Four people enter the house – 2 men with large gas canisters, 1 man with assorted tools and 1 lady with a mop.    They disappear upstairs to where we’d highlighted a damp wall to the landlord following a bout of prolonged rain.  I settle back downstairs and wait to hear all has been resolved.

After a few minutes, I can hear (but not smell) gas, and then a directed flame.  Presumably some sort of welding or other.  Shortly followed by the lady running downstairs gesticulating wildly; sadly my impression of a puzzled Frenchmen does little to aid our mutual lack of understanding.  She spies an empty cardboard box, looks delighted, and runs upstairs with it.  Half an hour later, the four people exit the house, and the cardboard box is returned, still intact.  I presume/hope the leak has been fixed.

I never did find out what the mop was for either.

Monday evening gave us an opportunity to try out the quiz night at the Bulldog Pub in the heart of the French Concession.  The Bulldog is a good attempt at an old-fashioned English pub, with dark wood everywhere and several English beers available.   The dark wood makes it a little dingy, but the on-draught Pedigree more than makes up for it.  We joined a quiz team online (thanks “meetup.com”) and discovered they were two weeks away from winning the quiz league.  The prize: a 2 hour open-bar session.  A really good night with a bunch of friendly people ended up with us coming 3rd on the night and winning a round of shots.  Our contribution to the answers (nonexistent) hopefully wasn’t noticed and so I’d like to think we’ve done enough to sneak into the open-bar session.  Definitely will be going back next week.

And tonight (Wednesday) – we tried out a French restaurant about 5 minutes from where we live.  Bistro Le Saleya was a little expensive for a Wednesday night quick night out, but we’d probably go back for another try.  Fortunately Bronwen pointed out during my 2nd drink that the beer I’d selected was 8%.   I borrowed the photo below from their site – it wasn’t really sunny when we went (bit dark).

Must.  Stop.  Going.  Out.  To.  Eat.  Too bloomin’ expensive.