Inspector Clouseau

Today I did a little Nancy Drew/Inspector Clouseau action to stalk the rental agency I found the apartment through and make sure they were not a scam. All I had was the general address (which means nothing in Paris because an address is usually a front gate that leads to a courtyard that leads to several buildings with several floors and unless you know the specific address with instructions, it's impossible to find what you're looking for). AND to make matters worse, I forgot my cell phone.

So I arrived at a locked gate and had to wait for someone to walk by the gate on the inside and let me in. And then I asked them where the agency, Paris Home Finders, was located. They pointed across the courtyward and said, ''a gauche dans the troiseme'' (to the left on the third floor). Good sign - someone had heard of the agency. So I walk across the courtyard, pick one of the buildings, and walk up to what I thought was the third floor (windy staircases = hard to tell), knock on a few doors, no answer. Walk up one more flight to the actual third floor and voila! I see a sign and business cards on the wall: Paris Home Finders. I knock on the door and ask for Paolo, my realtor, and voila encore - he is there! He finds it amusing that I came all the way to his office (which is actually an apartment) on my lunch break with no actual directions. But he shows me the keys to my apartment and assures me everything will be ok. Finally, I believe him, and I'm excited to move into my new place on Sunday!

I had two big discoveries today:

1. Amazing chocolate shop on the street St. Placide.
2. Ben and I are watching the French Super Nanny. AND, I can understand it! Don't get too excited (I did). I believe I cried out something along the lines of, ''Oh My God, I'm practically a real French person.'' Then Ben rightly pointed out that the reason I could understand it so much better than other TV shows is that the ''Nanny'' speaks clearly, slowly and simply because she is speaking to children. So, I decided that from now on I should just tell people, "Parlez-moi comme les enfants." Speak to me like the children!