Elsien's Traveblogue

Montpellier 12^th October 2011

No more boxes, everything is now more or less where it should be, pending the arrival of the new furniture in two weeks' time. We didn't go to the whole morning for the new Montpelliérains on Saturday as we wanted to get shot of all the boxes by Sunday, which we did. We did go to the buffet though and that was splendid, especially the oyster stall. Plates with four of the biggest oysters I've ever seen outside XXXX, not even in Whitstable; there was an old geezer, who probably wasn't even a nouveau Montpelliérain, who installed himself at the end of the table and scoffed one plate after another … We just had the one plate, followed by a generous portion of smoked salmon, then saucisson and black pudding, olives, downed with glasses of champagne. Some guests walked around with plates piled indecently high with little cakes, cackling gleefully as they moved along, depriving others of even one little cake. I became French when I encouraged one monsieur who was taking handfuls of little chocolates: “Go on, Monsieur, have some more! They are good for you, make you nice and fat! Help yourself to some more, there's plenty for everyone!”

When we left, we saw the Montpellier mayoress and her team outside the venue, the Corum, which is the big cultural centre in the centre of Montpellier, having lunch, chatting to citizens as they walked past... Sweet!

On Sunday we went for a long walk by the river, the Lez. We discovered that the river has a walking / cycling path all the way to the sea, 8 km, so we can walk or bike there in future! We also discovered a nice little café / maison de thé by the river, just behind the University Library, on a little square with fountains and heads of Revolutionary heroes: Danton, Robespierre, Marat, Camille Desmoulins … I felt quite at home! The weather is still amazing, between 28° and 30° with a little breeze.

Yesterday was a day of strikes, yes, we're in France! The 'cheminots', the railway workers, were striking and a number of government employees – the usual, more money, less work, fewer cuts, more pension... In the meantime our rubbish is collected every single night and policemen patrol residential areas and quiet little squares ….

posted by Elsien Gale  # 3:44 AM 0 comments

Montpellier 6^th October 2011

Most of my books have arrived now, and our furniture from Brussels came a few days ago. It was unloaded at an incredible speed – one whole room full of boxes and furniture. I've now opened most of them, but couldn't do the book boxes until the shelves were up. They are now and the books are higgledy-piggledy piled up on them. We have one room – the study – we live in: clic-clac bed, one comfortable chair, table, folding chairs. The kitchen works, although we haven't got a fridge yet. The bedroom just has suitcases and bags of clothes in, also a laundry basket – there is a laundrette with WiFi nearby. We're waiting for more furniture, which we've bought from a friend of a friend: big dining room table and chairs, bed, wardrobe, buffet, fridge, TV... I'm still in the process of organising the removals of all that stuff: heavy, French, solid wood.

Until today we could have meals in the little garden, at the camping table. It's been really hot, 29 or 30 degrees, but last night big white clouds brought heavy gusts of wind, so it's gone chilly now, only 20.

The living room is still full of boxes, mainly empty now, some stuff that has to go to the 'cave', the basement room for which we only got the key yesterday. It's very dusty, so we had to buy a broom first …. We've been chasing paperwork: we've got an Internet and phone contract, but it won't be working for another day or two yet. I'll install it all today, when I've done the 'office space'. I'm doing my telephone work on my French Lebara phone, visits to the Internet cafe around the corner. It's good my students cannot see me, perched on a box, surrounded by boxes ... Not ideal, but I need the money, having spent all my savings on this place and the move! We also have to register the car in France and that seems like a major bureaucratic problem … I'm waiting for the French solicitor to send me the deeds of the apartment so we have proof of address … This solicitor has been worse than useless: gets paid 10% of the sales price and doesn't seem to do anything for it.

Yesterday we inspected our new furniture, today we take the car for another check-up as the French don't accept the Belgian M.O.T; I'll clean the walk-in cupboard so we can organise some of our clothes and bedding … The previous owner was a bit of a slut – you should have seen the oven! - so we've had to do quite a bit of cleaning. The painter, who redecorated the whole place for us (the walls and doors were blue, orange, brown, green, yellow and purple) also commented on the state of cleanliness … It's beginning to look nice though. The cream walls and white ceilings and woodwork make it look clean, light and spacious. Our study is beginning to look cosy with a book-lined wall and the kitchen is arranged better than the Brussels kitchen, so cooking is a pleasure. The bathroom will have to be refurbished when I have made some more money, but it works and the bath, shower-head and toilet are now lime-scale free....

Tomorrow we're off to an information day for new Montpellierains, meeting up with a friend and Sunday – well, see what the weather does, but the area is really beautiful … St Guilhem-le-Desert, perhaps?

posted by Elsien Gale  # 3:42 AM 0 comments

Moving house, moving country

Writing this from an almost totally empty apartment: Living room, two bedrooms, kitchen, bathroom and French windows opening on to a little garden … Folding table and two chairs, camping mattresses and bedding, a few pots and pans … that's it! Vast expanse of white tiled floor, clean freshly painted cream walls, while ceiling and woodwork – a real impression of space. Right now I don't want to have any more furniture in here, I like this minimalist living (for a bit), although I wouldn't mind a more comfortable chair. We've made an offer on some antique French furniture, but I'm having second thoughts. Apparently it's heavy, solid wood and I'm not sure if it'll clutter up this beautiful space. We're going to have a look at it on Wednesday. We've organised a French telephone and Internet connection: it's typical of our 21^st century that that's the first thing we had to do! It'll be working in another week or so, so in the meantime we're making do with Lebara Pay-As-You-Go mobiles, so I can continue my telephone coaching at least. My books will arrive on Tuesday, the bookshelves and the Brussels furniture on Thursday. Today is Sunday and nothing much we can do, so we'll go off to the beach at Palavas, a twenty minute drive from here. The weather is glorious: some thirty degrees, but the apartment is cool. Tomorrow doing bureaucratic things, like registering at the Prefecture, registering the car in France, opening a French bank account. Gas and electricity was working, so that's just a question of waiting for the first bill.

I'll be here until 19^th, then doing a ten day round trip: Brussels, UK, Brussels and back to Montpellier. The main thing is that I will be spending a lot more time in one place, my own, mainly with J, but he has a lot of work in Brussels from mid-October until the end of March, so he'll be travelling more than me. I'm going to try and find some local work here, will try the University of Montpellier and when I'm not working I'll have time to finish my Kiribati novel ….

Happy days! The warm sunny weather is set to last until the end of the month!

posted by Elsien Gale  # 11:13 AM 0 comments