sewers and other chores

It seems they are going to put a sewer through our street here, sometime this fall. Jeannette told me I needed to go have a chat with the Mairie about it; I have been putting this off because I HATE having to talk business type things with people in French. Turned out, it wasn't so bad. I went in, finally got the lady there to understand what I wanted to discuss, and she said, oh, it'll happen, November or December, you don't have to do anything. They will put a tap-on line (but she called it something else) in for you; you don't have to do anything. And then I said we won't be here in November and December, and this put it in a bit of a different light. So she went and got a "technician (some big guy named Jean)" and told him, and he asked where I lived. I told him the name of the street and said I was between Mme. Dumas and M. Esteve, and he said ah, in the little house up at the top of the stairs, and I said yes. So he is coming to have a look tomorrow morning. I assume he will show up.

And then there are the keys. Which are expensive, and one of them didn't work, so I had to take it back to get it re-ground. Fortunately I dealt with a guy who shall we say seemed more competent than the one last week. We'll see if the bloody thing actually works.