So there has been a dark serpent choking our lives since we got to Paris. (rationale provided by Anjali.) Many things have gone wrong, the flu, visa mix up, universities on strike (more on this later), and now Kevin's computer is:
dead again.
A computer had to be purchased- CRISIS!
US Amazon won't ship to France. You must buy from Amazon.fr which means you pay more and in eruos.
Thanks to French common sense or mercy or whatever, there is free wifi in public parks. We were able to find out about Surcouf just before our finger tips began to turn blue from the cold. The iphone was developing a slight frost. This place is large and has a wide range of stock with somewhat better prices. But they were still much above the prices we found online. Then it dawned on us. What have we always done when in doubt, what tactic has never failed us?
A computer had to be purchased- CRISIS!
US Amazon won't ship to France. You must buy from Amazon.fr which means you pay more and in eruos.
No deal GIANT CORPORATE EVILDOER!
Someone recommended Darty, a French store which bills itself as the Best Buy of France–too expensive and with staff that appear to be deaf, dumb and possibly blind. IT must have been the hand of God keeping us from making a terrible mistake. (things are looking up!) The scene at Darty kind of reminded me of Oh Brother Where Art Thou when the Christians in the forest ignore the protagonists. Lucky for us Kevin didn't jump in the river.
We decided to rest from diving into every storefront anywhere. Hungry, grumpy and hopeless we sought sanctuary in the park in front of
St. Eustache. We walked up to it entirely by accident- WOW.
Thanks to French common sense or mercy or whatever, there is free wifi in public parks. We were able to find out about Surcouf just before our finger tips began to turn blue from the cold. The iphone was developing a slight frost. This place is large and has a wide range of stock with somewhat better prices. But they were still much above the prices we found online. Then it dawned on us. What have we always done when in doubt, what tactic has never failed us?
Call Sébastien!
He recommended Ave Damesnil around the Surcouf. There we found a concentration of small, somewhat dubious, electronics stores offering the same selection of electronics for sometimes hundreds of euros less! It felt like we hit the mother load. The stock was usually piled high against walls in unmarked cardboard boxes. The shop clerks all spoke French with thick Chinese accents- completely unintelligle and totally awesome! - no really.
We ended up purchasing an Acer netbook with Linux operating system from MicroWorld at 88 Ave Damesnil for 100 euros less than the Darty price.
It is a PC with an AZRTY keyboard but that is easily fixed by changing the language and adding a few stickers from BHV. It will work very well as a spare tire for now.
We ended up purchasing an Acer netbook with Linux operating system from MicroWorld at 88 Ave Damesnil for 100 euros less than the Darty price.
It is a PC with an AZRTY keyboard but that is easily fixed by changing the language and adding a few stickers from BHV. It will work very well as a spare tire for now. Everyone meet Baby!
This district was a real find and helped us feel like we are finally beginning to learn to navigate the needs of daily life in Paris. I pass the story on to you in case you are ever in Paris and in dire need of electronics equipment. You can't do better than this in this town.
That computer is soo cute. It looks like it could survive a fire. And that COMPUCITY sign is so not french is fantastic.
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