New Rue

July 3, 2010
Here I am once again awake at 2:00 am Paris time...darn I thought I was going to make it through the night.

This morning I awoke to Michael waking me up because he thought I was in a comma - it was 10:00 am. I had finally fallen to sleep around the time Welc and the boys were getting up. Hopefully this will change soon. It has been so warm here that sleeping is hard because there is no air conditioning.

Welc had left us with an European cell phone which Michael had accidentally turned off and once turned on needed a security code to work...so there we were without any communication with Welc.

We cleaned the house we were staying in and embarked on the journey of hauling 8 huge roller bags, a computer bag, and another heavy tote to find a taxi to our next house. We had to walk almost a half mile in the hot sticky weather weaving in and out of passerby's. Quite the spectacle we were. Finally we arrive at a main street to catch a taxi. There were no taxis that were not in use that wizzed by. After about 40 minutes of flagging down taxis we were frustrated but alas one finally stopped. The boys piled into one large taxi and somehow we managed to squish 4 suitcases the computer bag and the tote with them. Horns were honking and traffic was piling up so I put 50 euros in Erics hand in hopes that would be enough money and I told him the address and off they went. It was so fast that I was quite rattled and worried. Here we are, I thought, "if they get to the wrong place or if I get to the wrong place, no phone, no internet connection, no place to stay, and not knowing where the others were, how would we ever find each other?" Their taxi pulled away and I must say tears filled my eyes. I was frightened...so the best thing I figured is to get working and I stood by the side of that street waiting...and waiting...and waiting for a taxi that was not in use. I whispered a prayer for help and comfort. Tears were flowing down my face and I took a deep breath to get control of my fears. After about 20 minutes of my arm out every time a taxi drove by I finally scored an empty one.

The taxi ride took about 20 minutes with all the traffic. My body finally relaxed when we pulled up at our new address and Eric was waiting outside for me. Thank you Heavenly Father.

Our new place that we are staying in is everything you would think of an Parisian home to be...well for a wealthy European. At least four different libraries - floor to ceiling books. All over the home are relics from foreign places. Everything you touch could be a conversation piece. The owner showed us through the home and then was off to southern France. He and his daughter are film directors, his wife is a published author, and his son is an artist. The home is filled with art (several of which we needed to take down and turn over promptly after he left). This place is located in a trendy/artsy area of Paris by the Bastille.

We hooked up internet and got a message off to dad and he sent us the security code to the phone. Dad let us know that we had left our camera back at the old house and we were going to the barge where the owner lived to pick up the phone. We had to laugh that if he looked at the pictures in the camera I had taken a picture of the bathroom door in his home that had this big window in it to see inside the bathroom. How odd is that?

When we arrived at the location there were many barges. We had to open a gate and cross several barges to get to "Cathere". Then the dilemma of no front door. Do I just hop on the barge and walk down the stairs into the belly of the barge? I started calling his name he heard me and at last our camera was in hand and we were on our way.