Leroy Merlin

Chloe was dropped off Zoe at a birthday party today (which we were both worried about because she is so shy) and taking Alex to go hang out with a former work friend. In the mean time I decided that i would take care of a few house things that had just not been getting done. This involved a bike ride to Leroy Merlin, the French equivalent of Home Depot (or Loews, I guess). The big difference is that Leroy Merlin has people that actually know what they are talking about. unfortunately, the "huge endless maze of products" is the same. First stop: lighting. I was hoping to get a light fixture or two, but as I was staring at the wall full of pictures, I noticed the light getting brighter and brighter. Soon, people were shielding their eyes and turning away. I guess some enterprising Leroy Manager had decided that it was important for us to see what the fixtures looked like at various light levels. However, the wall of light looked like a rock concert and furthermore, the levels were changing far faster than human eyes could adjust. Anyway, I found a nice stainless steel fixture, but then realised.. I was on my bike! There really is no way to get something like that into a backpack. Next stop: fasteners. I got lost in here for a while, and it took me forever to find the padlocks. It turns out that padlocks are kept several aisles away from the padlock clasps. Who knows why. There was an almost constant whine from a high speed circular saw while I was wandering around. I had assumed that they were doing work somewhere, but it turned out to be a Leroy staff member with a vacant look on his face absent mindedly sawing small bits off of a 2x4 (or whatever the metric equivalent is) at a demo station. I guess he was showing off a saw that was on sale. It seemed like a lot of noise and dust for nothing though! I made it out of Leroy Merlon eventually, and with several new masonry bits for my drill. The thing about buildings in Grenoble is that every wall tends to be made out of rick or cement. Therefore, even simple things like putting in a toilet paper holder require a hammer drill, masonry bit and expansion sleeves! I like the solidity of the walls, but the whole "drilling holes in cement" thing gets old pretty fast.