moving - Frenchless in France

Not Yet

Our apartment renovation still isn’t finished. The holdup is with the counter tops in the kitchen. I’m not sure why. There’s nothing we can do. They were supposedly ordered in July. So we have an ugly temporary counter which is better than nothing. We finally received our furniture which was in storage so had a pile of boxes to open and unpack. While the movers were bringing up everything on the elevator, a little Italian man entered and said our couch was here. This is another delivery-we’ve had several-where what we have ordered is basically just left on the street and you have to get it up to your place by yourself. Luckily, the movers who delivering our furniture brought it up. It would have been just Maurice and a guy putting up some light fixtures. I was, and am, out of the picture as I hurt my knee somehow in our new exercise club. I’m hoping it’s just a muscle thing and not something that will require surgery. I get an X-ray Friday. It doesn’t hurt while sitting or standing but I walk like Grandpa McCoy, a character in an old TV series. I manage to unpack boxes and put things away but can’t be much of a help in moving things. Also, on the medical front, I was having vision trouble and it turns out that I have a cataract in my left eye and will have surgery in November. Cataract surgery used to be a really big deal with patients having to lie prone with their heads between two sandbags for a week. Can you imagine? Now it is all done in an hour and you go home shortly afterwards. I’m not looking forward to it but will be glad to have good vision again. I thought there was something wrong with my glasses. Anyway, here are a few photos of our place. More to come if we ever finish.

Terrace before closed with sliding glass doors.

Door removed, floor extended a bit. That table is now gone.

Here is a view down below, roofs planted with some greenery so we don’t have to look at bare concrete. At the top left, is a vegetable garden. I’m not sure how you get permission to plant there. It’s locked anyway.

The former owner left this plant rooting in water. The workers just left it too and by the time we moved in there was no water, just a sort of terrarium thing going so I thought since it seemed to really want to live, I should put it in dirt. It hasn’t been happy and lost some leaves but I think it will make it. It’s not my favorite green plant but if it hangs on, I’ll keep it. I’m planning on having quite a few plants eventually although I’m already worried about keeping them watered when we aren’t here.

A sliver of sunlight on the Pantheon and Saint Sulpice Church.

On another subject, this made me laugh. I need a little humor right now.

Moving On

We still have over a week (9 days) before we move but time seems to be speeding up. When the couple who bought our place was leaving after a visit the man asked me if there was anything I didn’t like about living here. I paused a long time and finally said, “An air conditioner unit” but that wasn’t really the truth. I would have liked a/c a few hot days here but it’s not really an issue. No, it was our wet basement/garage and a lady I will call Madam L and her husband. When we all first moved here we became friends and she was always having us over for extravagant hors d’ouvres and drinks along with dinner. She always bought something when they came here, very original but leaving me feeling my bottle of wine was inadequate. Finally, there was a parting of the ways and now, if we see them in the halls or outside, we don’t even speak. Her husband turned out to be pretty nasty and told Maurice once that the only good thing about Americans were their brownies. Someone vandalized their car which was parked out front. We live right on the beach with people walking by all the time but instead of thinking it was a stranger, she decided someone in the building did it and wrote a truly mad letter to all of us. She is especially nasty to a sweet neighbor lady, a widow, who has a yappy little dog named Mirabelle and even reported her to the gendarme because the dog barks sometimes and Madam L threw a fit when she found a dog hair in her coffee-ha. I’ve decided she is just plain wacky. She goes to the same kineologist that I do and when I told him she was a neighbor he replied that she was “special” which is a word the French use when some one is just crazy. Also, a person with a very strong personality is said to have character which Maurice has said about me instead of bitchy. Anyway, I will not be sorry to be leaving them behind. I guess you will always find difficult people no matter where you live.

On another note, a fisherman hoping to catch something on the beach. Very peaceful looking.

An old pigeonnier, a place to raise pigeons, made into a little art gallery near us.

A happy yellow gate.

Twenty Days

Yep, 20 days until we move (as I write this). Our place is full of boxes, many shelves are empty and every day I pack something else. I’ve been making hand made protection out of moving boxes for what turns out to be a lot of art and wall hangings. I have also packed things I need and then have to do without mostly in the kitchen.

