I finally did my own laundry

I have been taking my laundry over to a cleaners.  They wash and dry and fold my laundry for about 15 euro.  It has saved me time and effort, but it is a bit expensive.  I have been trying to use the washers and dryer in the building where I live.  They have a machine that accepts credit cards, but I think it is either broken or only accepts the pin and chip cards used here in Europe.  Either way, I needed to take my bundle of dirty clothes over to the laundromat.  They are usually small with 3 to 5 washers and one or two dryers.  A lot of people wash the clothes in the washers, but take the damp clothes home to line dry.  I did already buy some soap so I could wash clothes in the sink, so I was ready to give it a try.

There is a single payment station on the wall with buttons for each of the machines. I was not sure exactly what procedure was required to make it all work. Most of the time when I pass this laundromat it is empty.  But luckily this time, there were people already in there and one was just loading his clothes into the washer.

They pack the washing into the front load washers much more than I thought possible. Clothes kept falling out until they were stuffed back into the washer. I watched as he placed the soap into the machines and then walked up to the pay station.   He dropped the coins into the machine, the credit being shown on an led readout and then pressed the button.  Voila, the money disappeared and the washer started.  Okay, so it is not so dramatic, but when all of the instructions are in French and your English-French dictionary does not have those words in it, it seems much more dramatic.

My turn, I stuff the laundry, fill the soap, pay, and press.  I am washing my clothes.  It takes about a half an hour for the cycle, so I head off to the grocery store to get some supplies, and stop at the bakery to get my daily loaf of bread.  When I get back, the laundry is still going, but soon the high speed spin is removing most of the water from the clothes.

But, now both dryers are occupied.  So I have to wait until someone is done with the dryer.  Only waited about 15 minutes before a dryer was available. You pay for the dryer in 4 minute increments for 60 euro cents, which is about 20 cents US per minute.  I dried the clothes for about 24 minutes which got most of the stuff almost dry.  Brought it home and spread it out on all the chairs and counters to finish drying while I went out to explore another part of Lyon.

The cost was less than 10 euro, but I needed to dedicate one to two hours for sitting around and waiting.   I will still use the cleaners to wash my shirts and press them.  The owner is very kind and patient with me and my limited french, so I will still take business his way.  Including my wash if I get lazy again.