machine à laver: washing machine
eau de javal: bleach
détachant: spot remover
France has many wonderful things, but its washing machines are not one of them. In many small Paris apartments, the washer and dryer are a combined machine that you load in the front. This sounds ideal -no moving wet laundry from the washer to the dryer- but in practice you can only do small loads, and it takes hours for the full cycle to finish.
My friend Keith calls these machines the clothes' boilers because hot water in France is hot, hot, hot!
Once the cycle begins, it also seems nearly impossible to stop the cycle. Perhaps this is more an issue of poor French and user error, but I do not miss France's washing machines.
Anyhow, limited supply of shirts meets mysterious goo on Metro seat and viola!, the American traveler must learn interesting the words like eau de javal.
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