Progress

A few issues resolved:

I believe I had mentioned bathing issues: as in, we hadn't been able to bathe Anna. There are two bathrooms in this house, one of which has a tub (Anna is shower averse). Unfortunately, the tub doesn't appear to have hot water, which can be a problem at times; the month of December for example. When I contacted Jane (the daughter of the folks who live here) she said we should use the bathroom of the unit connected to this one, that of a tenant who is away for a month. This became complicated though, because the tenant forgot to leave the connecting door unlocked, nor did she leave the key. There is, however, another person who lives in the unit, none other than the man who delivered us the bag of bread, Theirry. You following all this? We are basically supposed to use the tub in Theirry's apartment, which is connected to this one via a locked door. Unfortunately, by the time we figured all this out (not exactly intuitive) Theirry appeared to be away for the weekend. No problem, Jane said, the back door is never locked. Go outside, across the courtyard, through the gate, and let yourself into this person's apartment and use their bath. Um, okay. I avoided doing this until it had been a full week since my child had been bathed, and with no hope in sight of her being bathed anytime in the future if I didn't, in fact, break and enter into this person's apartment. Needless to say, it was a bit awkward. The happy ending to this story is that tonight I finally reached Theirry, explained as best as I could the situation and low and behold, he produced a key. So now I can let myself into his apartment to bathe my child whenever I want (still a bit awkward, I must admit).

The other good news is that all my hours of obsessive Googling while awake at 3 a.m. led me to a better stroller for the duration of our trip. I found a place in Paris which rents all sorts of gear and we now have quite the ride for Anna. The poor kid's face is completely chapped from being exposed to freezing wind and rain while thrashed about in a crappy umbrella stroller for hours at a time. Now we've got rain gear, a boot, a roomy basket, and much improved steering. Never thought some cheap Graco stroller would seem so dreamy. Ah how quickly things change!

More to come soon about our adventure in Paris and some new pics. Until then, wine and cheese of course.