So, here I am on a fine sunny day in Samoreau, surfing the web on a canoe.
To be precise, the canoe is upside down, and I am resting my laptop on the base of the canoe. Before you make a call for 911, rest assured I am not sitting in the river near our cottage on a capsized canoe, but quite safely on our landlord’s garden lawn.
The reason for my unusual position is that the wireless internet connection is strongest around this point, because my landlord indicated where his wireless transmitter was located in his home, and so I am now standing outside his locked-up house (he is only around on weekends) trying to pick up the good vibes. At least he was kind enough to let us use his existing connection. I was told by many people that things here are so slow, by the time I set up my own independent Internet account, it would be time to go home to Singapore.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m loving my stay in France. The food and wine are great, we are soaking in the culture and the sunshine, and being in P5 we are truly enjoying ourselves. However, in France it does take a while for things to get fixed. The Internet issue is a minor problem, in fact…
A more serious example: A pebble flew into the windscreen of my housemate’s car. She made an appointment to get it fixed at the nearby Peugeot workshop. Then a couple days later, she had a flat tire. The car was towed to a second workshop as the first one was closed. So now she has to fix the tire (where she was quoted a whopping 360 euros, not including towing charges) at one workshop, then fix the cracked windscreen at another workshop. After some waiting she was told she actually had to fill up a form to authorise that work be done. She was not told this earlier on, or else she would have obviously done this immediately. Fortunately in the end, after some effective negotiations, the cost of the tire replacement was covered. But why would it be so expensive, and why would it take so long?
I am also writing a note to our landlord regarding the newly-renovated cottage which has some defects, like a door that can’t close properly, a leaking sink, a tap handle that flies off because of a missing screw, among other minor things. I heard that French workmen don’t come back just to fix one or two simple things they omitted to do properly the first time. I hope our list is long enough to warrant a second visit.
In the meantime, I will continue enjoying the fine weather while surfing atop this canoe.
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