Up and Down
So I’m at the Auchan this morning, shopping up a storm. We have to change apartments tomorrow. We’re being kicked out of this one as the owners want to do some renovations . . . the nice lady in charge says we’ll like the new place better anyhow as it actually has TWO real bedrooms. No more couch-by-day/bed-by-night for me and The Spouse!
But since Saturday is a big day at the mall (at least until the doors slam shut at 6:00 p.m.) and Sunday requires advance planning as nothing is open, I figured I better do my provisioning today.
I was all ready to get in the checkout line . . . in fact, I was in the checkout line . . . when I remembered I was out of laundry detergent.
At the Auchan, the laundry detergent, like all those household items including toilet paper and cleaning supplies and cat litter, are upstairs. On the second floor.
At least, that’s what you call it if you are an American.
So I took my shopping cart up the magic cart escalator inside the Auchan, got my items, got in a checkout line up there (less waiting anyhow), and then took my purchases in my cart down the mall hallway to the elevator so I could stop at one of the 2,000 bakeries in the mall and get myself a nice salad to go for lunch.
I got in the elevator and pressed 1. Or so I thought.
The elevator passed what I call “1″ and headed further down into the bowels of the parking garage. The doors opened to reveal a nice woman who seemed concerned she had interrupted my trek farther south.
No, no, I reassure her. It was an accident. Let’s go back up.
I am relieved to see her press “1.” Ah! Good. Maybe we’ll finally get where I’m heading. I also note that when pressed correctly, a little green light appears on your chosen button. Obviously, I failed “Elevator Button Pressing 101.”
Up, up, up we go . . . past what I call “1″ . . . and right back where I started on the second (top) floor of the shopping mall. The nice woman looks at me, and our collective light bulbs go off.
I am mortified.
“Oh, zut . . . le system European . . .” I mumble.
Crikey! I know better! How long have I lived abroad? If you want the main floor you gotta press “0″!
[smacks forehead]
In other news, I totally forgot to mention the ORGAN GRINDER I encountered roaming the streets yesterday when I was killing time because I was way too early for the Women’s Club coffee. What’s up with that? Is he just spreading joy? Or does he actually do something useful like sharpen knives? I was disappointed to note that what I first took for a real live monkey (the sun was in my eyes) was, in fact, merely one of those cymbal-banging mechanical toys.
Is this little-known Luxembourg tradition? Enquiring minds want to know!
Oh! Oh! Oh! And in other, even more important news, yesterday I saw BACKYARD CHICKENS! I was sitting upstairs (I guess that would be on the FIRST FLOOR, right?) at a McDonalds’ (I know, I know . . . it is the work of the Devil), and staring mindlessly out the window while my children chattered in French when I realized I was watching chickens running around in a garden across the street. Now this was in Strassen, which is technically a suburb and perhaps not Luxembourg City proper. So maybe they have different codes about animal husbandry in one’s backyard. But I have hope!
Now, I met my future landlord today when Baboo and I went to view the “Other House.” We agreed to rent it (paperwork to follow, yadda yadda yadda), and I suppose I missed my chance to ask him if he or the City Fathers cared if I put an Eglu and a couple of Rhode Island Reds in his nice garden. He did not object to the cats (“That’s your problem!”), only to any altering of the property so as to add a cat flap. “You can’t control how many cats come in!” he explained.
Oh yes, and then you have all the cats in the neighborhood in your house while you are gone, playing poker, drinking the good Scotch, and smoking.
I actually did say that, but without the sarcasm. That doesn’t mean he doesn’t think I am totally insane. But never mind! He agreed to let me rent his house anyhow.
It is probably just as well that he thinks I’m nuts because I thought he was rather dangerously dashing and charming in an Old Europe sort of way. Think Christopher Plummer in The Sound of Music, but much older and with a lot more money.
Finally, I just finished reading Christopher Buckley’s Supreme Courtship. Very funny. I laughed out loud. Often. Oh, to be that funny.
So long, farewell, Auf Weidersehen, goodbye . . . The sun has gone to bed and so must I.
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OH hell, when I go to the knee surgeon they have the same thing with the elevators and the floors and the gyn’s elevator too! The street floor is marked 0 instead of 1! I don’t know what is happening here! But you would think that in a French elevator they could at least call it the R floor for rue?
