When I drew the curtains back this morning, there was a glorious red sunrise, indicating poor weather. For a short while the sun rose and shone, before disappearing behind snow clouds. I managed to get a photo of the sun touching the tips of the trees opposite the house.
Yes, there was a frost this morning, but not a hoar frost. I did have to fill the kettle again to de-ice the windshield, but it wasn't too frosty.
We are determined to find a car and be ready to purchase when we have our banking issues sorted.
We have had correspondence from the owner of our property indicating what she will remove from the property, and what she will leave. 99% of stuff will be ours! wow! We didn't expect that.
She is expediting things on her end, thankfully, so our projected move-in date should be on schedule. Keep your fingers crossed!
The Car! We have our rental car for the duration of our Home Sit, but the sooner we have our own transport, and insured, the better. We have to wait until we have signed the Comprise de Vente (agreement of sale), to get the bank account. We will have just ten days to bring the deposit money to France. We dont need a bank account for this as the money is paid into the escrow account of the Notaire, BUT we do need one to purchase a vehicle, pay insurance, register our vehicle, sign up for electricity etc. It shouldn't be too difficult with help from the Notaire and the Realtor. We think we have identified a bank we would like to bank with. We can purchase Assurance ( A sure rance - Insurance) from the bank...all our insurance. The more the better! We will get better rates if we have all our insurance with the one company, of course.
Our search today was for the bank initially and we set out for Barbezieux (Bar bez ee yer) St Hilaire (cent ee laire) which is the closest large town to our new home. The city is a maze of one way streets, made more challenging by being market day. Aiee! As often seems to happen, we find just the right parking spot at the last minute...parked outside a church alongside which were the market stalls....in the bitterly cold wind. Because it was already 11.15am (gah! 45 mins to talk to someone before noon when everything closes), we hustled down the road to the bank, which was a branch of the one in Angouleme, head office. It is an International Bank with excellent promotions and the kind of features we seek, being internationals.
I asked if someone spoke English. I HATE doing this, but until I am fluent enough in French language, this is what we will have to do. A rather gorgeous young man (well, they were all a weeny bit gorgeous - forgive this old woman!!!) came to our rescue and between us we found that this branch may be closing. Nice of him to tell us! Not a good way to do business...sign us up anyway, wont you?
Well, they recommended that we actually open our account at the head office in Angouleme, which probably isn't a silly idea. Most branches open irregular hours, and it will always be our luck to arrive when they aren't open. We have a bad habit of doing this! ack!
Having decided that lunch was a good idea, we headed off to the E. Leclerc Bistrot and Supermarche(and the relatively clean bathrooms). We were a little bit early, so we decided to go and visit the white wear store once again, and take a closer and more serious look at the appliances.
There is a very small washer in the house, which might be fine for nickers and bras, but not duvets. With this in mind, we were looking for an 8kg washer. This is one of the larger drums.
This Hotpoint is an Aristan brand, which is common here, as is whirlpool.
We will look at other prices and models before making a decision, of course. Our budget for these isn't huge, but worth getting good machinery, as always.
We also looked at a smaller fridge, as we dont want a side-by-side fridge freezer in the kitchen. There is no need for a freezer in the kitchen when it can be just down the back stairs, in the basement. There is an existing large chest freezer down there already. We can put the existing fridge down there too. It is too large for this smallish kitchen.
This isn't something we are interested in, but the price is good, and it is typical of models in French homes. We are used to a 3/4 sized fridge freezer on the boat, so I am an expert at provisioning to suit.
We aren't far from supermarkets, so marketing will be not different from what we do on the boat, really.
The town , which we took some time to slowly drive through...yes, with one of our new neighbors poking her nose out the window...to which I waved my camera ...lol...indicating I was photographing the lovely local buildings.
There is a Mairie, a Garage with petrol/gas/mechanic, a Boulangerie/Patisserie, a Bar/restaurant, opening on Feb. 15th!! An old church, a Chateau, and many gorgeous Maison Maitre. I will have to take photos on a day when it wasn't trying to snow!
The neighbors.
Having driven back and forth past the house, photographing parts of interest that we had forgotten, and commented/planned, we set out to visit our closest other village, Segonzac, the Capital of the Grande Champagne Cru. This small town is our closest supermarket and shopping base.
Winding roads up hill and down dale, glorious vistas, fascinating buildings housing large amounts of Cognac, large stainless tanks front and center, and stunning Chateau, Maison Maitre and Bourgeoise abound. This one was not far from our house.
This is a wealthy area, and has been for a long time because of the caramel colored spirit they call the Eau de Vie - Water of life....Cognac. Segonzac also has the smallest University complex in France, for the study of Viticulture, management, marketing and everything to do with Vines, vineyards and Cognac. It has an International study body.
The town square is typical as far as squares go, and this one isn't overly large.
We parked in this parking lot in front of the church and Mairie.
The Mairie is a lovely building, showing the wealth of the area with beautiful symmetry, Lovely stone walls and slate roof, in an area known for it's cream colored limestone rock walls and orange tile roofs.
We did a little further exploration into the new light industrial area, finding these amazing looking grape picking machines.
Dinner was a Valentine's Day dinner...well, one day before THE day, but who cares. We didn't organize it this way, just happened that we liked the look of the dessert, lol.
Butter Chicken with shredded and lightly cooked red cabbage. We like that instead of the rice.
We shared it of course.
Pretty? Light and fluffy....and this is a supermarket dessert. 4.70 euros. A big splash for Valentines.
However....in the showroom was a 94 Z3, Red Beemer soft top! WOW! Only problem is they want 10 grand for it...OUCH! lol. Might be a bit cold in this weather with a soft top.
Nice try. We will be back. Buying from dealer who will also service the vehicle is good, and they provide a vehicle for you for free while they service yours. We like them:)
The owners son spoke a little English, and we made ourselves understood.
Ok...bed time folks.
Sweet dreams.
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