We arrived at Paris Gare Nord around 7:00 in the evening. We found our way to the metro and grabbed the 2, to the 13 north, to Marie de Clichy. Upon emerging above ground, it took us a few minutes to orient ourselves. Our hostel was located about three blocks north of the metro stop.
By the time we had checked in it was about 8:00. We decided tonight would be laundry night (how exciting!). We found the laundry room and discovered that the machines only accepted powder detergent (we only had liquid). There was no dispenser, so I went down to the front desk to ask if they had any.
“You have 15 minutes.” The guy said. “Go straight, right, then left.”
Ok, I thought. I’d better get moving even though I really don’t know where I was going. Since it was laundry night, I was not expecting to have to leave the building, so I was sporting pajama pants, flip flops, and a track jacket.
I followed the directions of the front desk guy and found nothing except a closed pharmacy. I kept walking a few more blocks and, by chance, I ran into a laundromat. It was packed with people, but I fought my way in and found what appeared to be the detergent dispenser (since everything is labeled in French). I couldn’t find the coin slot and eventually discovered that everything in the entire place was run by a control panel against the wall. It contained about 50 buttons, each labeled in French. I matched a button label to a word on the detergent dispenser, inserted a coin, pressed the button, and viola…a box of detergent slides down the chute. “Oui! Oui!” I’m thinking.
Ok, enough about laundry… While we were waiting for the wash, we went to a pizza place across the street. We noticed that everyone was dressed well, had a carafe of wine, and ordered coffee and desert after eating their pizza. The Parisians really take food seriously, even pizza. The pizza was excellent, by the way. Tomorrow we will see the city.
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