The Housing Crisis in France Part 2

Well, we have been here seven weeks now and it's been a steep learning curve.  Interesting for me has been the - quite sudden - falling out of love with Montpellier.  Unexpected to say the least!  I don't know if it's me and I am no longer hip and pert enough for such a young city, but I find myself stomping around disgruntled by the dirt, the hoardes of people, the disgraceful defacing of historic buildings by graffiti (I've asked residents about this and apparently French people don't mind graffitti - say what?? I think the council are just lame/lazy) dog poo festering everywhere and a general feeling that if Montpellier were a person she'd be a grubby, harried, over taxed, under age, single mother on benefit - with a creative streak. 

Compare this with the fresh, optimistic and pristine face Nîmes presents to the world, and it's a push over.  Again, I am happy to accept it could be that I'm just too old to find grimy old Montpellier wearing its cloak of vibrancy attractive. But give me Nîmes any day!  This city feels like it's interested in life, not taking it for granted.  We loved the spaciousness, the shining streets, the Roman remains and the quietly confident cafés.  The Haussmanian edifices just begged to be lived in, and the exhuberant fountains beckoned in the sparkling sun. Yes! Yes, we thought, we shall live here.  Bring it on!  Then we found out about the bull fights.  Nîmes is France's biggest bull fighting city and the 150,000 population swells to one millon twice a year as blood lust afficionados throng to the city.  Oh, dear.  We didn't even realise bull fighting was big in France, never mind that it is overtaking Spain as champion of this barbaric ritual.  All this takes place in the stunning Roman Arena; might as well bring back public executions as far as we are concerned.  Okay. Nîmes is out.

What about Avignon?  In lovely Provence?  Beautiful, with a song dedictated to its bridge, endless ancient history (of course), wide, impressive streets,the papal seat from the 14th century, quirky cobblestoned quartiers, on the banks of the majestic Rhône.  A strong contender, and no bull fighting. Great. What about a place inside the old city walls with a garden? Um, maybe not. What about the Mistral howling through the streets and driving the inhbitants famously mad in winter months? Oui, you can count on it. Okaaay. Back to the drawing board.

So we turned our attention to St. Rémy de Provence. Picture perfect town, full of quaint streets and charming squares, not to mention affluent inhabitants and eager tourists. Pretty much the story book French town. Fab, we both liked it, plus Roly and Pepper were most popular with the locals. And, result! They were serving FREE WINE in the market square - our kinda town! Rushed home to research available properties in any budget never mind our own, and found, wait for it - two (2). Seems St. Rémy de Provence is popular with many culture and free wine liggers, not just us.

Sommières is well situated, half way between Montpellier and Nîmes, in lush countryside and another Roman settlement with a typical bridge, a walled centre, a ruined medieval castle and a square so charmant it looks like a movie set.  Excellent. Oh, and a rather fabulous chocolate shop. Double excellent.  So far it's still high on our list as a strong contender. 

Visits to Toulouse and Marseille are still necessary - we need to see as much as we can - and another foray into Béziers is probably a good idea. We would like to find that place that really is 'it', the one that feels like home, the right fit. We are possibly being too fussy, too picky or too un-French in our mindset, but after the huge upheaval necessary for such a big overseas move, why not hold out for the dream location?  

Maybe we will grow accustomed to the idea of the Mistral (it does cover pretty much all of the South of France), turn a blind eye to poo and graffitti (or turn vigilante, equipped with paint, rollers and copious poo bags) and come to view La Corrida as an integral part of the Midi lifestyle (highly unlikely). Every place has its pros and cons - Sommières is prone to flooding and a lot of their postcards seem to feature bulls running through the cobbled streets à la Pamplona - and we could still be viewing everything through Hollywood movie eyes.  Or Aussie eyes. I do miss Target a bit. But I'll get over it. I guess it's all part of gradually Becoming French.....

The Housing Crisis in France - Part 1

We have been here for seven weeks now, so in terms of finding our long term home, where are we up to?  Presently, we are living in Montpellier in a pleasant one bedroom apartment with a roof terrace, very close to Place de la Comédie which has its advantages (it's in the heart of it all) and clear disadvantages (it's busy, dirty and noisy in the heart of it all).  Coming from Australia we are accustomed to plenty of space, so whilst a one bedroom apartment in the thick of it is fine for now, ultimately we want a home where we can welcome guests, potter in the garden, light a fire for the winter nights, have a study or music room, that sort of thing.  

