Reflections

Our First Month

Well it’s the end of our first month, and we have enjoyed ourselves so much we feel as though we have been here much longer

Things we've achieved ………

• Moved into our house
• Bought some furniture – waiting on more to be delivered, but that’s another story
• We have English TV – is this a good thing or no ?
• We have French internet and TV – no thanks to Orange ( France Telecom) who have yet to show – Graham is so  clever
• We have both lost weight
• I am driving on my own – yeh !!!

Things we've experienced ………

Fete Musicale on Friday 21^st June. Local musical performers , from choirs to jazz and rock groups perform in their local villages in churches, restaurants and bars, streets and town squares all over France, for free, on this night. Everyone comes into town after dinner and walks from one venue to another listening to the music. In our town, Port Ste Foy, 6 pairs of white swans sat in the river beside one of the squares where a group of English rock and roll enthusiasts were playing outside a bar. Even the wildlife enjoys music.

music lovers on the Dordogne River

                                     

A brocante market ( second hand and , maybe, vintage goods) in our street on Sunday morning. This carried on most of the day with a steady stream of visitors. And yes I did buy a small something, but Graham couldn't resist buying a selection of Armagnacs from the stand of a local producer. We were then off to a larger brocante market at Bergerac. There is always one somewhere nearby and is a great way to spend Sundays.Below are a few of the items that we have purchased so far:

Graham's Armagnac's

An art exhibition along the quayside beside the river near our house. This was just for one day with work by local painters and photographers. Great to see so many people taking an interest and such a lovely setting, though would have been even better had the sun come out.

Looking forward to Fete Nationale ( Bastille Day) . 

The French know how to do a roundabout ………

Australians often seem to get flustered and confused with our roundabouts, but just take a look at a small selection of roundabouts (rond-points) from our local area to show how imaginative the French can be with such an everyday thing. Importantly any round about in France is always large enough to be effective, unlike Australia.

and some "street art" thanks to local council workers........ and no it is not Graham dressed up!.

French frustrations.........

While it is clear that we are both enjoying our adventures so far, there are always going to be issues that cause frustration and in France that can be very much an understatement. 

After waiting for nearly a week for French Telecom (Orange) to come and install our internet connection and TV satellite box, we decided to do it ourselves so Graham, using the instructions in French, was able without too much problem to get the TV up and running. Now we have both UK and French free to air television and while it is not brilliant it beats watching a limited supply of English dvd's over and over again.

Customer service is also a bit of a novelty in France and while we have paid in full for much of our furniture, we still sometimes have to wait for up to 4 weeks for delivery and this does get you down a little sometimes. As a result we have had to rely on 2 cheap dining chairs to sit on, but at least we now have one sofa (three still to come). It even got to the stage where we ended up ordering  off the IKEA website (all in french) from their store in Bordeaux. Still they take 4 weeks to deliver....probably coming from Sweden!

It is interesting also that French retailers can only have their sales twice a year and the timing is set by the government, not by the retailers themselves. This week is one those Soldes periods and it looks good when you see up to 60% off items in the store. Unfortunately the store often does not have any stock of those items on display and they just shrug their shoulders when you ask if they can get any for you. Some stores will have the sale on everything in the shop and others will only apply the sale to a small handful of specific items (usually the ones you would never want anyway). Even with these frustrations, we still find ourselves content and happy to be here.

Enough for now............but it goes without saying that it is not hard to write this blog while watching the first day of the Tour de France live and not at 2am in the morning. We are just trying to work out where and when we might be able to spend a day and go and see it on the streets.

à bientôt

SETTLING IN....

Well we have now been in France for just over two weeks and it seems like months. While we have purchased much of our furniture at this stage we are still waiting for most of it to be delivered this week. Without a stove, refrigerator, sofa and dining chairs it's difficult for us to move into our house yet. As a result, we have extended our stay in the rental accommodation for another week and all for simply a further 100 Euro for the week. Thank you to our landlady.

Our local coffee shop....koffie

As mentioned we have actually purchased much of our heavy furniture and our few boxes from Australia are due to arrive this week, we hope,…..so we are getting there. We even managed to buy  our own car this week, a Peugeot 207 Sports Wagon only 15 months old and with only 20,000 kms, so we are now able to get around without any trouble. See the photo of the car and no comments on the colour……at least it is not white with a red stripe as some will remember.

no comments on the colour ............

