You just get used to doing things a certain way. I was talking with the neighbour the other day and he asked me if we used our bikes. Like, alot? He said always sees us on them. He wondered if that meant we don’t have a car. I told him we don’t have a car. That’s a funny thing about our overseas life: We have never had a car overseas. The week we get back to Canada though we buy something. One reason we don’t have a car overseas I suppose has to do with safety/insurance. Life can be tough as it is, so why add potential complications to it?

What this means in Caen, for us, is taking our laundry up to the local laundomat, or, lavomatique. We discovered these during our previous short visit to France and needed to do laundry while on the road. We discovered that these are all over the place. Most neighbourhoods will have one. They are super handy! But I imagine we are quite the sight, loading up the bikes and hauling our bags of laundry there.

But while there alot can happen. We study our French books, or listen to french lessons. We have to solve problems. One time I put in money and nothing happened. So, I called the number on the wall, not sure of what would come next, and somehow was able to explain the issue and understand that the remote technician was going to start the machine for me (he did) and then refund the money if I would place my laundry card to the payment machine. It worked! I couldn’t believe I managed to achieve that. And then the other day I met a young guy from Cuba! He was all excited, telling me that they don’t have such machines in Cuba (really?) and asking me to take his photo with the machines in the background.