So glad you will have this fabulous house! With too many bedrooms! Unless that cats get one all to themselves! So many new window sills and places to nap and hide and a big basement to explore! They will disappear for hours! You can get a cat flap with a magnetic collar for each cat so that only yours can come in and out… But you may not want your cats outside a good deal, especially living on that street corner. My vet tells me not to let my cats outdoors at all but I just cannot bear to keep them indoors…It seems too cruel! Especially in the spring with so many new smells and the sunshine… And neither of mine are birders… But ever since Sugar la Puss disappeared two years ago I am wary and make mine come in at night and stay indoors for the most part.
It will be lovely to have a kitchen table and that plus the 300 euro difference alone would make the whole thing worth while! A kitchen table for homework and project and cookie baking! Not to mention meals!
Is there a dishwasher and where do the washer and dryer go? I am assuming that there are appliances and light fixtures?
Today while you were sleeping I went to White’s Mill and bought 3 lovely rosemary plants and looked at the baby chicks and thought of you! No bunnies yet but two people had cute babies! I actually came home and repotted the herbs and have them here in the office window! They had lots of lovely pansies and Pansy Season is my favorite time of the year! But there are pansies that I planted here last fall to winter over and they are starting to bloom. I am keeping them sprayed and hope the deer don’t snack on them. It is hard to keep up the deer fence spray with the spring rains… But today my teeny tiny tete a tete miniature daffodils began to bloom. And the iris reticulatae are a lovely shade of violet. So Primavera is making her entrance and we will all welcome her! xov
It’s perfectly normal to mark the main floor with 0. What do they put between 1 and -1 in America?
I think the problem is the translation from floor to étage/Stock. The french and german words stand for every floor but the street floor which is called rez-de-chaussée/Erdgeschoss.
Just for your info there are a few supermarkets open on Sunday mornings, most Delhaize stores and many of the Cactus ones. Auchan is great, it’s big and has everything, but it isn’t exactly practical, you should try Cactus (the Howald one is great) and Delhaize, the bigger ones are in Alzingen and Bertrange (quite popular with expats). Then again they might be little pricier… I don’t think the organ grinder is a Luxembourgish tradition, think it’s just someone “spreading the joy” and trying to earn something while at it.
I happened to drive by the one in Bertrange and saw that it said it was open Sunday. Must check it out. I will try the Cactus, too . . . I don’t mind slightly pricier for Sunday convenience. If I am organized, I will only need that for emergencies.
There’s nothing between 1 and -1 in the US. And, yes, I should be on the ball with the rez-de-chausee concept by now. In Argentina it was PB for planta baja. The Russians called it something too, but the name escapes me. I was just not awake or hung over or hadn’t had enough coffee or something. I really DO know better.
French elevators usually have RC for rez-de-chausee. In hotels, I recall that. In a mall, it’s not exactly street level always . . .
There is a dishwasher. The washer/dryer will have to go in the basement, which is large, dry, and clean. I will need some light fixtures. It has a fridge and a stove, but they are small (not American sizes).
So has anyone ever painted a picture of cats sitting at a table, playing poker, and drinking scotch? If it’s not out there it should be. Good luck with moving!
New house sounds great and I have never seen a European fridge as big as the ones we have in the US. And many are tucked under a counter! I think this is a hold over from women who didn’t work outside of the home and did daily shopping plus the cost of electricity being so high…
Forty years ago in Florence our signora would lower a basket down from the steps of the 1st floor, aka our 2nd floor. (I remember her distinctly correcting me when I referred to our apt as being on the 2nd floor! I think it was a matter of status to her to be on the “1st” floor!) and the grocer, baker or butcher would put in the stuff and she’d haul it back up! The fridge was very small… I remember being shocked, having never been out of the country before and used to our macho American appliances!
How great to have a clean dry basement and you can put up a clothes line! Would the girls be interested in a ping pong table? Do they have them there or only foozball?
I finally got my cats one of those cardboard scratchy things like yours that you put catnip inside of and Orlando is quite delighted. Valentina gave it about 30 seconds… she thinks she is too sophisticated for that sort of thing… alas… Ok he wants up now so I will end this…xov
I giggle at your Ohio roots (at least, that’s where I heard it) everytime you put “the” in front of a proper noun. ;>
Of course, I also thought you saw backWARDS chickens…
kate: as in “the Auchan”? I wonder why I do that. Maybe because there is only one here? I have to admit I would never say “I was at the Target.” I think I may have said “I was at Tesco,” but also “I was in the Carrefour” while in SK . . . It could very well be an Ohio-ism.
At least I don’t say “electric” instead of “electricity” as in “After that big storm our electric went out.” I’ve heard that in SE Ohio.