Yes, it’s official – we’re homeowners here in France. The closing was on Monday and it went very smoothly. We had to wait 20 minutes for the notaire to finish up with Patrick, the “bad cop” brother to deal with the succession of the father’s estate. After that, the whole process took about an hour. The notaire went through the main things we should know about the place such as the rent of the land to the horse people, where we could build on the land and the electrics assessment which brought up a few anomalies. Then he asked me a few basic questions about who I was and whether I was sane (this wasn’t particular to my case, I guess they ask this of anyone buying property in France 
. After that, I had to initial and sign the purchase agreement, he handed me the keys and that was that. The whole thing was conducted in French, except for right at the end when the notaire said, “Welcome to Milhac-de-Nontron” in heavily-accented English. The total time from agreeing the purchase to completion was just over six weeks, much quicker than I would have imagined so kudos to France for that! We plan to move in by the end of the first week of Jan, so will still be spending the New Year in Badaillac.
We spent all of yesterday at the house, awaiting the delivery of a bed that never arrived. It wasn’t a total waste since we managed to get a number of things done like setting up the phone/ADSL, measuring and organising the kitchen. While Will waited at the house, I went to the big store in Perigueux to get a number of house-related items like cleaning products, floor and bath mats and other fun things. So perhaps the reason I didn’t find the day as boring was because I was out for half of it. I also went for a short walk around the hamlet and the property. We’ve now got most of the utilities switched over and in theory, have phone and ADSL but it only came on yesterday so we weren’t able to use it while we were there. We’ll be sending out our new contact details in due course.
Oh yeah, you’re probably wondering about the name. Eighty is the standard TCP/IP port number for HTTP connections, which in plain English means when you request a web page, the request is usually received at port 80 on the web server that hosts the site. So the simple answer is, it’s to do with the internet. Another reason for the name is that we wanted something that works in both languages and it means the same thing in French (but not “door” because that has an “e” at the end). Lastly, we wanted something with the number 80 for an alternative meaning that has to do with what the number is called in French. I’m afraid I have to leave the rest a mystery but the astute among you won’t have to search too far for a solution.
The other big event since that last entry was xmas and the visit from the Roberts clan. Due to the snow causing transportation chaos in the UK, we very concerned about the visit not materialising. Thankfully, there were no issues at all and Andrew, Anne, Dave and Rosie arrived around 4pm on xmas eve. They flew into Bordeaux and hired a car so that made it nice and easy on us. Will and I made dinner that night and we all ate, drank and were merry. I hadn’t seen Anne and Andrew since the previous xmas so it was great to spend time with them. On xmas day, we had our traditional champagne breakfast with eggs and smoked salmon. Then we opened presents and the cats entertained us all with their enjoyment of the wrapping paper. I should like to point out that the picture that accompanies this entry is the wooden sign hand-made by Andrew as my xmas gift. There’s a vine growing next to the door and we like wine so the image is a nice touch.
Sharon, Will and I were in charge of the xmas lunch. We got the turkey from the butcher in Mareuil and it was slightly smaller than the other but just as tasty. We also made the gravy, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce and veggie option, a bulghur, bean and walnut loaf. Sharon did the roast potatoes, brussels sprouts, glazed carrots, yorkshire pudding and bread sauce. She also brought back some xmas crackers from Blighty since you can’t find them here. The meal came out very well, helped by the fact that we did largely the same spread only a month before. We spent the rest of the day drinking and playing various games and then pigged out on fromage and chocolate. Boxing Day was spent in a similar fashion although as is traditional, we walked to the local pub for a few beers once we’d all mustered. It was crisp and bright like the previous day with a high around 0C(32F) so it was a bracing walk but worth it. On our return, Andrew made his famous bubble and squeek with the leftover mashed and brussels, which we served with other meats and cheeses. We had turkey and leftovers that night and drank plenty in between, along with playing more games and snacking.
On Monday, we took Sharon and the clan over to see the house. It wasn’t ours yet but we had a set of keys left to us by the nice brother on our previous visit. In addition to a tour of the grounds and the house, we talked about expansion possibilities both short and long term. Andrew can make us some shelves which are sorely needed but wood is very expensive in England. It’s cheap in France but not if you buy it ready-to-use. So it works out best for us to buy the wood here, drive it to England where he can prepare and build with it, then we’ll bring back the finished goods along with the rest of our stuff from London in the same go. We’ll probably do this when I go back for Will’s birthday at the end of Feb. Anyway, after seeing the house, we restocked on booze in Brantome (yes, we’d gone through nearly all of by that point) and then came home and had a proper English fry-up including bacon, sausage, beans, eggs and mushrooms. It was probably a bit boring for the visitors but a rare treat for Will and me. We had some more leftovers that evening and called it an early night since the guests had to leave around 9:30 the next morning. All in all, it was a great visit although much too short.
The only one who enjoyed xmas more than us was the Smoo. He is so gregarious and must be the center of attention so he got very little sleep the entire three days. He had been dying to attack the tree and its decorations since we put it up so we finally let him have his way with it. Also, wrapping paper and candy wrappings provided endless hours of amusement. Louis lived up to his French name (le chat distant) and wanted nothing to do with the guests for the first 24 hours. If we let him, he would go outside and sulk under a bush even though it was freezing out so we kept him indoors. After that, he started coming into the same room as the guests and even tolerated being approached by one person at a time so he did adjust somewhat.
I’ll sign off with an observation about the weather here. If you’re in a cold wintery place and prone to jealously, you may want to tune out now. Our clothes drying rack just broke and since we don’t need one at the new place, haven’t replaced it. For those of you not in the States, the answer of where to hang the wet clothes is obvious but if, like me, you grew up with clothes dryers, then it’s not. I am referring to the clothes line, which we used all the time in the summer but didn’t occur to me to use it today. Although it’s not summer temps, today, like yesterday it’s a balmy 12C(54F) degrees out there so that’s where the laundry is currently resting. It’s going to turn colder during the week but for now, it’s nice enough to be out without a jacket so I’m off for a walk.