Making Progress

All in all, things continue to move in the right direction as far as getting settled goes. We’re making good progress on the furniture front, thanks to the January sales. In France, all sales start on the same day (Jan 12th) except certain departments where they may start up to a week earlier. I’m sure there’s some logic there somewhere but it eludes me. Anyway, Will called Carrefour about the bed on Tuesday and they finally admitted that they’d messed up and said they had stock when they didn’t, meaning we might see a bed next week or possibly not. So we braved the first day of the sales and drove to Perigueux on Wed morning with the primary goal of finding a bed we could get right away. We first tried a bed store but they only carry very expensive stock so we went to a nearby furniture store called BUT (pronounced boot). They had a bed that fit our specification and budget but couldn’t deliver it for a few weeks. They also do van hire by the hour though, so we could have it the next day if we were willing to drive it back home ourselves.

So we went back to Perigueux the next day and arrived a bit early to take advantage of the fact that we had a not-yet-full van at our disposal. We rectified that by buying a large L-shaped sofa and a tv table. The man at the store helped us load the van but we had just ourselves to unload and Will wrenched his neck that morning so he wasn’t in top form. We had the van for two hours and it’s a 50 minute drive each way so we quickly dumped the stuff and then realised that we were minus a cat. So we had a frantic search for Louis who hadn’t escaped, but was hiding in a big box of pillows/duvets. We made it back to the shop with minutes to spare and then turned around and did the same drive back home. We also bought a sofa bed that wasn’t in stock so we get to go back and forth twice again next week.

We moved the three piece suite upstairs to the mezzanine and we’ll use that for a den. We’ve ordered a tv and dvd player from amazon and they should arrive by Tuesday. The new sofa is in the big room downstairs and it’s possible that it’s a little too big for the room. We don’t have a dining table and chairs yet and we have a few options so I think we’ll work it out. I’m also happy to report that the bed is very comfortable, firm and big enough for us and the cats. Our current sheets really don’t fit so we’ll be upgrading those in the sales soon. Apart from that, Will’s family has furniture in storage back in Olney so Will is going to see what’s available when he goes back next week. We’ll most likely rent a van and drive it back here when we return from his birthday in late Feb.

We put up one of the Port 80 signs that Andrew made for us on the gate post outside. We were going to put the big one over the outside door but the wood is so old and hard that I snapped a drill bit trying to create a screw hole. So we’ll keep it where it is on the mantle for now. We also met the couple who own the equestrian centre – they stopped by to say hi as we were outside yesterday. They’re younger than I thought, around our age and they live in the hamlet so there’s friendship potential there. We just walked over and met Lucien, our nearest neighbour and his wife. He was the one who first showed us around the place back in October so we knew him a little bit. His son and family were over so we didn’t stay long.

The boys are settling in, little by little. We did four trips to Perigueux between Mon – Thurs so weren’t here much. When we were, we were creating lots of commotion moving things around, cleaning etc. so it’s been a bit hard on the boys. Louis spends most of his time in the aforementioned box of bedding and Smoo doesn’t leave our side. In fact, he’s sitting on my lap write now helping me with this blog post. When Louis does emerge, it’s usually late at night and then he goes into nutty mode. He’s always enjoyed high places so as Will mentioned, he loves walking on the roof beams overhead. After many nights of trying, he finally got to the other side of the main beam, nearly falling in the process, but then couldn’t get back. So Will had to lean over the balcony and make a bridge with his arms and head for Louis to walk back across. I think it helps that we were home all day yesterday and today so I don’t think it will be too long before they settle in.

The only thing that’s not going well is with our internet provider, Darty. As Will wrote in the previous entry, it took awhile to get us up and running, mainly because they originally gave us the wrong equipment. Once the connection worked, we discovered that it was only 1Mb which barely qualifies as high speed. During sign up, the woman tested the line and told us we would be getting around 6Mb so were surprised at the big difference. So the next day we called up and asked to cancel, only to be told that since it was a one year contract, we could only do so by paying for the entire year. We asked our friend Nat, who is French, to call on our behalf and not only was the person rude, they hung up on her! Without going into all the detail, the contract we signed says the they’re not beholden to any speed tests that are done before they line is set up so we’re without redress.

It turns out that in France, it’s not only your physical line that determines the connection speed but the ISP as well. We just found a site that will test your line with all prospective providers and tell you what your line speed would be with each one and with a different provider, we could be getting 5Mb. It’s even more galling that the company actually has the ability to tell you what your speed will eventually be with them, they just choose not to to get you to sign up. So at this point, we’ll have to live with Darty for a year and then we can switch. We were on a 1Mb line at Sharon’s so it’s what we’re used to, it’s just that we were very much looking forward to a faster connection. Caveat emptor, c’est la vie, <insert cliche here>.

I’ll end by recounting a few things about the house that I’ve discovered. There are a number of minor things that need fixing but that’s very much to be expected and none of them need doing right away. We’re very pleased with most of the appliances, especially the oven/hob that has an extractor fan/light over it. Also, the dishwasher is an improvement over the last one and the washing machine is functional, albeit a bit small and old. But my favourite discovery pertains to the location of the property. We stopped by the mairie during the week to introduce ourselves and amongst other literature, picked up a map of the area that shows altitude. Turns out that our property is the apex of a hill and clocks in at 311 metres (1025 feet) above sea level. This would explain why it’s a few degrees colder and gets a bit more snow than Badaillac. I’m guessing that means it will also be cooler in the summer so that’s a plus for me (and a minus for Will). So we’re in good shape as far as flooding goes but not so much in terms of lightning.

Oh yeah, there is one last thing I wanted to mention and that’s the weather. We had a cold Nov and Dec, but Jan has been lovely in terms of temps. This past week, temps have been in the low teens (50’s F) with some rain/fog but also some days with bright sunshine. The forecast is for another few days of warm sunshine before it turns colder again. I can’t help but to compare this to Minnesota where they’ve had over four feet of snow and high temps around -25C for many weeks now. To my family and friends who live there, I hope it improves soon and remember, you’re always welcome here if you need a break.