Tuesday, October 5, 2010

A coffee table named Rick...


[Dan and Rick, waiting for the Y...]

Let us introduce you to Rick.
He is our flea masket find coffee table.
He also doubles as a bus stop bench.

The story of Rick:

We threw a wee party the night before the day we were destined and determined to find a coffee table at the flea market, so of course we did not get to bed before 3 am. We surprisingly were able to make it out in time to catch one of the last Y buses that would get us to Geneva in time to scour the Plainpalais flea market for our dreamboat coffee table, and scour we did.


[Le cool voyager.]

We first found this killer pre-war luggage/steamer trunk, complete with wooden hangers and rods to hang clothes on when the trunk is stood up and down. The hangers also say in both french and german what the hangers are each specifically meant for. We planned on laying it flat and using it as our coffee table, despite being a little short. With what we thought was a plan successfully completed, we planned our exit from les puces. We needed to make it to the other side of the flea market to leave, so we figured (I suggested) we keep looking as we make our way around. Who knows, maybe we'd find another tea cup that I couldn't live without...




And in the course of that stroll, I found this lovely little copper, Suisse handmade watering can. which I definitely needed as I've been using pelligrino bottles and empty wine bottles to water the plants lately...




[Fall's coming to get you Barbara...]

And then we saw him - our dreamboat coffee table. I can't take credit for this flea market find as Dan actually saw him first, but he was waiting for us at seriously one of the last vendors before exiting to the tram. After haggling for a bit we agreed on a price, and the man said, "You can pull your car right up here (in broken English)"...we then watched his eyes pop out of his face as we told him we do not have a car. He then said that he hoped we didn't live far...


...yeah about that.


A 5 minute walk to the tram, a 30 minute tram ride, a walk down from the platform to the street, and to the Y bus stop - still a 40 minute bus ride from Thoiry and over a mile walk home from there.


I took the watering can and trunk (definitely weighed over 20 lbs), and Dan manned our solid-wood coffee table all by himself (a good and awkward 40-50 lbs). On the Y bus we decided that we had already been through a lot with this coffee table, despite the short tenure of our friendship, and that he thus was deserved of a name. He looks like a Rick, don't you think?


[Le pizza.]

We did however stop for a wee pizza snack and iced tea at our boulangerie before the walk home with Rick, steamer trunk, and watering can in tow once back in France. Yeah, this is what I call pizza now...

2 comments:

  1. You guys are hilarious! I can't believe you bought that trunk and coffee table and then carted it home on public transportation. Was the tram and bus crowded?

    (and I once name a bookcase that I walked a mile down the road from the flea market to my apartment in Dublin with, Bob. Bob the bookcase)

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  2. Lucky for us the tram and bus were not crowded, but french bus drivers drive like crazy people, and on swirly whirly mountain roads...but aside from some minor car sickness everyone made it back ok! (Sidenote: I've never once been car sick in my life until we moved to France and I started taking the Y bus...)

    Bob is a very good name for a bookcase - a very strong name! I like it!

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