Submitted by Nameless Traveler on Sun, 2007-09-09 09:36.
Geneva, Lausanne, and Paris. It seems that for the longest time here in Europe hardware stores have considered themselves professional suppliers pure and simple. In Geneva I had to dig through the phone book which was a challenge since I didn't really read French yet. Eventually I found a hardware store in the neighbourhood which was of course open only from 9am to 11am and 2pm to 4pm on weekdays, meaning that the only option was to take off work to go to the hardware store.
Two years later, in Lausanne the problem was nearly the same except with better French.
Eventually a guy at the an appliance shop clued me in when I was trying to get a replacement part for our washing machine, telling me that what I wanted was a "Do-it", which works out to be short for do-it-yourself. It turns out that there's the whole other class of consumer oriented hardware stores.
Anyhow, I should remember to add this stuff to the guide(s).
I've had the same problem in...
Geneva, Lausanne, and Paris. It seems that for the longest time here in Europe hardware stores have considered themselves professional suppliers pure and simple. In Geneva I had to dig through the phone book which was a challenge since I didn't really read French yet. Eventually I found a hardware store in the neighbourhood which was of course open only from 9am to 11am and 2pm to 4pm on weekdays, meaning that the only option was to take off work to go to the hardware store.
Two years later, in Lausanne the problem was nearly the same except with better French.
Eventually a guy at the an appliance shop clued me in when I was trying to get a replacement part for our washing machine, telling me that what I wanted was a "Do-it", which works out to be short for do-it-yourself. It turns out that there's the whole other class of consumer oriented hardware stores.
Anyhow, I should remember to add this stuff to the guide(s).