I had given explicit directions to our house to the Fr connection to pass on to the truck driver who apparently left the first half of our village off the GPS directions and ended up almost an hour away in a town called...yes, Sonneville! He forgot the Lignieres part, and we had to google to see where he might be...only about 60 kms away!
This was 10.15am. The truck was due at 10am. The fellas who were employed to unload the container (the truck driver doesn't do this...anywhere, it seems) arrived in a van, readied their tools...which looked like they were about to do surgery....and we all stood around getting acquainted in Franglais...and eventually the two of them walked to the end of the road where we assumed the truck would be appearing from. Meanwhile I was having e-mail conversations with our FR Conn. and giving him further instructions to relay to the truck driver.
I'm glad Antoine (furniture mover) kept his two left side wheels on the road, as the ground was completely sodden elsewhere. So much rain in the past few weeks.
2 hrs later, our truck/container appears...well almost 2 hrs....11.50am! Merde! We just hoped that they all didnt want to stop work and go get some lunch, as the rest of France was about to do, judging by the amount of traffic along our road at this time.
The truck drove past the house...we heard it coming and ran outside to see it tootling off down the road...waaaaat??? Where is he going? To turn around? We didnt wait to find out because he was travelling at a fair clip and we both knew that the route was Barre (Closed!) because of road works at St Preuil, just 4 kms away.
I hopped in our car and took off in the same general direction, which is funny, coz there really is only one road you can go down from here...but...I saw no truck with a container on the back!.
I negotiated the road works going down the road...it was now 11.55am....but there really was no way a truck that size could have gone down between the barriers, in the way. I was given nasty looks from the workmen who were leaning on their shovels by this time.
Down the road another couple of hundred metres and I gave up, turned around and made my way back to the road block. Hmmm...maybe there is a way through the village to get around this, but I hadn't seen a road futher up the might indicate this. Oh well, just give it a go!
300 metres up that road and then it got skinnier and skinnier. Ok... maybe not! Turn around in a driveway...my 3-point turns are really good by now, as I get lots of practice.
Drove hell for leather back to the house to find the bloody truck parked outside the house! Waaatt?? Where the heck did he go to turn around because he and I didnt pass each other, and there is no other place to turn around! Crikey!
The other two fellas were apparently asking where Madame had gone, as they saw me hare off down the road in the opposite direction. Waz held the fort in my absence, so I can only guess how their conversation went, lol.
Good thing I pruned all the vines along the roadside the week before.
Truck engine was killed, and the drive came out to shake everyone's hands...except mine! Never mind.
He had the key to the first of the lock seals on the back of the container, but the yellow one we affixed in Jacksonville, we had to get that off ourselves with the aid of a hacksaw and vice grip. Waz held the grip while one of our fellas hacked. It came off. I think we will frame it:)
#1 lock....
Voila! The moment of truth arrived. I have to say I was not expecting it to all be in the same place we left it in Florida. Oh yee of little faith!
SURPRISE!!!! It was!! WOW! Photos to prove everything, and the unloading started.
As you can see, we didnt need a whole 20ft container, but International Shipping doesnt do 10ft ones, so this is what we got and paid for.
I had cleared the decks in all the rooms to hold the various boxes...I even washed the floors! how's that for organized! or perhaps Anal?
Our two fellas had a good system going but it took all four of us (truck driver might have gone off for a nap) to clear out 10 feet of container space in just on two hours, and stack in the various rooms.
Plenty of room to walk between boxes, and thank goodness I had marked the contents on each box. Sure makes it easy. The numbers were not necessary to check off as the container had not been opened at all.
I dont think it will be this easy when the NZ container arrives. I am a bit concerned about that one, because they took our stuff away in two truck loads to the warehouse to repack it into the container (40ft), which means double handling, of course. I hope our special furniture isnt damaged.
No tipping, just a handshake all around, Bienvenue a France...Welcome to France, Long life and enjoy the day. Nice men!:) Sign the paper saying everything is accounted for, and off they go back to La Rochelle, 150 kms away. That's all these men do. Empty people's containers.
...and off he goes.
Meanwhile, I had put some eggs on to boil. By 1pm Waz and I were pretty hungry, having only had muesli for breakfast. We had anticipated being done by noon, you see. We should know better than that, right ?
Eggs boiled and smashed to make a salad, half a baguette, some salad thrown on the table (well, not literally!) and we snuffled it all down like people who hadn't eaten for a week.
It gave us an opportunity to survey the scene.
So, we have spent all the rest of the day undoing, traipsing up and down stairs in both directions (up a level and down into the basement) but mostly everything was placed pretty accurately in the appropriate room of the house by the unpackers.
We sit here tonight amidst the carnage. Being pretty methodical, we haven't rummaged through everything, but Waz has made the Dining table and chairs a priority, and we have our own bed to sleep on...that was almost #1~ and we will be happy to do so tonight.