We have spent a good part of last week organising electricity, gas and water as well as phone, internet and TV but it is now all done and we can tick those boxes off ( though the TV and internet are still to be connected) as well as setting up our own Bank account ( we are still waiting for our PIN codes to arrive so can't actually use the account).

We have found tradesmen to connect up our TV (satellite) and install the stove so we should be in a position to move in around Thursday 20 June. Unfortunately rain and electrical storms are predicted for early in the week so this could set the TV back……………..but at least we have a few DVD’s.

Went to the Sainte Foy markets on Saturday and bought some french country style bed covers for the guestrooms. Fresh strawberries were everywhere and the aroma was amazing. The tourists have started to arrive. Lots of motor-homes on the roads and trying to get through those tiny village roads.

Sainte Foy marché.....strawberries galore and cheap!!!

Piggy on the loose....

Sainte Foy coat of arms on the roadway....

To be totally honest we have employed an English expat to assist us in dealing with most of the French administration and while this costs only a modest fee, it has saved us considerable time and frustration. We would clearly recommend that anyone contemplating such a move should also think about this option. We have signed on for a 12 month service and so Paul (our consultant) will well and truly earn his fee. He has assisted us to open the bank account, find and purchase the car, get our insurances in order, set up the TV and phones and assist with delivery issues for the furniture.

Early in the week we settled on our house purchase and now have the keys and we have been gradually moving items into it during the week. Unfortunately, it looks like we will have to buy a lawn mower and get to work very soon.

Our house comes with its own dog......................

Just to show that we are not in “the middle of nowhere”, we walked to the local movie theatre during the week and saw a movie in English. We generally get 1 or 2 movies a week in English or their “ version originale” and this does provide some sanity as opposed to bloody UK television.

Finally we celebrated Graham’s birthday at home with a quiet dinner of duck aiguillettes and a bottle of sparkling rosé……too bloody tired to go out at this stage.

New adventures and experiences…

Today, being Sunday and quiet in town (almost everything is closed everywhere on Sundays) , we ventured out to the town of Beaumont du Perigord, about 1 hour away for their Vide Grenier. For the uninitiated, this is basically a “car boot sale” where both locals and professionals set up stalls selling anything from old junk to quality antiques plus some even sell food.

Beaumont du Perigord

Beaumont is another old bastide town established by the English around 1235 and is remarkably pretty on top of a modest hill but with some great views of the green countryside. Some of our photos may paint a little picture for you and it is a village that we will definitely show to our visitors.  While we only intended to “have a sticky” we still ended up buying a few little items for the house. Kerrie feels sure that she will be able to buy supplies here to on-sell back to Australia when she sets up her online store soon.

We bought the glasses, the vase, the antique pillowslips and the old wine bottle (6 Litres)

Arriving back in Sainte Foy la Grande, it was finally the hour when I let Kerrie loose in the car for her first ever drive in France. Albeit after a few growls and grumbles, she actually started to make a reasonable fist of it and I am sure that with a few days’ practice she will be more than competent on the very narrow roads around the villages and towns.

Having said that the entire departments of the Gironde and the Dordogne have been warned.

Until next week……………………………………….a bientôt.

Kerrie & Graham

AND SO THE ADVENTURE BEGINS

While we have now set forth on our journey to France and a new phase in our life, do not for one minute think that it was an easy task. To get to the steps of boarding our plane took a lot of research and hard work indeed.

Things all start with the need to make sure that we want to live in this wonderful country for the long term and this means gaining an understanding of the culture and style of the French. What will the weather be like? Will we be able to manage the language difference? Will our money last?

These and plenty of other aspects of living in France require a lot of research to ensure that we have a good understanding before taking on this adventure. Sure we have the benefit of having visited the country and the region on a number of occasions previously, but that does not prepare you for full time France. What do we do for a bank account? How do we get a driver’s licence? What about the Health system and going to the doctor’s?

Bergerac, France

All of these questions and more saw us both spend a lot of time on the internet reading blogs from other people and reading basic material on France and the country. An immediate good source of information comes from websites such as www.angloinfo.com and www.frenchentree.com These sites can provide a great insight to life in France and some of the things to expect. Clearly they can only assist in giving us a better understanding.

