We woke up around 3am and struggled to get back to sleep. That's jet lag for you. We stopped by the nearby bakery again to pick up some breakfast, then set out to complete our two most important unfinished tasks - acquiring Merto passes and French SIM cards.
The day before, we'd asked some questions to the man in the Metro booth about how to get monthly passes, but my comprehension failed me. The main question was whether we needed a long-term Paris address, which we didn't yet have, and the answer seemed to be yes. We went away stymied, but then that night decided we would just use our present hosts' address and go from there. So this morning, we returned to the window, where a different (and very handsome) man helped us get things in order. We gave him passport-style pictures that we took just beforehand at a little photo booth in the station. Oddly, he didn't ask us for an address, so I think the deal is that if we lose them, they're gone forever. So far, I'm not too concerned about that eventuality - if my wallet gets stolen, I have a lot more to worry about than my metro card. I'm just glad not to have to worry about tickets any more, transit can get pricey quickly. Before I knew about this pass, I was expecting to spend about $100/month or more on transit, but the monthly pass is actually only ~$75 per person. It's a great deal, and it includes basically all of the Metro and RER systems, including Versailles and Disneyland Paris.
Heading the opposite direction on the 5 line, we took ourselves to the Bastille stop, emerging into daylight with the huge obelisk to greet us. We didn't know where the Orange store was, but we just decided to wander around a little bit before resorting to Google. Happily, we found it down the first side street we tried, past a collection of middling-fancy clothing and furniture stores. Nike was the only store I recognized, though there were some Levi's and Carhartt (?) signs in boutique windows.
One of the Orange sales associates spoke some English, and knew immediately what plan would be right for us. Initially I thought we were getting ten gigs of data per month, but it turned out to be a bundle deal, good for six months with ten gigs total. Not bad for 40 euros. As a side note, Beck got an alert about the state of the Euro compared to the dollar, and they are nearly equivalent (~1.06 Euros to 1 dollar), so we are in pretty good shape as far as conversion rates at the moment. Anyway, my phone eventually consented to work after I found the unlock code, but Beck's was more recalcitrant, and the service went a little downhill after that. The man at the store started basically blaming Beck's phone for having a problem, which we later found not to be the case. In the end we took it away non-functional, and Beck fixed it all himself with a little bit of Googling. I was surprised - the guy didn't do any research or ask anyone else in the store for help - but I think this is just one of those cultural service differences.
On the way out, we took a bit of a detour to use one of the very nice public toilets (which happen to be provided by the same company as those in San Francisco, JC Decaux) and found that there was a Saturday craft/art market on the boulevard where we were standing. I'm definitely intrigued by that, I haven't happened upon any open-air markets yet on this trip, but once we get more settled I'll be sure to sniff out whatever is happening in our neighborhood.
When we returned home, I think we sat for a little while to recuperate and rest our still-tired feet, and then decided to have crepes for dinner from the stand next door. In the process, we learned that a savory crepe is called a galette, and that they are delicious no matter what you call them. We still have a ways to go in terms of understanding the normal flow of transactions here, and how to behave according to expectation, but we have largely been lucky to encounter very forgiving workers everywhere we go. Also to not have many complex needs so far. But while we waited for our galettes (ham and cheese for me, mushroom and cheese for Beck) I overhead two nearby young people speaking American-accented Engligh. When I heard them mention Middlebury, I took the opportunity to barge into their conversation. We chatted for a while; they had been in Paris since August, and the woman emailed me a list of things to check out. I tried to connect over the fact that they were poli-sci majors, but they kind of just shrugged it off - having been in Paris since before the election, and maybe being young, they didn’t seem as scared as I have been feeling about the state of the USA.
We passed out pretty early again, though we were up long enough to hear our hosts' pet snake whistle around its dinner. It stays light until eight-thirty at night here, and in the summer it will be light until ten. That is taking some getting used to, especially as someone who strongly prefers complete darkness when i'm sleeping. Hopefully our more permanent home will have good curtains.
