monday is laundry day

We've just been wandering about le Marais with our laundry, having a good time working out the instructions and setting the machine going.

Also found the post office to send letters to Geoff's (e-free) parents. The people sending us our Twickenham rugby tickets refused to send them to us in France - the french post is slow and unreliable, they said. Interesting point: we had a happy time at the stamp machine - it weighs your letter and considers the destination (you tell it), out pops the sticker and all is sweet. Until you turn to post the letter. There is no post box, so you join the queue of people that are not using the time-saving machine and wait for an assistant. They are quite slow as they keep escorting people over to the time saving machines and tutoring them in their use. Eventually, a staff member greets you and you give them the stamped letter and they, completely unsurprised, thank you for it. It is gone - totally at the mercy of the french postal system.

Walking back we noticed some young dancers puffing away outside their school of dance. The French are the most committed, least re-constructed, bunch of smokers I have ever met - way ahead of the Spaniards and the Brits.

The streets here are really clean, though, and there are workers out at all hours making sure they stay that way. I noticed that the brooms they use for the gutters are just like the old school ones made from twigs - except that the twig component is now bright green plastic. Still, same concept - that shape and texture works - why change it?