Hello and greetings from Port 80! Oh my God does it feel good to have internet again! We just had three very isolated, insular days indeed, even by our normal standards. Before I go any further, a quick thanks to Sharon for her very kind words in the previous entry – and of course for having been so great to us this last year. Settling down in a foreign country is always a challenge, so having a guide was invaluable to us. And now we are online again, we can easily keep in touch.
Speaking of, here are our new contact details:
Port 80
Mazeroux
24470 Milhac-de-Nontron
FRANCE
Home tel: 09 74 66 16 62 (+33 9 74 66 16 62 internationally)
French mobile: 06 68 88 62 33
Our landline is part of our internet package and gives us free calls to loads of destinations, including UK and the States, so we can keep in touch with you all easily now, even if you aren’t a Skype person.
So, to bring you up to speed… We hired a van on Thursday to move all our stuff (bar cats and bedding) and took it over to the new place and just dumped it all in one room. We also collected the donated 3-piece suite and installed that in the lounge. We then cleaned and returned the van, getting back to a very empty house and 2 very distressed puddies, around 6pm. Despite the fact that it rained incessantly all day, we both commented on how smoothly the move part 1 had gone. We then had a lovely evening in Badaillac: dinner and wine with Sharon, then round to our French neighbours to pass on our new details and to say bye.
Friday saw us up early again to move ourselves and the puddies in to Port 80. Louis, as expected, has spent most of his time since hiding, either in our bed, or in a box of duvets. He is slowly coming good but still looks rather shell-shocked and in need of a hug. The Smoo’s method of coping seems to be to act himself, only x 100. He has been tearing around the place attacking things with ferocious enthusiasm. We are hoping they will both sort themselves out soon. Even though they are both missing Badaillac, they are still having fun in the new place, especially the mezzanine. On Friday night, both of them set to exploring up there and, just as I had feared, got into all sorts of hazardous siuations and generally freaked me out.
We were sat in the lounge when all of a sudden, the Smoo fell down from above onto the floor and shot off at 100 miles per hour. No idea where he fell from, but apparently, he didnt hurt himself. The next day as we were unpacking the kitchen, Louis’ hind-quarters suddenly swang into view above us. He was dangling by his front paws from the mezzanine above and had to be rescued. All this in the first 24 hours: I can only imagine what other mischief they have planned…
We also had a surprise visitor on Friday night. We bumped into Coco Thurs night when we went over to see Jean Michel and Rebecca. We gave her our new address and since she lives nearby, decided to pay us a visit on Friday. It was unexpected but pleasant to see her again and a nice way to spend our first night here.
On Saturday evening, our friends, Natt & Jill popped over to say hi. They are also “Milhacoises”, as they live in a hamlet just a few mins away, which is great. They ended up staying for a very impromptu meal of whatever was to hand, so we have already managed to entertain over here, even if it is all a bit spartan. “A la bonne franquette”, as Nat put it! We also got the fire going for the first time that night, and have been making great use of it since. Although they don’t generate as much heat as stoves, there is something very comforting about an open fire.
There are a few other things I am really liking about the place too. Some of you may know that I have a thing about sunsets and have literally hundreds of photos of them saved on my PC. Well, we are 3 for 3 so far in Mazeroux: every evening, the sky has been gorgeous, and the front of the house more-or-less looks out in the right direction, so here’s hoping for many more to come. Another thing I like about this place is the increasing number of ways it reminds me of our old home on Queensbridge road, London. First, there is the open-plan aspect of the ground floor, overlooked by a balcony/mezzanine. Both homes also feel very lofty, light and airy, with large glass doors overlooking the outside. Also, both have wine cellers. Perhaps we should have called her “Le Pont de la Reine”!
Ok, and now the rants. 1) Internet. We set up a contract with a company called Darty, a relatively new kid on the block. It was all very painless except for having to drive to Perigueux to collect the box, which entailed a half hour wait whilst the person “helping” us mainly just stood around looking perplexed and not being able to find us on his system. Anyway, our line was confirmed as active on the 29th December, so we were hoping to hit the ground running once we moved in on the 7th. How very naive.
Unable to get it to work, we were forced to contact customer services using Matt’s French mobile. This cost us over €10 in credit, most of which was spent either on hold, or being lied to about what the problem was. It became clear that their technical team were of the same mental stock as their shop staff. We were alternately told it was a global issue in the area, a France Telecom issue, a problem with how we had set the box up and so on. All of this was crap, of course. Finally, at around 9pm on Saturday, we managed to speak to someone at Darty who actually knew his arse from his elbow.
Unfortunately, Matt’s mobile gets really bad reception so I kept losing the call and having to pray he would call me back. Anyway, he got back to me today at noon, asked for the serial number of our box and said that we had been given the wrong one by the shop-staff. (Utter, utter morons.) One more trip to Perigueux and we now FINALLY have internet. Tomorrow, I intend to enjoy the free calls available to me as a Darty phone user to demand money back for the mobile credit, the petrol for a round-trip to Perigueux, and the 2 week total internet and phone outage. Morons…
Then, I aim to turn my attention to the perspicacious folk at Carrefour, who some time this week, are allegedly going to send us the bed we paid for back in mid-December. Our current bed is 2 single mattresses, on the floor. Were it not for the kind loan from Sharon, it would just be the floor. It is especially annoying that the only reason we ordered this particular bed was that it was in stock and delivery was promised by the 7th. Every time French businesses go online, it seems to result in a complete disaster. Maybe they should stay in the 19th Century after all…