The really time consuming issue to start with is the need to obtain a “Long Stay Visa” which needs to be obtained from the French Consulate in Sydney (in our case anyway). The system is computer based and you need to make an appointment on line for a time to hand over all of the necessary paperwork to the Consulate. The website www.ambafrance-au.org/-Consulate-General-in-Sydney- provides all of the information required to be completed, but a quick word of warning. The earliest we could obtain our appointment was nearly 10 weeks in advance. While this may seem like a long time, it does allow you sufficient time to gather all of the information required. This includes a Federal Police Check, Private Health Insurance, Airline tickets and Statutory Declarations that you will not seek employment in France. Of course some of this may seem straightforward, but then you need to understand that you must have paid for your Health Insurance and airline tickets prior to applying for your visa, so if you are declined you may have spent the money without need!!

Then of course all of the paperwork needs to be translated into French. The entire process took us around 3 months from start to finish. Be warned however, that if you do not have all of your paperwork in order and ready at your meeting, they will send you packing and you will need to make another appointment.

So enough of all of the heavy stuff and on with the fun. Once we had lodged our application it only took about 3 weeks for the approval and from there on it has been smooth sailing so to speak. We have a Visa for 12 months and will need to “rollover” the residency about 2 months before our current Visa expires. In addition, we must register with “OFII”, which is the equivalent of the Department of Immigration in France. Here we need to undergo a medical and pay a fee in order to have our residency certified with our Visa.

The Journey forth………

And so with our new Visa’s in our possession we set off on our great adventure. While looking at relocating to France for the long term, we needed to identify what belongings and possessions we wanted to take to our new home and how best to get them there. For the most cost effective method we chose to minimise what we took and simply arranged for around 15 packing boxes (clothes, books and DVD’s – in English of course) were sent to France by sea and via the UK. This will take around 10-12 weeks and hopefully should arrive around 4-6 weeks after we do.

For immediate needs we packed essential items in one larger box and asked our son Chris to send them by air freight (he works for FedEx and has a very cheap account with them). This will only take around 3-4 days to get to us.

Unfortunately this did not seem to be the end of it, because on arrival at Sydney Airport check in, we found that we were 8Kgs over our baggage allowance (despite weighing it before we left home). Joy oh joy, this resulted in an Excess baggage cost of $530 and there really was not a lot that could be done at the airport to change it. Kerrie will be hearing about this one for a few years to come. Of course none of the problem could be put back to me!!!!

Farewell to Flyn....at our friends Kim & Rob's cottage in Bowral

After our costly extra baggage and our sad farewells to both Chris and Flyn (our children), the actual flight was not too bad with around 22 hours to Paris via Singapore and then another 4 hours TGV train ride to Bordeaux where we picked up a rental car, for a further 1.5 hour drive to Sainte Foy la Grande, our new home on the Dordogne River and around 20 minutes west of the larger town of Bergerac (Cyrano of course). It was honestly a joy to arrive, only to find that our rented house was without hot water for our first night and we could not have a hot shower. We were both appreciative that we did not have company that night for a number of reasons!

Well now we have been in Sainte Foy (known as Ste Foy from here on) for a week and we have been very busy settling in. To date we have managed to open our new French bank accounts, buy furniture (TV’s, stove, refrigerator, washing machine and not to mention 3 king sized beds) as well as get ready for the final settlement on our new house in Port Sainte Foy (Port). To do so we have had to drive to both Bergerac and Libourne to find the good shops, but driving in France is good for the soul.

While it has only been a week, we have already experienced 2 local markets and the smell of wonderful strawberries permeates the air. To our surprise, we also found out that at our new house we also have our own cherry trees (one for eating and one for making brandy), a fig tree, a Mirabelle tree as well as good strawberry patch and our own grape vines. Looks like we will be busy making confiture (jams) and eau de vie (brandy).

Ste Foy is an old bastide town (walled town built on a grid) built around 1255 and some of the medieval parts can still be found, although not all of them go back to that time. It is a town that can easily be experienced on foot and is built on the banks of the Dordogne River that was flowing with great speed on our arrival.

 Sainte Foy la Grande

At the end of a busy week we actually walked 3 minutes to the local cinema tonight and watched “ I give it a year” in the original English version. A pleasing end to a busy week.

As Kerrie has already posted, again I thank all of our friends for their support and best wishes on our adventure.

à bientôt