We don’t have internet at the house yet so we go from café to café to get their wifi! It is Saturday morning here, that day of the weekly big market. We have walked to the town square (about 10 minutes, and it is about 35 degrees! But we have lots of layers, hats and gloves, and it is a sunny day).
After our pain au chocolat and coffee, we’ll do our shopping for local produce.
We’ve had two nights in the house so far. The cats are very happy not to be traveling any more. They follow us around like puppies. I keep needing to remind myself that this isn’t just a week-long vacation rental – this is where we live now! It is going to take a little while to sink in, even after all this anticipation.
We have spent two long shopping sessions at the town’s Carrefour – big box store, a mixture of Target and the largest grocery store you have ever seen. The range of choices is mind boggling. There are just a lot of little things you need and use around the house and take for granted, like towels, toothbrush holders, laundry detergent… So we are little by little filling these in.
Our landlords are a couple, Georges and Michelle, also recently retired, who have lived a very long time in this house, raising their family. They just finished building a new house for themselves a little ways away, close to their son and his family. They have turned out to be very nice, immediately helpful. George insisted that I go over to their house yesterday so he could call the water and power companies and the internet / TV / telephone company to get our accounts set up. Water and power are set up, but it will take a couple weeks for internet (hopefully by the time Paula and Jerry get here) – so emails will depend on which café we find!
So all is going well. We have certainly gotten what we asked for, and that is pretty fantastic. And still, takes some time to adjust and learn a new rhythm of life!