The "Hoover" revisited

We have written before about our wonderful "Hoover".  It's not a vacuum cleaner, but a crazy washing machine below our kitchen counter.  Because the Europeans are earnest about conserving space, this washing machine also dries the clothes.  It drives us crazy. It is small and slow, and a load of wash consisting of a few towels and a few other things thrown in usually will take at least three hours if we want it fully dried.  We have learned to just take out semi-dried clothes and lay them all over the apartment to air-dry.  We don't have the luxury of a balcony which many use to do the same thing.  Unfortunately, this results in some stiff towels.

Well, this Hoover had a major leak awhile back, and Lyle ended up mopping the floor with most of our towels.  We had it fixed, only to have it start leaking again for the past few months.  Not a huge leak, but we always ended up with a puddle on the floor during the drying cycle.

We finally had an appointment today for Darty (the equivalent of Best Buy) to come sometime between 12 pm and 4 pm to fix it.  The owner of the apartment, Caroline, told me she'd be here by 12 to help with communicating to the repairman.  I figured I had the afternoon to entertain her while waiting for the repairman, who usually shows up at the end of the time period.

So......I thought I had a leisurely morning after forcing myself t stay awake to watch the Twins game at midnight, only to find out that it was blacked out to the general public.  I awoke by 8 to a text message from Lyle, who is in Madrid, telling me they won!  Great!  Had my coffee in bed, worked on the computer for a bit, did my exercises with my DVD, and was about to take a shower. The phone rang and it was the repairman, speaking in French, and he was early! EARLY?  IN FRANCE? Well, I am proud to say I was able to understand that he was ready to come over and I replied, "Maintenant?" (NOW?).  OUI!  I wanted to tell him he was a few hours early, but didn't have the vocabulary, so just said, "d'accord" (OK)....

I threw on some clothes and he appeared at the door, toolbox in hand, not able to speak any English, of course.  But somehow I was able to tell him that the machine only leaked during the drying cycle and he understood and got to work.  I have to say this was a breakthough.  I didn't need Caroline this time to get something done with a maintenance guy.  I understood most of what he said, and could answer a bunch of questions. He asked me how I liked Paris, if I had a family, how long I've been here, and if I worked.  We had a small conversation.  Amazing.

After pulling out the dishwasher and the Hoover, he finally found the culprit:  a torn hose, which I thought was the problem anyway.  He fixed it and then gave me the bill of 75 euros.  Hmmm...we have never had to pay the bill, but I got my checkbook out and started filling it out, asking him if I spelled soixante-quinze correctly (75 in French is sixty-fifteen!).  He grinned and said it was OK and just as I was about to give it to him....voila!  Caroline showed up, had to go over the whole thing with him, waving her hands this way and that, while I just listened and tried to figure out what the heck did she have to talk about?  It was fixed...done.  But that's the thing about the French....they love to commiserate, talk over things.

So, my Hoover is fixed and I am washing a load as I type, hoping that c'est bon!  Maybe my French IS getting better....