We decided that renting a place for the first year, say, would be the best thing. That way we wouldn't have commited ourselves too much to any one place and we could use it as a base to research our options and find the perfect place to settle. Plus, French rents are signifcantly less than Australian rental prices.  Makes a lot of sense, right? 

We started off looking on seloger.com, the French equivalent of realestate.com.au, and found about a thousand properties to rent in the Montpellier area. Great! Then we specified we were only interested in properties 60 M2 or over. That cut the properties down to about a hundred. Then we specified outside space - a garden, courtyard or terrace. That left us with four places. Four. And we hadn't even limited the budget! 

Undaunted, we thought we would take a look at these properties.  This is when we found that renting a home in France - a permanent rental not a holiday home - is really difficult. And it's become more difficult since we did our intial research last year.   You see, in France it's very common for someone to rent a home their entire life, as no one really has a burning need to own a house or an apartment. This means a contract between tenant and landlord can go on for twenty odd years. French law makes it very hard indeed for a landlord to evict a non-rent-paying tenant and impossible to evict one during the months November through March, due to hardship / winter stipulations. Thus, offering to pay a year's rent up front is of no interest to a landlord or agency - what about the other nineteen years you might possibly reside there rent free and unevictable?? Also, letting agencies have taken out insurance against being sued by disgruntled, out-of-pocket landlords to whom they have referred dodgy tenants, thus any letting prospect now needs to suit very stringent letting stipulations. 

Needless to say, we don't suit.

Furthermore, French houses are not equipped in the way we are used to. Most of them don't have a kitchen, just a sink, and the tenant is meant to supply the rest of the kitchen fittings, because he will most likely stay there for twenty years and will want to choose his own. Something we are not used to, needless to say.   Que faire?  Well, time became of the essence as our Montpellier apartment lease is over at the end of June, and being homeless in France over the summer would be very difficult given that the whole country goes into 'closed down for the holidays' mode.  Rather than struggling to build up rental dossiers, purchase entire kitchens including white goods, put our household shipment (arriving soon from Australia!) into storage and go without internet and telephone for several months, we looked for a holiday rental to see us through. Not easy at this time of year, and we were getting rather desperate.  Just as Alex was talking of camper vans and tents (rather too excitedly, I have to say) our luck turned.  Unexpectedly, a perfectly suitable place came up in the same Residence des Pins we lived in last year, and we gratefully took it. 

This does not solve our long term challenges nor is it exanding our horizons, since we are familiar with Clermont l'Herault, but it means we will have a very nice summer!  It means we will have a garden for pottering, a fireplace for wintertime, room to welcome guests and a lovely base to do more research into the Languedoc and Provence and hopefully find our future home.  And that can't be bad....in fact it's vachement bien!

Things We Miss and Things We Don't...

So we have been here a month now, and certain things are starting to feel normale and there are other things we really miss.  Here's a run down - in no particular order - and any suggestions / donations gratefully received!

Miss - Tim Tams.  No further explanation needed.

Miss - Crackers for cheese!  Love, love baguettes but sometimes would just really like a cracker.  My favourites in Australia were Premiums but, really, any cracker would do, and I don't dare dream of oat cakes or Carr's Water Biscuits...

Don't Miss - Colorbond Fencing.  Suffice to say this form of utilitarian, ugly perimeter containment was originally designed for detention centres and industrial estates.  And that is where it should stay. No one in France would ever consider surrounding their personal living space with such an affronting material, and I can only applaud their sound judgement.  If I never see Colorbond again I will die happy. 

Don't Miss - Humidity.  Always my bete noire, I am naturally delighted that there is no humidity here whatsoever (not even when it rains, it seems, although I know that's not possible!) and EVERY SINGLE DAY IS A GOOD HAIR DAY.  Without any effort on my part.  A good enough reason to be here, no matter what. Why did I wait so long..???

Don't Miss - Coles / Woolworths.  The supermarkets here are stunning displays of abundance with bewildering choice.  A recent visit to Géant Casino, a hypermarket the size of Heathrow Terminal 1, required a map, walkie talkies, supplementary fluids, four hours and a fully loaded credit card.  But the cheese we bought!! And the charcuterie!! The choice, the range, the selection!  All this and weekly markets, too.  Coles and Woolworths would sink without a trace.  No crackers, though..... 

