We are Home Owners!

We just received a note from the Realtor to say that our offer has been accepted and we might expect to be in our new home at the beginning of April. They (those involved in such things) are pulling out all stops to achieve this before we return to the USA. This APPEARS to be a fairly straight forward transaction in the scheme of things .
You will have to wait for any photos of the property outside, until we are actually living there.

Logistics! It is a bit of a nightmare, to be honest...I was going to say 'to be frank', but that might be construed as a pun, non? lol.
Our household of 'stuff' that we wanted to keep has now been in storage in NZ for 5 yrs. Our lovely black leather (very expensive, I might add!!) sofas may now be lovely GREEN sofas, as the storage unit isn't climate controlled. It was a risk we had to take, given that the only air controlled storage facility available to us at the time, was many Kms away, and that didn't serve our purpose of being able to add things at any time. Sigh!
Our 'stuff' in Florida likewise isn't in a temperature controlled environment, but it wasn't ever going to be there for long, and our lovely new leather sofas there are wrapped for shipping, already.

Let me explain the furnished house we are purchasing, and why.....well, the furnishings, anyway. It wasn't our intention to buy a furnished house. We had figured that we would wait until most of our stuff had arrived in France...the US stuff being the first, that we would stay in Florida on the boat until we had to be here to receive our goods.
Because it will take time (months) to ship all our stuff from both countries, we have to have something to sleep on, eat on, sit on etc. Being in our own home and having the ability to do necessary 'things' (those on the immediate to do list) whilst living on site is just an incredible bonus. It is one we hadn't anticipated, to be honest, and that is one less stressor removed from the equation.

I'm also not going to tell you anything further about the village down the hill until we live there. Too much information at this stage of the process, and for security reasons. Besides, we have to have SOMETHING to tell you about when we get there, right?

So what did we do on this glorious Sunday?
Yes, the sun was shining after some rain last night. The temperature rose to 9C, which was great, but the wind still had a bite to it. We rose late...9am-ish and enjoyed some muesli with canned peaches and yoghurt...a once a fortnight breakfast, Im afraid. I dont enjoy the texture of Meusli or the raw oats, but I know it might be good for me, so I eat it...occasionally! lol....and because I had omitted to take the Pain Cereal (grain bread) out of the freezer the night before. There! Mea Culpa!

As I was saying, this glorious morning needed us to go somewhere...in this case we are looking for cars. We have the house, so now we need a French car. Not a large one, as large cars have trouble getting around those hairpin bends in towns and you cant park a large one in some of the parking spots, among other 'cant's'.

We quite like the Renault (Ren oh) Captur that we have rented, and like the size and KNOW it fits where we need to go. It is also a bit gutless on the hills but with a smaller engine you expect that and in France you cant open the throttle anywhere without paying hefty fines for your moment of glory, Ha! So, a 1600cc vehicle is the largest hp we are looking at. The options are many, and we have to decide whether we want just a shopping basket or something we can actually put building products in without messing the place up, as it were. We are also looking to buy a tandem wheeled trailer, so a trailer hitch is essential to us. So, this would probably indicate that we only need a small shopping basket, non?

 Such glorious views across the nearby valleys.

I dont have photos of any of them, but we would like a French brand, this being France, and ease of maintenance/parts etc, and the expense is less, we suspect. Renault is the lesser of the brands, going up through Citroen, and Peugeot (per zhoh) being the top of that heap. My dad would be proud of us if we purchase a Peugeot, as he had 13 of them over the years. Loved them!

In order to look at vehicles on this Sunday...which means that none of the car yards are open...perfect!...we had to drive towards Angouleme (ong goo lem), just about 30kms away. On the way we stopped off to walk through a car yard that wasn't fenced and locked. This gave us an idea of some of the vehicles and their approx. sizes and prices, which vary widely according to years and Kms.
There didn't seem to be much rhyme or reason to some of the pricing, but we will consult one of our local contacts in this regard this coming week.
 We dont know if the French are open to negotiation on prices. Much to find out!
My contact says "Give it a go" when it comes to negotiation. The best I might do would be a Tow Bar, new tires, and/ or inside mats for the floor, to mention but a few. Something better than nothing?

Pushing onwards towards Soyaux, the town this side of Angouleme, we found that the Asian Buffet Restaurant that was closed for vacation last time, was now open. Woohoo! Well, maybe.
What we didn't realize until half way through our buffet meal is that on evenings and Sundays, the cost of lunch is 17.50 euros. With our cup of coffee, the total cost was almost 40 euros... ouch! That's an expensive lunch. Just as well we had soup for dinner.
Most of the food was less than hot, and the choices were a bit naff. I think we will go back to Flunch next door, if there is a next time.

We didn't much feel like 'doing' the car yards after lunch, and it was freezing out in the wind. We hadn't been INTO Angouleme proper, so made the decision to do so in the afternoon.

Angouleme is the Capital of the Department of the Charente. It will be our largest city, and probably where our banking and all other business will be done. It is 40kms from our new home, but that isn't much in the scheme of things. Most of the satellite banks in France are only open on certain days and mornings only. Hopefully we can set up all or most of our banking to be done online, with automatic payments in place for our utilities etc.

The city is located on a high Limestone plateau (approx 133 meters (436 feet)  above sea level) overlooking the Charente River, and is nicknamed the 'Balcony of the Southwest' of France. The city ramparts surround the old town with it's stunning Chateau, Cathedral (highly figured) and Hotel de Ville (Town Hall).

