As promised, we have an update on us! After 9 + years living in Indonesia and France with a brief stopover in Louisville (we refer to it as Louisville 2), we have left France and have repatriated to the US! In preparation for the move, beginning at the end of 2022, we began to sell all but a couple of furniture items we bought on arrival in France. We also sold our car, two smart televisions and some small appliances. Luckily a gentlemen who worked with Brad in Jakarta (and who is from France) wanted to buy most of the furniture and some of the accessories. He owned a property that needed upgrading. All of the items we sold were in "same as new" condition so folks seemed thrilled to be able to grab things up. We sold everything at a very reasonable price. One of the early items to sell was our IKEA sleeper sofa. As a result, we moved our balcony table and chairs into the living room next our IKEA chair/ottoman. (We kept the IKEA chair and ottoman so it was packed up with our other "stuff" to be shipped. We also decided to keep the dining room table and chairs.) The balcony chairs were not as comfy as the sofa had been, but it worked.
Items slowly disappeared from the apartment but several people were willing to wait a bit before picking things up. It made it a little easier. By mid-January we were pretty cleaned out and living out of suitcases. About the same time we moved into a temporary apartment with our few suitcases before the packers/movers arrived. We were packed up and all of our stuff was loaded into a truck on February 2.
Boxes were moved to the double balcony door to be loaded onto the elevator truck down to the street level for loading.
And then there was nothing left.
The next step for our goods was to be loaded onto a container ship in La Havre. The ship would be bound for Charleston, SC with
stops first in New York City then Newport, Virginia. The ship left La Havre on February 19.
While our permanent apartment in France was located in the
center of the city, our temporary apartment was located in the historic center.
We lived across the street from the Cathédrale Notre-Dame-de-l'Assomption. I wrote a blog post
when we first arrived in France about
this Cathedral, but the very short version is that construction began in 1248
and it is built of Volvic volcanic stone so the church appears blackish in
color. For the full story see the blog posted on December 12, 2020. The rear
portion of the Cathedral was right across the street.
This restaurant was also right across the street.
This is really cool. In this photo you can see both the edge of the Cathedral and the restaurant. In the distance in this photo ( taken from our kitchen window) is a mural depicting a very old building with a large archway.
Looking down from our apartment is part of the restaurant that is across the street. Fortunately, the outdoor tables were not available for use in February. It would have been pretty noisy late into the evenings!
As I said, the temporary apartment was located in the historic center of town and it had tiny, tiny, tiny "roads" to go with the area. Our first attempt to drive our car to the apartment building was not fun. Our car (a Peugeot 3008) was small by US standards but rather large by French standards. We ( meaning the GPS) didn't select a good route for our first attempt.
As we got close to the apartment the tires were hitting bollards covering wiring/pipes on the outsides of buildings. There was no space between the exterior walls of buildings and the "road." We barely fit but we made it while both holding our breath! After that attempt, we learned of an alternate route which would accommodate the car more easily. I include a series of photos of the "easy" route. These are also cobblestone "streets."
As you can see, the buildings sit at the sides of the road. There is no extra room! This is not the tiniest "road!"
We go around the bend as we approach the building with the blue awning.
There is a fountain in the middle of this tiny area in the road. At this point we turn right again.
We're nearly at the apartment but first we must turn left just in front of the truck in the "road."
If you remember, our permanent apartment had an elevator the car to descend down one level to reach our parking spot. Entry to this building was a little different. There is a garage door, but that's where the similarity ends.
The door opens and you drive down a ramp approaching a concrete wall. A 90 degree left turn is required- after the elevated railing. This is not for the faint of heart. I got out of the car and helped B drive the gauntlet.
There were several 90 degree turns but all were easier than the first one.
Another turn.
Finally we see our parking spot. The tiny one on the right. With so little turn around space, B settled on backing into the spot to make it easier to get out. However, the space was so tight he would have to crawl over the center console and out the passenger door. The ideal car for this garage is something like a smart car size. We actually parked the car here as little as possible and ended up leaving it at the permanent apartment which we still "owned" until we sold the car. After that, we just walked everywhere we needed to go. It was not that far to walk between the two apartments.
The temporary apartment had several unusual lighting fixtures. This one decorated all of the walls in the room. It was an interesting effect. The main light in the kitchen was also very interesting. If you pulled down on a chain, the ball opened and expanded. It looked pretty but didn't provide much light. Thankfully there was an additional fluorescent light mounted on a wall.
The kitchen was nice with a gas cooktop and washer and dryer both in the kitchen at opposite ends- the washer is in the foreground, the dryer in the distance. The kitchen lighting fixture opened and closed via a pull chain but didn't provide much light.
The photo shows the living room and dining room combo. There were glass doors between the entry and the living room/dining room and another set of glass doors heading down the hallway to the bedrooms (we were grateful we had 2 bedrooms- one for us, one for our suitcases.) You can see one side of the glass door in this picture on the right hand side.
One huge thing we lacked in the temporary apartment was small trash cans. With our allergies, we like to have more than just one trash can. I took some random cardboard pieces and packing tape and created 2 of these lovely, recyclable receptacles! Fully functional, but not very elegant.
We were gifted some lovely apple juice by a gentleman who works with B. He grew up near this orchard. Delicious!
On a rare, sunny day with very blue skies I took some closeup photos of the Cathedral lit up so much it lost much of the blackish appearance.
Such interesting architecture.
There are so many glass windows. Each contains very small individual pieces of glass .
We discovered that practically right around the corner was a tea salon. They also served coffee including cappuccinos with a very stable foamed milk. Maybe we became cappuccino snobs, but some places add only a little foam that instantly disappears. This place did not do that. And, after we stopped in a couple of times, as soon as we walked in the shop the owners would exclaim 2 cappuccinos to go?
(in French). We became regulars during the month we lived there. It was a nice place. They also sold gelato but we didn't get around to trying any. (B comment: right around the corner means across the Place de Victoire and only 52 seconds door to door).
One of our last views of Puy de Dome mountain, snow covered.
Our last photos of the progress on the construction site across the street. We won't be around to see the final product.
We will miss the french baguettes, croissants, etc.
We flew out of France on February 24. If you look closely you can see the Cathedral before the mountain range. Bye bye France.
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