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so the weather starting to turn cool and the wind blows fall, dried leaves are starting to swirl in the street. we bought our first baguette today, still warm and so very delicious.

our bank appointment was at 9am. the monsieur that scheduled the appointment and another mademoiselle help us set up our account. between our limited french and their limited english we manage to finish an hour and a half later with a joint checking account, and a carte bleu/visa/debit cart. there are lots of fees associated with french bank accounts. (as i'm learning, there are a lot of fees associated with everything here.) there were fees for my bank card and a different type of fee for seth's bank card, a fee for opening the account, a fee for automatic payments, a fee for checks, a fee for internet connection. oh, but there are no fees for using other banks atm machines. so to spite them i will never use theirs. ever!

we come back to the etap hotel to take a nap. the etap is where we've been staying for the past few days since our first hotel was booked. it's close and the same price, but the room is barely big enough for the uncomfortable bed. and it has a 1985 mauve and green trimmed decor. it's incredibly ugly. and everything in it is the lowest quality they could find. the shower curtain looks like a trash bag with loops, and how is 9 square feet of plastic supposed to keep water in the tub anyway? i wake up with brush burns from the sandpaper sheets. my face hurts. seth's back hurts. the worst thing is that it's nearly completely automated. you check in with a kiosk outside and slip of paper shoots out with your room number and 6 digit code. there's one guy that works a short shift in the mornings and evenings, but otherwise you're at the mercy of a sleep machine. "open the pod bay doors, HAL."

at least we have bbc on the telly.