Life On The Road

Waiting For France

Well it's been a week and four days since we packed the last box and dragged ourselves exhausted out the door of "Melrose" and into the wide unforgiving world. Well that's what it felt like anyway.
The first weekend was spent in sunny Folkestone, and very pleasant it was too. The sun really did shine and it was almost like having a little holiday. We took strolls by the sea, drank coffee by the harbour and had a very pleasant night out with my good friends from times gone by. Not a bad way to begin our life on the road.
The next port of call was back in Ashford at my sister and brother-in-law's house.They are having a two week holiday in Turkey (lucky things) and we are house sitting for the duration. And that is where I find myself at the moment, listening to the rain falling on the conservatory roof while I tap away at this computer.

                                                                                                                                                The wheels of French bureaucracy seem to be turning even slower than I thought it were possible. I was warned that this would be the case but even so........
It has taken the notaire almost three weeks to get the draft copy of the "compromis de vent" to us along with the "power of attorney", and that was by email. Mind you good job it did come through the ether as Karen muddled up the numbers on our forwarding address which caused no end of trouble and confusion......Bless her.
The power of attorney has since been witnessed by a very attractive solicitor and has been sent back to France, so that's out of the way, and the notaire can sign the "compromis de vent" on our behalf saving us another expensive trip across the water.
The other thing that has come to light is the existence of a French organisation called "Safer". It is well known that when buying a house in France that the local Maire has the authority to buy the house that you are purchasing if he, or she, decides it can fulfill a need in the community. Seldom is this power used, but it has to be gone through as part of the process.
But it also transpires that the people from "Safer Fr" have the same right, and have to be informed of the house sale so they can make a judgement on weather they would like to buy the dwelling. On reading up on the organisation it seems that, in the main they only deal with farmland and rural properties with a good deal of land attached, so there shouldn't be any problem.
Being the house we are buying has been on the market for over two years, common sense would say that these two bodies could, long ago, have decided if they had any interest in the property at La trintie Porhoet and saved us all a lot of time and heart ache. But that's not how it works, they wait until some one shows an interest, puts in a lot of time and effort, not to mention money, transfers the 10% to the Notaires office, then they send off the details to these two concerned parties and they let you know in due course. How long French due coarse is who can say?
At this moment our new life in Brittany seems a long way off......Keep the faith or "garder la foi" ( Thank you google translate).

Au revoir for now. 
          

Packing Madness

Nightmare

Packing must be like childbirth, if you remember how long and painful an experience it is, you wouldn't do it again. Mind you the last two weeks will not be forgotten in a hurry.

To start with it was hot, very hot, pushing 30 degrees for the most part, not making working conditions easy. Two weeks sounds along time but it very soon disappears and everything becomes one big rush.

We started on our books, that probably accounted for the first three days, I didn't realise we had so many! Piles of them being crammed into boxes which we then found difficult to lift. That's without the two large holdalls full I lugged up to the cancer shop.

With Karen's assistance (supervision) week one went fairly well, at the end of each day we would look around the house, nod sagely, and proclaim "we were getting there". How wrong we were.

At the start of the second week it was obvious we were getting behind. Karen had to return to work leaving me on my own franticly packing and transporting and stacking all our stuff into Lok n Store. But at least the size of our storage unit looked to be about right. that assumption proved to be a little off the mark as well.
More troops were required and in the shape of my esteemed brother in law, Mr Terry Abbott and a very good friend Norman Drewitt I found them. Also Karen driving to Tesco at 7am every morning to keep us supplied with fresh boxes was crucial.
So we worked and worked, and on Thursday evening, having rented another small unit, we finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel. The packing did become a little frenzied towards the end and box labelling went out the window, but needs must. Good thing too as we had to be out of Melrose by lunch time the following day.
So on Friday morning we took the cats over to the cattery that was to be their home for the next eight weeks or so. Dismantled  the bed and took it with the last few bits down to the store. Even then, when we finally packed the car to leave we could barely get it all in.
But it was done, we were out, with about an hour and a half to spare, and it wouldn't have happened without the help of Norman, Terry and Mr. Colin Newton who drove the van for the large pieces of furniture at the beginning and looking after our bicycles and a double mattress that wouldn't fit in storage.
Well that's it we are now homeless and will spend the next part of this adventure dossing with various friends and relatives. I hope were not going to be too much of a nuisance.