy drunk fucked in a ditch for moving. Then again I just don’t see any fat people. I guess I’m just lucky they are in short buildings. Some of these have eight stories.
Off we went in search of a little lunch. It was after two so all the major restaurants were closed due to the siesta. We walked down Bonnefoy toward a grocery we had noticed yesterday. Instead we spotted a nice looking boulangerie (bakery) where we had panini (baguettes with ground beef and emmental) and I had a pleasant layered apple pastry. Having eaten we no longer felt like walking to the store, so we walked back and resumed what remained.
Finally had a shower to clean off all that nasty labor and again I feel human.
There is talk of he and I hitting the town tonight, being Thursday and all; but I think it’ll be pretty chill considering all the calories we’ve sent back into the atmosphere.
His apartment is finally looking like it’s occupied by humans and less like a Habitrail for ROUS‘s.
What a good friend I am, but how can I help it when I have such good friends myself?
Au revoir, mes amis.
