More mishaps in France! (Never Fails to Surprise)

Two funny things happened today.

A bag that I had had repaired in a Paris brand-name boutique while I was there in December called me to let me know that my bag was ready to be picked up. Since I live in Lyon, I asked them to send it to me by courrier, and I sent them a cheque for several euros.

They treated it professionally and sent out the package yesterday. I received it at my local post office, opened it excitedly and -- voila! inside was a repaired brown shirt ... but not my bag! I called them and the staff member who answered replied puzzled but apologetically, and asked me to send the package back to him by "contre remboursement," which is a complicated system of reimbursement for postage and handling.

To do that I had to take the package to the local post office, pay the fees of the postage in advance, declare the amount to be reimbursed, and hope that the money will be reimbursed by the boutique after it arrives there. At 21 Euros, I thought the freight costs extremely high. I mean: 1.5 kg package to Paris? We can do better than that in Japan, where things get shipped from Tokyo to Kyushu for half the price, and better than that, door-to-door. (Some things could be greatly improved here!)

The second incident: no water!

I came home for lunch and microwaved my leftover Thai basil chili pork. When I went to soak the dishes, I lifted the handle on the sink, only to discover, no water! What? No warning on the elevator that there was any construction. Worried, I called the local water company, Veolia, to ask if there had been any problems with my payment or with construction in the area. No, they replied, ask the people in your building, maybe someone was working on something and turned off the water.

It turned out that some workers somewhere on the first floor had been doing some construction work and had turned off the water. Fortunately two hours later the water came back on (gurgling noise of the toilet gave it away), and all was back to normal.

If not, how inconvenient it would have been. How to wash dishes? Take a bath? Or even just go to the toilet? Never take your water for granted!