It is now Wednesday afternoon...late.
Yesterday morning I felt like a broken old lady. I was so exhausted I felt ill. I didnt do much until mid afternoon, and watched Waz tootling around putting things away, getting his daily exercise up and down the stairs a gazillion times... and then he started to put together the Pantry, because in terms of priorities, I couldn't put many things away until that was in place.
We had decided, over the weekend, that we really needed to paint the smallest room in the house before we put the shelving up. Well, HE put the shelving up. I supervised!:)
Waz put the first and base coat on, leaving it to dry overnight, on Saturday. I felt the need to paint on Sunday, and so I did the remaining coats by hand, with a brush.
Waz is laying the plastic floor covering in the little room.
I found some muscles I hadn't thought of for a loooong time! Let's just say that I could hardly walk at the end of it! The floor does look nice though. I wont tell you about the horrid job someone did on the levels or the grout. Suffice to say that at some stage we will need to re-grout!.
Monday morning I have told you all about, so after the fellas and the container truck left, we ate our lunch and immediately began unpacking.
One of the first things I found was a large pie plate. Joy! Around 5pm I made a quiche. Thank goodness for frozen pastry! (thawed, of course).
Eschalottes finely chopped and cooked with the lardons (bacon bits) and mushrooms, drained some corn kernels and grated some of that English Cheddar Rouge (the orange cheese). I used the last of the crème Fraiche and some milk along with 5 small eggs for the custard. Perfect! The frozen pastry was the right size for the pie plate. It was meant to be:)
We wolfed this down with a side salad for good measure.
It was hard to get up this morning. The sore body coupled with a different bed meant a not so restful night and I chastised myself for not taking one Tylenol to help me relax and take the edge off the body soreness.
Up and at it...tough to just stick with one thing at a time, because everywhere we looked, things needed unpacking.
Waz concentrated on getting the living room furnishings unpacked, and he put all the tables together.
It was well worth out time to pack the glass properly, because they are intact.
The blue sofas look grey in this light.
I had cleaned out this drawer before thinking to take a before and after photo. It really was rather dreadful before. Now I can find everything. It was very much a matter of getting rid of what existed and replacing it all with our own stuff, but keeping some things we might need until the NZ stuff arrives.
From ghastly to gorgeous!
The little 3 x drawer freezer is now back in place, and the shelves ready to be filled...more to come...
Easy dinner!
We had paid a visit to our local E.Leclerc supermarket in Barbezieux yesterday and found some Lamb chops on sale. We couldn't believe the price of 6,48euros for 4 large chops. They were delicious! Add some eggplant, courgette and pre-cooked potatoes, and there you have a delightful meal.
Having rained all day, it suddenly cleared and we were outside in a flash. The sun even came out for the duration of the cooking, before raining again soon after.:)
Today, Wednesday, we had to go into Chateaubernard, the commercial center of Cognac, to get some parts for the Weed Wacker that were left out of the order last weekend. The woman called us on the phone yesterday to tell us they were there. Hmm...After strict instructions to only e-mail us...she obviously didnt get that memo, and she doesnt speak English, so I almost hung up on her. I did manage to ask what town she was calling from, because she said we had ordered something from her store, and I couldn't for the life of me remember what we might have ordered anywhere...Once she said Chateaubernard, it all rang the old bells, thank goodness, lol. I managed to complete that conversation and tell her we would pick it up a demain! (today)
We also had to visit the Mr Bricolage, a huge new one in the same area, and get more shelving and wall rods for the pantry. Of course we arrived there at 1/4 to noon. We didnt expect this large store to close for lunch, but close it was going to. The security guard was ushering people to the cashier desk and told us we had 2 minutes to Caisse! (check out)
Crikey, how are you to know which store closes for lunch, especially these big ones. Should have read the hours of opening on the door, I guess?? lol.
Finished! The vacuum goes behind the freezer, and there is room in there for the recycling and glass collection box. We recycle that just down the road, but the recycling men pick up the yellow bags twice a month. I think we might use all our bags up before the end of the year, the rate we are going.
We are plotting the next paint job, so stand by for that action! It may be the laundry across the hallway from the pantry...similarly pink! but a much larger space. Perhaps twice the size?
That's it folks. Im all done in. Waz has had a nap, and it is time to think about putting some more lamb on the barby...or maybe the chicken we also picked up that was on sale?. The sun has come out just for that occasion, so we will go and make the most of it.
Looking forward to some sunshine in the near future. We have had enough of this grass-growing rain and thunder etc.
Bye for now. A bientot.
Love the shelving in the laundry room!
ReplyDeleteDidnt Waz do well! :) Its the Pantry. Laundry room will come next!
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