Although I’ve only been in France for a little over a week, I wonder at what point I will stop feeling as though I’m on vacation and start to actually feel that I’m living here.  Yesterday, I had a glimmer of how that might feel.  I needed to wash clothes.  In the kitchen of Le Pigeonnier there is a small under the counter fridge and, a few small cabinets down, a small washing machine.  I thought perhaps it also dried the clothesbut I was directed to the clothes line in the courtyard.  I dumped in a load, small, of clothes, poured a little detergent over the clothes and had a look at the dials on the front of the machine.  All in French, naturellement.  Depart (accent over the e) seemed like a good place to start, so I pressed that button.  The machine filled, clothes swished around and I made lunch –mushrooms sauteed on the burner above the machine.  The pan on the stove got a bit agitated pretty much in synch with the clothes agitating as they went though their spin cycle below.  We ate lunch–mushrooms, salad, half a bottle of wine–on the terrace.  After a while, I realized that the machine was still going, and going and going.  Water filled, emptied, clothes spun and sloshed in a seemingly endless cycle.  I punched the button marked Arret (stop.  Accent over the e.  Note to myself, get a French keyboard) The machine didn’t arret though.  More sloshing and spinning.  Probably an hour had gone by.  I ran over to the neighbor who used to live in the Pigeonniere.  English and very nice.  She said she’d never really understood how the machine worked, but just pressed #7 Rapide.  I went back and pressed Rapide.  Nothing.  Or rather just more sloshing and washing.  I had another look at the dial.  What was this word Essorage?  I went to Google translate.  Spin dry.  Eureka . . . voila perhaps.  I pressed essorage.  45 minutes later the clothes were still essoraging.  I opened the door.  I don’t know how to say dripping wet in French, but that’s what they were.  Whatever they’d been doing in there, they definitely weren’t essoraging.  I carried them out to the terrace where the sun was still shining and tried to ignore the ominous dark cloud on the horizon.  Soon the grape arbor was festooned with my knickers, the table where we’d eaten lunch and the back of the chairs were draped with jeans and shorts.  Before long, the sun went behind the clouds and the heavens opened up.

Update: Twenty four hours later, rain still bucketing down.  Knickers draped over bannisters, bathroom fixtures, electric heater going full blast.  Must say though that I’m feeling less like a tourist.