Self Serve Laundry in Paris

Hey - that is COOL! Thanks for the tip. If it were me, I'd probably still be in the laundromat, trying to figure it out! :-)

Something else that would have helped is google's World Lens app. It works offline and uses your device's camera feature. What you do is open the app and then point the camera to the directions on the dryer. Instantly on the camera screen that french text will be translated into english in real time. It's very Star Trek.

Michael, The camera and Google are about as "techie" as I get! ;-)

Holly- We had a similar experience in Iceland. Everyone spoke English...but the washer and dryer instructions were all in Icelandic (which is a difficult language at best.) We took a picture of the machine, and then ran outside the apartment building and found someone who could explain to us what it all meant. (The machine had so many choices and options compared to my one at home. It was very confusing.) This person was kind enough to go back in with us and help us figure it all out. Once they explained it to us, it made perfect sense (lol.). Good memories.

By the way, that story and picture made it into my scrapbook of that trip!!

In my European Laundromat experience, there's almost always a local person doing as you did, bringing in a washed blanket to put in the dryer. People are usually helpful, if you can communicate.

Doing laundry is an experience! We were doing the wash in London and my wife took the washed clothes out and put them in what she thought was the dryer, it turned out to be a giant washer, and once she started :-))) it could not be shut off. Hilarious.
In Paris there was a little place in the 5th that had a somewhat interactive payment machine in it. It made all manner of odd and funny sounds at random, and also spoke some French words of instruction. We had a blast.

@ Michael , You always come up with great things ! I think St. Petersburg might be a destination in 2015 and this will certainly be a big help considering the only Russian I know is " Nastrovia " .

Long before Google Translate I found the easiest way to sort out the pay-laundry controls was to look like a dumb tourist. Not a stretch. Other customers are bored, or eager to get at a machine, and happy to pantomime the procedure. Plus I got a bit of a feel for neighbourhood life, which is the non-dumb thing about it.

its simple once you figure it out and the commercial dryers dry quickly -- but it is quite different than the US. Most laundromats I have used in Paris have a single control panel for all the equipment and you have to put your money and select the washer or dryer etc at this central panel. In my clueless days, friendly locals helped me figure it out.

Years ago we were in a laundromat in France and I was struggling to figure out how to operate the dryer. The instructions on the washer were in French, but pretty straight forward, but I couldn't figure out the dryer...until I realized it was a Speedqueen and the directions were in English. After a week of hearing and seeing French, I didn't even recognize English when I saw it!

I look up instructions before I leave for any foreign country that I'm doing self-serve laundry in - altho I read enuf French that it wasn't that hard. Here is a sample French laundromat lesson: http://www.francetravelplanner.com/go/paris/shop/laundromat_use.html