I'm told it's time to start blogging

We have been here a month.  We are in our new place and semi-unpacked.  Last week we managed to get all of our appliances installed...and gas and electricity, too.  It was an exhausting experience.  I am working on my mere au foyer (stay at home mom) vocabulary.  I know a lot of new words about appliances and different cleaning product. I even managed to get someone to come and take the doors off of our large fridge to get it inside our apartment--small, sweet victories.  The large store where we bought our appliances has several different divisions that don't communicate--e.g., online, delivery, the actual store.  I had to talk to several people on the phone and visit the store before our fridge made it into out kitchen.  Everyone was very kind and patient with my poor, rusty French.

The other excitement was that our first night here the breaker would jump every few minutes and throw us into darkness.  The electrician came and fixed the problem...or seemed to.  He is coming back tomorrow to finish the job.  When I told him that maybe he could come Tuesday morning because that's when the gas guy was coming, he was shocked that we didn't have hot water and took out his large wrench, pushed a few buttons, and turned on our gas.  He is my knight in shining armor.

We spent the first two and a half days looking at about 12 different apartments.  The girls were very patient.

Most of our spare time was spent finding play structures and parks.

Most of these were considered too babyish.  It isn't quite as convenient as having a park across the street.  We do miss Lindenlea Park.

Sylvia was impressed by the Eiffel Tower at first.  She became jaded quickly, "Why do you keep showing me the Eiffel Tower?  I used to think it was exciting, but now it is just boring."  She does like to see the whole tower, but the top of it, which you can see from her school, no longer cuts it.

I still can't figure out how to get photos from my phone to the blog, but with my real knight in shining armor, Pierre, I am sure we will figure it out.  These first photos are from before I had my fancy phone.