Don't Miss - Utes.  Have not seen a single ute since arrival, and that's just fine.  Especially don't miss flamboyantly coloured, souped up V6 Utes secretly aspiring to be fancy sports cars but masquerading as work vehicles. However, am learning to be wary of white Renault vans and the drivers thereof, usually in possession of ruddy faces, loud music, aggressive attitudes and scant regard for pedestrians &/or their dogs.

Miss - Cattle dogs.  I just like their sturdy shape, blue coats and die-hard attitudes. Wonder if they could be happy here?  Probably not, as they are happiest in the back of a ute!

Miss - NZ Marlborough Whites.  Cloudy Bay.  No further explanation needed.  Oh, maybe there is for my legion of French followers (!). The flinty, fruity flavours, the prickly acidity combined with the rounded body of the palette = superlative and I have yet to find an equivalent here.  I do plan to keep searching, though...

Miss - homes with gardens.  Not at all the norm here and something we have come to realise we can't do without.  To have a garden one almost has to live in the country, and we can't make do with a balcony or terrasse it seems.  Nor can Roly, Pepper and Oscar.  Hereby hangs a very long tale, and a whole other blog. Watch this space.

Miss - Friends!  Irreplaceable, unforgettable, worth finding, worth keeping and the real reason a place on the map becomes a home.  Look forward to seeing y'all here soon and our new place will feel all the more like home!

Our Four Legged Friends in France

It's all very well relocating to the other side of the world when you know what's going on, but how does it feel to our furry family members?  If only they could tell us.  In a way, they do, and we are getting better at interpreting their needs, wants, likes and dislikes.

Safe to say they won't be too keen on a repeat performance of flying in a crate for thirty odd hours straight without food, company or exercise.  However, our reassurance was that they were in good hands and a word of advice to anyone thinking of flying pets around the world - shop around. After some research, we chose All Animal Transport (www.allanimaltransport.com.au) and felt very confident that our Chubs were in good hands with owner Mary. Not only that, but her approach was far more personal than Jet Pets or Dogtainers, for example, and her pricing way more competitive.

  

Now they are here it is noticeable how much more snuggly they are, relishing cuddles and hugs and crowding onto the sofa with us wherever possible. Even Oscar. Especially Oscar.  He is positively a changed cat - we think he is truly happy to still be with his family and not left behind as sadly cats often are. 

Out and about, Roly and Pepper come with us anywhere we can take them, which is pretty much everywhere. They are welcome in all cafes and restaurants, the bank, the post office, McDonald's, shopping centres, department stores, on the bus, on the train, on the tram - the list goes on.  They can't go into the supermarket which is fair enough but of course they can go to the weekly market, if they wanted to that is.  But they don't really want to - too scary.   

 It is interesting to witness the things that are new, strange and therefore scary to them. Being Gold Coast dogs who took their walks along the beach and in the park, these new scary things include and encompass trams, tram tracks, tram stations, tram pasengers, scooters, mopeds, gutters, man hole covers, grilles, escalators, lifts, stairwells, travelators, zebra crossings, shopping centres, department stores, security guards, carousels, waiters, waitresses, students, bridges, information offices, markets, taxis, taxi drivers, neighbours and neighbours' bicycles.  Oh, also street performers (understandable) (entirely forgiveable). And skateboards. 

New and strange to us is the marvellous range of dog and cat care grooming products available as standard in the supermarket.  Dog and cat Toilettage salons proliferate, catering to the well coiffed pet. We continue to be horrified by the dog poo defiling all streets and the scant regard for sanitation shown by dog owners - so much so that there are government paid persons patrolling the streets with Moto Crotte (above left) which are motorcyles designed to suck up dog poo!!!  Tax payers foot this bill! 

All buildings welcome pets as residents, no weight or breed discriminated against (or so it seems), yet dogs are not allowed in any park!  Lapin flavoured pet food is de rigeur as rabbits will be a plentiful and viable food source here, but are not to the taste of Oscar who is sticking to his usual seafood platter.  Roly and Pepper can't get over the new smells and scents and plunge chest deep into each and every one where possible. 

I'm sure they miss racing up and down the Spit, but they seem be embraceing this voyage of discovery as thoroughly as we have. Which just goes to show anything is possible so long as we all have each other - and plenty of treats!

Jusqu'ici tout va bien!

Well, we have started Our French Life.  All of us arrived safely at Samois by car, and that does include all three pets none of whom travelled on the roof of the car in a crate. No way!  I think I must have given the wrong impression. We tightly hugged our furry Chubs in the car all the way to Holly and Philippe’s country house, so pleased were we all to see each other. 