If you wish to know more about this lovely city, read the Wikipedia link below. I HIGHLY recommend you scroll down to the History of the area. Some fascinating reading there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angoulême


I love the shapes, designs and juxtapositions.

 This is the old city of Angouleme.

 We are high on the Ramparts of the Old City.

 Angouleme has been (and may still be) a wealthy city. This is evident in the huge Maisons Bourgeoise overlooking the ramparts and the valley below. Gorgeous carved stone, decorative balconies etc

 The City Hall  has pride of place in the middle of the old town.

 The Allee from the City Hall looking towards the ramparts. We walked straight down this row, to the statue of Carnot at the bottom.

 We were amused to see this cat sitting atop one of the rood supports on the Town Hall.

 Can you see it up there? on the end.

 The end of this wall tells a gazillion stories, doesn't it? There were other homes attached, at some stage of it's history. Other chimney, doors too.

 Stunning  architecture around the square leading to the ramparts.

 The amazing details on the Concert Hall.

 Ramparts on the left. We walked all the way down to the Cathedral.

 Looking over the valley below.

The statue of Nicolas Carnot at the end of the Allee. Carnot was a Politician, Engineer, Freemason and Mathematician, better known as the Father of Thermodynamics. He is well known for his 'Carnot Cycle', which is a Theoretical Thermodynamic Cycle. It was his only publication in 1824. You can read more about this prominent Frenchman here, if interested. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicolas_Léonard_Sadi_Carnot

 The view, like so many from similarly prominent places, is riveting. You can stand and look out there for ages, as we found...except that the wind was cold! You can see the TGV Rail line in the lower left hand corner. The line is the new one from Bordeaux to Paris. We have done this trip 3 times now.

 Not too many people outside on this Sunday afternoon. Usually we find a few walkers, but this happened later.

 Take a look at the sculpture above this window. Here on the left we see perhaps a grape picker, and on the right we see someone who gathers sticks or firewood. Perhaps they are a forester? This is very indicative of the area, being on the outskirts of the Cognac producing area, with lots of forests, and indeed a paper mill in the area. We do see plantations of pine on our travels.

 Love this steeple. It is very Charentais, by the way. To me they look like pine cones...well, dont they? Lol.

 Standing outside the gorgeous Cathedral, we turned around to look towards where the ramparts divide, one going uphill the other going down.

 The sculptural relief on the façade of the cathedral is stupendous. We hadn't seen anything quite this ornate, to date. Just look at that!

 This is one of several imposing cathedrals in Angouleme. We walked up the left hand side of it and around the back, making more discoveries along the way. We had parked waaay down the other side of the Centre Ville, and had much walking to return there. Not in any hurry and enjoying the exercise despite the cold, we enjoyed the sunshine while it was there, and the lack of people. Plenty of others appeared the further towards the center of town we walked, similarly enjoying the sunshine, though rugged up warmly.

 I would guess that this is a depiction of St George slaying the Dragon for ...who? I dont remember the whole thing. Brilliant!:)

 See what I mean about the pine cones?

 Another tower at the other end of the cathedral. This one was the Bell Tower.

 The grand façade of the Palais de Justice...yes, the Law Courts is in a pretty square.

 The Mairie, or Mayors Office and Administration building. Very grand and with a slightly delicate façade, in my opinion.

 Further on we kept finding surprises on the horizon. Here is another steeple...Oh riiight! This is the church we parked outside of....I had lost my bearings...per usual.

 More details...stunning, aren't they? Everywhere we looked, the level of detail took our breaths away. I felt rather emotional over the beauty of it all.

 The Bank of France is Grand, but without the ornamentation of the other buildings. This one means business!

 Stunning open spaces. It was a bit of a nightmare to negotiate all the one way streets, later on though. This is pretty normal for most cities.

 Outside a kids store. Love it.

 Roof lines amaze me. Each building is so different to it's neighbors, yet in each Department of France there are traditional elements that are recognizable.

 Herge was the creator of the popular character Tintin. I loved those books as a kid. We is obviously a well loved local.

 In all the greyness that surrounded us, this woman in her black tights and hat and stunning red coat stood out and attracted many admiring glances. We well turned out couple! Made us smile.

 In that building at the back is a Marionette Theatre. A friend of mine would have loved that. She was a marionette artist and such a wonderful woman. I wonder if she knew it was here?

 Silhouettes. What a lovely French word that is.:)

 Where there are no windows, they painted them on. People after my own heart!:) Love the cat!

 This modern building houses the Champs de Mars Mall downstairs. We were rather flabbergasted, to see this, to be honest. There is a HUGE flat open space to the left there, which encouraged families to gather, kids to bike, skateboard and other activities. We watched Grandparents bringing their grandkids here with their bikes and scooters. A safe place for them to play on such a day as this.

 Our last look over the Rampart to the church outside which our car was parked. We had a wee way to go to get there.

 I'm a sucker for a lovely pair of gates supported by solid Charentais limestone standards leading into a shady courtyard..

 We peered into the Champs de Mars underground Mall space. We will have to return on a weekday to take a look down there.

Satisfied that we had seen all we came to see...for now, we made our way home. A cup of tea beckoned, and at 4.pm, our tongues were hanging out for it. Nice to get home, start the fire and hunker down for some research on cars. Plenty for us to know.