1 Thursday, September 2, 2004 6 p.m.

SkyRide bus to Denver International Airport

Swapping homes means figuring out what’s essential to know about your home. In a 30-story high rise, it means leaving an elaborate set of directions, complete with photos of ramps, so Francoise will be able to drive our Volvo in and out of the parking garage. It means leaving 20 pages of notes covering everything from the location of the trash chute on the 11th floor to how to buzz a visitor in from the outer lobby (dial 9 on the house phone).

Alexandre, Francoise’s son who lives in Denver, stopped by for a walk-through just before Darlene and I rolled our luggage to the Market Street Bus Station. He brought news from Francoise that we will need to be very careful to conserve water while we are at her home in Cannes, because water bills can get very high very quickly. Also, he alerted us that the woman who lives upstairs from Francoise is soon to be evicted. Alexandre suggested that if the woman tries to draw us into the controversy, it might be a good time to not be able to understand French.

Coming up: an eight-hour British Airways flight to Heathrow/London, a two-hour layover, and then a two-hour hop to Nice, where Francoise’s favorite taxi driver will be holding a sign that reads “Len and Darlene.” Our long-planned Denver-Cannes house-swap is officially under way.

Send to Kindle