FUN, FELLOWSHIP AND FAHRENHEIT!!!!! 

Summer in Paris didn't really kick in til later in the month when school ended.  However, we could tell early in the month that "vacances" was drawing near... the time when Paris becomes a little less residents and a lot more tourists.

One of the things ending for us that we've enjoyed was our Inter7 French class.  Inter7 (pronounced inter-set because the number 7 in French is pronounced set) is located here in the 7th Arrondissement not far from our apartment.  It is a volunteer organization offering information, language classes and various activities.  The language class was recommended to us, and we joined a class in January.

The rest of our class had been there for the first semester, I think, so we were afraid we'd be way behind (turns out we weren't and were actually way ahead grammar-wise).   When we walked in the first day (we met Monday and Thursday mornings at 9:00 a.m.), Camilla, our teacher, spoke to us in French and I'm sure I had that "deer in the headlights" look!!!  I was certain there was no way I was going to survive in this class.  While my grammar skills are pretty good and I can put together a decent (though not always correct) sentence, I have LOTS of trouble understanding the spoken word.  Anyway, she was delightful and so nice, and we felt comfortable pretty quickly (even though much of what she said went right over me....#smileandnod!!!!).

I felt much more comfortable when I found out she was a volunteer and not a teacher by profession.    We visited one day after class, and I told her about teaching English in an ESL program at church in Texas and she said she had my job in Paris...teaching French as a second language...for no salary.  For some reason, I relaxed and could enjoy the class more knowing that.  I thought often of all the students I'd had in my ESL classes over the years-things I'd done with them in the class, subjects we'd studied, how, perhaps, they'd often had trouble understanding my spoken words (though I did always try to speak slowly which Camilla did not!!).  I hope to teach ESL again once we're back in the US and, if I'm able to, I will certainly do some things differently now that I've been on the other side of the table!

Anyway, on our last day of class,  those of us who showed up (just like ESL in Texas once the holidays are over, the numbers begin to drop til only the really committed come) had le pique-nique, a picnic.  We walked over to a little grassy park and laid out various things some of us brought.  Because we were the "regular" class members, we all knew each other really well and it was so fun.
In this small remaining group we had two from Columbia, South America, a young woman from Tibet,  Camilla who is Brazilian and the two token Americans (me and David!!).

This is our little group-I'm the one in the hat!!!!

Another ending was David's mens Bible study.  This study is really amazing to me.  These guys (frequently as many as 20 or so) meet every Thursday morning at the church at 7:30 for Bible study...real Bible study, not something topical or just sitting around visiting and having coffee.  Various men volunteer to lead so the teaching is different each week, and many of the men (perhaps most) leave from there and go to work.

David attended this group for the very first time before we even lived here.  At that time, it was being held in one of the men's apartments and David, not even knowing this man or how to get into his apartment (codes etc), got up early and got to this man's address and waited to see if a man carrying a Bible showed up knowing he must be going to the study!!!!  Once we moved here, he was a regular and lead many of the studies.  Anyway, they had their final study til the fall and the weather was so warm in the room where they usually met they went to the Courtyard of the church.  By June, their numbers were also down but still the "remnant" remained and studied the Bible together.

This is the men's Bible study-David said they should have had it in the Courtyard more often!

And last, but certainly not least, is La Canicule, the heatwave Paris (and much of France) experienced last week.  The temps were near 100 degrees F which is record breaking here.  Remember, most residences don't have air conditioning so the only relief comes if you go to a Monoprix (like Target), some retail establishments, and, perhaps some restaurants.  These beautiful Haussman buildings weren't built with air conditioning in mind!!!

Fortunately for us, when we were growing up in the 60's neither of us had air conditioning either.  In fact, we didn't have it in several of the houses we lived in when we were first married in the early 70's.  So, we knew just what to do....

First, we closed the metal shutters outside of our windows to block the morning (east) sun so the rooms wouldn't get heated up.

Closed but cozy and cooler!

This is the living room window where we sit each morning, have a coffee and talk about what's going on and plans coming up...or just whatever is on our minds!!!!

Second, we pulled out the fans we bought last year when it got hot.  We have two large oscillating fans, one in the living room/dining room and one for the bedroom.

Worth every euro!!

Because the kitchen is small, it can get warm and we knew we didn't have space for one of these fans so we bought this smaller cylindrical one for the kitchen.

A small tabletop fan might have been better but space was  an issue

Last year what we discovered was that although the closed shutters and fans helped, we couldn't seem to get much air pulling through the apartment.  THEN we discovered the benefit of our kitchen-window-opening-up-to-the-elevator-shaft!!!!!  It doesn't look pretty open, BUT it pulls air through the other windows and we have a breeze!!!!!

We never had to open both sides-one was enough then we closed it at night

And that's when all the beautiful, large windows we have in our lovely apartment are more than "just a pretty view"....

Lots of cool air can come in our bedroom window..and the view's not bad either!

The air coming in is cool (once the sun passes over us late morning, early afternoon and really great in the evenings), comfortable and relatively bug free.  I love not having screens...it's like in the movies where they open their windows and look out and don't have to look through a screen.  I love that!!!!

So...all this to say, we survived and it's cooler now and we're happy about that.  But we Midwesterners are a hardy bunch and don't need the luxury of air conditioning to enjoy the day!!!!