The Plan ·
The timing has to be Tuesday, around 4:15. If we go any earlier, the light will be too harsh for the courtyard. It reminds me of that menu in Lyon—the one where they called the veal 'child of the meadow.' We need that specific window before the shops close. I've already checked, and the rental for the heavy van is only eighty Euros if we take it then.
Tuesday? The van rental is fine, but if we arrive at 4:15, we'll be fighting the delivery trucks on Rue de Vaugirard. They'll block the whole entrance to the courtyard. We need the van to be able to pull in without a three-point turn, or we'll lose half an hour just trying to park. Besides, eighty Euros is nothing if we're stuck in traffic.
The trucks don't move until 4:30, Ivo. They're strictly on a schedule. If we hit the courtyard at 4:15, we'll be ahead of the congestion. We'll drop the first crate near the gate and move the van to the side street. It’s better to be idle for twenty minutes than to be stuck in a crawl. The van is small enough. It's the loading, not the parking, that matters.
But the side street is barely wide enough for a bicycle, let alone a heavy van. If we leave the first crate by the gate, we're basically leaving it unguarded while we maneuver. If someone rolls a cart into it, we'll have a mess before we even get the second batch in. We should probably check if the cobblestones are patched near the gate. They were quite uneven last time we were there.
The cobblestones haven't shifted since last summer. We’ll use the reinforced crates, not the wooden ones, so nothing breaks if a cart hits them. If we use the blue tarps to mask the first load, nobody will even notice it's sitting there. The side street is fine. We’ll just pull in tight. It’s only forty-two kilograms per crate, Ivo. We can move them fast enough that the risk is negligible.
Forty-two kilograms is heavy for a single person to carry through a tight turn. If we’re moving fast, we’re going to be clumsy. We’ll need those heavy-duty gloves from the hardware store—the ones with the rubber grip—or we’ll slip on the smooth surfaces of the crates. And the blue tarps need to be heavy enough to not flap in the wind. If they catch a gust, they'll look like a mountain in the middle of the street.
The tarps are the heavy PVC ones from the wholesaler, not the cheap thin stuff. They weigh nearly five kilos alone. As for the gloves, we'll get the leather-reinforced ones at Miller’s for twelve Euros. If we use the rollers we bought last month, we won't even be carrying the weight. We'll just glide the crates across the street. It’ll look like we're just moving furniture. No one will even look twice.
The rollers are a gamble. If the cobblestones are as uneven as they were when we visited last autumn, the rollers might catch a groove and jerk the whole crate to one side. We'll end up fighting the momentum of forty-two kilograms just to keep it straight. We should check the diameter of the wheels first. If they're too small, they'll just rattle the contents until something cracks.
The wheels are ten centimeters in diameter, Ivo. They're solid rubber, not plastic. They won't catch in the grooves if we tilt the crate slightly as we approach the dip. The contents are packed in foam, so the rattling won't matter. If we're worried about the impact, we'll just use the plywood sheets to bridge the gaps between the stones. It'll be a smooth surface. We aren't bringing the wooden crates from the garage, are we?
The plywood sheets would add a lot of extra weight to the van, though. If we bring the sheets, we'll have almost no room left for the van's empty crates. We'll have to stack the plywood on top of the first load, which makes it even more visible to the neighbors. If we use the plywood, we'll need to make sure it's sanded down, or the edges will scrape the van's paint when we load.
We'll only use three sheets. They’ll fit in the back easily. The neighbors won't see a thing behind the van's high sides. We’ll sand the edges at the warehouse before we even leave on Tuesday. It’ll take twenty minutes. I’ll grab the sandpaper there. If we’re worried about the van's paint, we can just use the old moving blankets to line the floor. That keeps everything stable. Eighty Euros is still a steal.
The blankets will slide on the metal floor of the van if we aren't careful. If we're hitting those cobblestones with forty-two-kilo crates, a sliding blanket could send a crate right into the side panel. We'll need to secure the blankets with those heavy tension straps first. It's a lot of extra gear to carry around. If we spend all our time securing the floor, we'll definitely miss that 4:15 window.
We aren't just laying the blankets down; we’ll use the bungee cords to anchor the corners to the van's tie-down hooks. The tension will keep the blankets from sliding, and we won't need to waste time with the heavy-duty straps. It’s a simple setup. If we're too efficient, we'll be done by 4:45. I'll check the hooks in the van tomorrow. The bungee cords shouldn't cost more than ten Euros.
If the hooks are rusted or have a different-sized eyelet, we'll be stuck. Ten Euros for bungees seems too cheap; they’ll stretch the first time we hit a bump in the street. We can't rely on cheap elastic to hold down forty-two kilograms. If they snap, they’ll fly right out of the van or hit us. We should probably get the heavy nylon webbing instead. It’s more expensive, but it won't snap when we hit the dips.
The hooks aren't rusted, the van is practically new. And we won't be using the cheap elastic; we'll get the nylon-coated bungee set from the hardware supplier for twenty-five Euros. They have a thicker cord to prevent the snap you're worried about. If we use those, we won't even need the extra-thick-grade webbing. We'll just use the tension to keep the blankets tight. It's more controlled. The van's tie-down points are reinforced steel.
Steel hooks can still be slippery. If the cord is too smooth, the tension might cause the whole pile to shift laterally when we hit the first dip in the street. We might need to layer some grit or a piece of rubber matting under the bungees to keep them from sliding toward the center. It’s more to carry, but we can’t risk the crates shifting during the transition from the van to the gate.