We had a wonderful country weekend in a wonderful house in a wonderful place. Log fires, walks alongside the Seine, wandering through the Fontainbleu market, crêpes in the local bistrôt, red wine and raclette, ordering new phones on line, digging Holly’s  old car out of the garden with a view to giving it a second lease on life au Sud, Simon teaching Alex French (‘quoi de neuf’), Alex teaching Simon to throw boomerang – really special memories and a really special welcome.

Then down to the nitty gritty. A train ride to Paris with horrified pets who have never even seen a train never mind taken a journey on one (n.b. pet tranquillisers to be recommended, thank you Holly), all our cumbersome luggage weighing us down and no luggage trolleys to be had, arriving in Montpellier in the middle of a storm only to find the agent had left our rental apartment a whole FOUR MINUTES after we were due to arrive. Apparently we were late. Hmmph.  No option but to wait. So wait we did - in a nearby McDonald’s and it turns out McDonald’s France not only serve beer but are happy to accept dogs and cats too!  How fab is that?  Never thought I’d put McDonald’s and fab in the same paragraph

but they saved our skin that day.

So now we are in the lovely flat, slap bang in the middle of Montpellier, how do we feel? Well, we are just thrilled to have French bank accounts and credit cards, a French mobile and hopefully soon a French car as these things are the basics of life which are both impossible to do without and difficult to sort out from afar - or even whilst in the country. We are pleased we fixed up a bank account with HSBC in advance of our arrival and thank you Jessica for your help with all the PIN numbers etc. sent to your home!! Anyone thinking of relocating should definitely do this first, where possible – makes us feel like proper residents. 

It’s still difficult to remember that things close for lunch and everything closes on Sunday but fabulous to have great cafés on every corner all of whom welcome dogs and still serve rubbish coffee.  We realise we have replaced coffee with wine or beer which could prove a problem long term...

It’s amazing to stumble across parts of the town that are still new to us and find they are the old stamping grounds of Nostradamus, Rabelais or Valéry. We get a thrill when we hear the trains departing from the Gare Saint Roch for cities such as Venice, Madrid or Geneva.

We are still a bit shocked by the dog poo everywhere and are fastidiously cleaning up after Roly and Pepper to set a good example.  Seeing graffiti on grand old buildings causes some disappointment but taking a tram to new destinations is uplifting. We have found our boulangerie of choice and go every morning for fresh baguettes. Speaking the language well presents our biggest hurdle and we are researching local schools for intensive courses.  Overall, it’s truly exciting and quite exhilarating to feel we are actually here embalking upon something new and challenging and that it’s for real, not just an extended holiday.  It feels good to be doing it and not just talking about it. 

Adieu l'Australie

Two figures clad in several layers of clothes, their pockets stuffed with books and toiletries and wearing multiple hats, finally staggered onto the flight to Singapore, the last passengers to board the plane.

These two people had been seriously overweight with their luggage, understandable given that they were permanently leaving the country on one-way tickets.  These two people had thus been forced to re-pack their bags and jettison assorted items before being allowed onto the flight.

This represented the farewell of Folie Madame et Monsieur to the Great Southern Land that had been their home for the last twelve years.

Fortunately the stash bag containing valium and xanax had successfully made it onto the flight, and the Brisbane – Singapore – Dubai – Paris journey passed without further mishap, and rather pleasantly too, once the drinks trolley started patrolling.

Our arrival into Paris, around supper time on a crisp Spring evening, went smoothly with Passport control barely glancing at our documents and the Douane chatting amongst themselves as we slid into the country we were to call our new home. 

An overnight stay at the airport Mercure featured giant beers and a good night’s sleep in readiness for the rendez-vous with our pets who would be arriving the next morning having spent 36 hours without food travelling in transporter crates in the chilly hold of a Cathay Pacific plane.

The ever-reliable and newly svelte Holly arrived promptly as arranged, and after navigating endless administrative diversions insurmountable without Holly’s intervention, Roly, Pepper and Oscar emerged from their crates into the frigid morning air of the French cargo dock.

And they were just fine!  Thrilled to see us and very hungry indeed, but just fine.  After big cuddles and a swift snack we loaded the crates precariously onto the roof of the Renault (hurrah for bungees!) and set out on the peripherique to Samois sur Seine, the location of Holly’s country house and the start of our new life in France.  To be continued...