Day 10: Becoming French

• You will never, ever guess what I did today! I did something most Parisians do all the time, but which Americans tend not to do (except for Amy Wertzler) unless it's for a formal occasion. Give up? I ironed clothes. Yes, really! I even jokingly ironed John's underwear. ;). I had given up waiting for Mother Nature's humidity and the steam from our daily showers to release the plethora of wrinkles in our clothes. It just wasn't happening and I was running out of unwrinkled clothes to wear. Numerous sources (and I mean numerous--guidebooks, blogs, travel essays, biographies of ex-pats, and more) say the French don't leave the house without neatly pressed clothes. I found myself on a bus yesterday looking at a 20-something in a very cute, but very wrinkled, dress. I thought, "How gauche!" How dare I judge. Then another funny thing happened. We were doing a bit of housecleaning today and I decided to go with John to the basement to take down the garbage and recycling. But before I went, I put on lipstick and a scarf. Of course I already had on my neatly ironed sleeveless t-shirt and dressier capris. Shut the front door! Whaaaaa?  Oh no you di-nt! Well, yes I did, and without so much as thinking about it. OMD! Qui est cette femme? It's a good thing it's a rainy inside kind of day every now and then, otherwise I'd have no time to iron things. We keep saying we're going to go out for a walk, but then say, meh, it's about to rain and we have to pack for Normandy and wash clothes and write blog posts. Man, I love retirement!     --Gail

Channeling my inner Parisienne