Our latest sunset, or the time after the sun has set but still leaves a glow on the water and in the sky.

We had an elderly lady who wanted to buy our place at first. She was in her 80’s, a widow and ready to have a smaller place with no swimming pool to take care of. She lived not too far from our village. She was all ready to buy but had her son come out to have a look and I guess he had total say of what she did because after he saw our admittedly damp garage/basement, he wouldn’t let her buy. We’ve been waiting five years for the legal “experts” to decide what to do. We go a long time without problems and then a rain occurs and water will cover the floor. Our garage is always damp. Anyway, the real estate man told us that she cried all night when she was kept from buying our apartment which made me sad. A few weeks later a couple bought it. The wife had come to Chatelaillon every Summer when she was a little girl and loved the area. The basement didn’t seem to be an issue. We met them and Maurice showed them around, although they had already seen it and made their offer. I was surprised to hear that she especially loved to spend winters here. It certainly isn’t my favorite season here.

A sailboat through the barrier on our balcony.

Best Deal in Town

There is a pharmacy on the Left Bank, Rue du Four to be exact (#26) which is said to have the best prices in town-not in medications but in items that mostly women like such as skin care products, shampoo, that sort of thing.

Here’s the nondescript exterior. See all of those people? It was just packed, and always is, and it’s so hot inside with tons of people, narrow aisles, employees stocking shelves, it’s crazy. They do seem to have good prices so if I am nearby I will go in. I went in specifically for vitamins this time.

This little guy was hanging out as his owner shopped.

The tiny entrance to this boutique hotel always interests me. I’ve never managed to get inside but I’d love to.

Love the colors.

How moving is often done in Paris if you don’t live on the ground floor-or some guys carry things up and down stairs.

And Then There Were None

Well, we are both sad and relieved. Sad to be leaving beautiful Provence but relieved to be leaving behind the yard work and some things we didn’t enjoy anymore.

We will really miss this view. We often would sit outside on our terrace and watch the sun set as we sipped a glass of wine and then saw the stars come into view.

Goodbye bathroom.

Goodbye bedroom.

Here’s the truck holding our furniture from Provence to be put into storage until we decide where we will go next. It won’t be the States although I would love California but I don’t see moving there when my family is elsewhere. Stay tuned as we explore a couple of other regions of France. I’m excited as we head back to Paris in our car stuffed with some things we didn’t put in storage.

Packing It Up

We’ve been busy packing our lives into boxes. I had to get rid of a lot of paperbacks, go through my clothes and decide what I wouldn’t wear anymore and wrap dishes and glasses. I’m in a state of limbo though because we are still here so I can’t pack everything as we still have to eat, wash clothes, etc. I have a feeling the day before the movers come will be very busy. I would love to get the floors all vacuumed and mopped but there are too many boxes around to do that and I am sure I will be vacuming like crazy the day the movers come, hoping to be finished in time to get the vacuum cleaner put into the truck. We’ve also been selling some furniture as we probably won’t be in a large place again.

We sold our large dining room table. It was hard to do. We’ve had a lot of fun times sitting at that table.

Here is the empty place after it was bought. You can see some of the many boxes there. We advertised on a French website to sell some things and the table was the first to go. I was hoping my couch would go quickly. It’s very large and makes into a bed and I’ve had it a long time. It’s an unfortunate shade of teal green-popular way back then-and no one seems to like it. I had it covered in an off white cover for a years, then topped it with cloth from India. We found a used furniture place and they aren’t too excited about it either. They say they have trouble selling couches. So we can pay them 50 Euros to come out and pick it up and if it doesn’t sell in a year it goes to some auction type place and they get the money. Maurice says the truck will come out but without men to move it. We will have to get it out to the truck. I assume the driver will help. It seems worth it to me as I don’t want to take it with us. We happen to have two couches and I think one will be enough.

It’s been zero degrees every morning and there is frost on everything. I went out for a walk the other day and tried to photograph it. Can you see the frost on this plant?

< As the frost melts in the sun, a mist rises. I tried to catch that too with this vineyard. The days get really nice as long as the sun shines and the mistral stays away. I will miss my home but I will not miss the mistral.