Métro tiles

Okay first of let me just say that this is not our shower. It's just a picture snagged off the internet. It's an inspiration picture. I bet you have a lot of those right?

I've been absent a lot lately. I keep losing my internet connection and hey if you saw what the wiring looked like upstairs you'd understand. Our contractor who I still love keeps knocking it out and then reconnecting it wrong leaving me stranded and computerless for days on end. He then insists it's right and I say very gently "oh dear are you sure because last time...blah blah blah?" Then I end up calling the phone company again. The phone company comes out, clips and snips and changes out the wires he's crossed and then threatens me with a bill because of it. They've been very nice and patient so far but that won't last long. It's a delicate situation because I don't want to step on his toes but it costs 70 euros for a visit from the phone company!

All of the pipes are in for the bathroom. It looks fabulous to see our little shower stall and toilet stall and everything coming together. Now we just have to choose fixtures and tile.

The fixtures are difficult because money is an issue. The DIY stores in France tend to have a really low end product and then maybe one really high end product completely overpriced. For our shower it was either something at 69 euros, partially constructed out of plastic, total crap, or a product at 450 euros which was nice but more or less average in quality. So the search continues.

We are in a huge debate about whether to use subway tile or beadboard. I like them both but have recently decided that maybe it's best to do tile because it's more durable and because it's included in our price quote. Seb doesn't care for subway tile. He likes tile but can't get past the idea that normally it's in a subway or métro! "Yes" I say because it's original! Most people tore out their bathroom subway tile long ago. The metro is one of the few places where it still exists. Anyway, suffice to say that it's not very popular in France and we had a hard time finding it except at the "cool" DIY store outside of town. I think it's going to grow on him but so far he's just been staring at it scratching his head and saying "I don't know...it's so...errr"

The subway tile in here France has raised geometric edges. Take a look at the picture above. It's a little different than it's American counterpart but it's actually very pretty. It's funny because it's an exact replica of all the subway or métro tiles that you see in Paris' underground. It's also fairly cheap at 23 euros the square meter. I thought that wasn't too bad. I expected much worse.

I hope to post pictures soon. I just got my camera back after a two week searching stint. Turns out Little S had stuck it under the sofa in our apartment in Lyon. The little devil!