French Laundry

We always hear that term in the US but what does it really mean? When you travel for a month, you really need to do laundry and it is not always so simple. Finding a laundromat here - a laverie automatique is not what one would expect. Since there are so many apartment dwellers, I assumed a laundromat would exist in every town but not so. Apparently, inexpensive portable washing machines are common, and so much wash is done by hand with few using driers, that laundromats are not easily found.

We looked for one nearby and initially thought we had found one in St. Remy, but we drove to find it and quickly learned, thanks to D.'s keen eye, that it is not a self-laundry, and more importantly, that it is a blanchisserie, meaning the women who do the wash, only wash whites, sheets, towels, etc. Who would know that the French have so much white wash? Is that what French Laundry really means?

Well, we invested instead in a portable machine which holds more than I expected, and works very well. And in a day of four small loads, got the wash done. Now, the next step will be storage for this and other items we keep here, and for use in next summer's house.

More learning - as I've written before, the French government regulates sales and allows only two per year. The sales (solde) begin in Paris. I learned today that the sale in the region we are in starts one week later so that the Parisians can stay for their sale, then transit to their vacations and enjoy the beginning of the sale there too.