our alsatian adventure

ecole

In 2010 the kids had - by far - the most challenging transition ever. We took them out of their nice, cozy loving English language based school and thrust them into the cruel world of French public education. It wasn’t an easy decision but after some thought we decided it was best that the kids attend the local village school. At ages (just) 5 and 7 we figured that the kids still had a window to assimilate with the French students and learn the language. After a year we realize that Seth is just about at the maximum age to make the transition. It is a very strict system and there is little tolerance – or maybe time - for those who don’t conform to the system. I know this varies from region to region, village to village, teacher to teacher but we are in a situation where it wouldn’t have worked at age 9, 10 or beyond. We have been lucky this year. I wouldn’t say the kids are close to fluent in French but they can certainly get by very wellor even a bit more. They have made friends, done well academically and put in a huge effort to learn the language.

Maternelle

It is a funny little school. Fiona is in what they call the ‘Maternelle’. It consists of petite, moyenne and grande sections. She came in as a grande and pretty much reviewed some preschool work while adding to skills. Much like kindergarten but surrounded by smaller kids. She was in a ‘mixed class’ of nearly 30 kids – both grande and moyenne. This environment provided Fiona with plenty of play time where she could pick up the language in context. From day one Fiona seemed quite happy. She even had an English speaking friend from the village in her class – this made her feel quite comfortable. It is a strict environment – no question about it. But Fiona has asked questions all year long and has become quite comfortable with her maitresses. She even passed the entrance exam to first grade. These results will remain in her file for life now… Seriously they have a file that starts at age 3. There was an in class assessment that she did quite well on - and then I had to take her to a larger town to meet with a doctor/nurse team who asked her a number of questions (lifestyle, math, science, health, matching, rhyming, etc.) We got off to a rough start – she couldn’t name any colors. Then I realized Fiona and I were speaking English to each other but we were both speaking in French to the nurse. As soon as Fiona and I switched to French (although I was using bad French in a bad accent) she perked up and was able to answer all the questions and did quite well. I find that Fiona needs to be in one language or the other – she really doesn’t like to use both at the same time.

Primaire

At the Maternelle level the school serves three villages – ours included. But when moving up the ecole primaire where Seth is studying - each town has its own school. We arrived to sign Seth up for the first day of school and the directress seemed stressed. Seth was going into a huge class. 10 kids. Wow I thought – great student teacher ratio… Then we found out that there are only two teachers in the school for the five grades – they basically divided the kids up into two groups based on age and voila. Ecole.

Seth was placed into the third grade (France uses calendar year to divide up grades). So over the summer he went from first grade in English right on to third grade in French. I tried explaining to the teacher (Madame L) that this wouldn’t work. But no. He had to remain in CE2 (the equivalent of third grade) on orders from someone in the education office at the sous-prefecture. Once he failed we could make a case for holding him back. She admitted that Seth was the first English speaking child she had ever taught and that she herself spoke very limited English. No special programs were available and she made it clear it was our job to teach him French. Her job was to teach French children – not teach children how to speak French. This of course was all in French – as she had also been given orders to speak to us only in French and never use English. We all celebrated two weeks later when Seth failed so miserably that he was brought into CE1 (second grade). Nothing like celebrating failure to move ahead with something. The teacher literally moved him from the CE2 row over to the CE1 row. Now he was between the CP (first grade) and CE2 (third grade). We agreed to start him with a tutor to supplement his language acquisition.

Transition

I think school was more of a shock for Seth. It is a far stricter environment than he is used to. Structure, order and memorization are the keys to success. At least he came in with one of the keys…. Our first hurdle was handwriting. I think his teacher said something like ‘your son writes like an animal. Actually a wild animal’ and we left it at that. Writing drills became routine. Math was harder and faster. Silence was required. PE consisted of running around the building faster and faster – avoiding roots in the dirt path and cracks in the blacktop. None of the kids spoke a word of English.

Seth was distressed and things were rough. About a month in he claimed he couldn’t understand anything and wouldn’t do any work. After an intervention at school and home, plus moving him next to the smartest girl in the class, things started to look up. The more he could understand the higher his confidence and soon he was scoring TB (and tres bien) and B+ on his grammar tests. Every week at school they have a grammar rule – last week was ‘regle 22G l’adjectif qualificatif’. Memorizing has always been his strength. Soon he was passing spelling tests – although the first time he did the teacher accused him of cheating. She didn’t think he was ready for the test and didn’t give him the list. I was able to get the spelling list from another mother and he memorized the words (in English too) and passed the test. Then it was on to dictees and auto-dictees (a dictation in which the teacher simply says ‘go’ and the students must write what they have memorized the day before). Poems were memorized, songs were sung (including the theme from Weeds). He even counted past eighty. Explaining to Seth that 99 was said “four twenties ten nine” was not an easy task. He made friends – people were interested in learning English and talking to him about the US. The kids were amazing with him – they really took him on as a project and helped him learn. I went on one of the school outings with the entire school and found that it was more like a family (about half of the kids are cousins).

Seth even got into trouble at school the other day for messing around with friends in class. Nothing serious – that tells me he is doing OK. His punishment was quite interesting - he had to write ‘I will not play in class’ ten times and have me sign it. He saw it is a bad thing – I saw it as more handwriting practice. The teacher has told me that he is quite well behaved – after meeting some of the other kids it really shouldn’t be too hard for him. One of his classmates gets ‘sent to the principal’s office’ at least twice a week. Interestingly the school is basically two classrooms – and no principal’s office. I asked Seth about ‘the principal’ and it seems the kids get sent to the mayor’s office or they get a talking to by the religion teacher.

It has been a year of ups and downs. Both kids have been challenged as have Aimee and I. The schedule has been a major challenge… The kids are in school in the morning and afternoon but spend two hours at home for lunch. And of course there is no school on Wednesdays. And in our village substitute teachers are about as rare as say a good bagel or standard size appliances. If the teacher (or the teacher’s kid) is sick – NO SCHOOL!

I am truly shocked and surprised at what kids can take. I think both can understand French fairly well now. Not fluent but leaps and bounds ahead of where they were in September. Both have made some close friends and have been invited to plenty of parties and playdates. Very different playdates for the kids - dropped Seth off at a friends house one time and the family was quite excited since the 'colza' harvest was in and they were going to their farm to watch the colza being pressed into oil...and check out the new tractor.

And Seth is no longer writing like a savage beast – more like a pet cat or dog. When discussing Fiona with Seth’s teacher (Fiona AND Seth will be in Madame L’s class next year) I warned her that she might have another handwriting challenge on her hands. ‘Mais Non!’ She said… ‘Handwriting won’t be a problem as she is learning our beautiful French cursive in Maternelle.’ (Not your silly anglo-scratch) I didn’t think my writing was that bad. Next year should be interesting with Fiona in CP (first grade) and Seth in CE2 (third grade). I am glad to know that the row of six CE1 kids will separate them… They have strict instructions to NOT speak English at school...I wonder what sort of punishment the teacher will come up with if they do speak in English. We’ll see how things go next year.

the death of swiss family c

So I haven’t had a blog entry since November 2009…over 19 months. Nothing since we moved from Switzerland to France! I apologize to my 8 loyal followers…I am sure you have been waiting for this moment. I have plenty of excuses. 2010 was pretty much a blur – lots of changesfor everyone in the house. I figured we were moving from one suburb of a major city (Basel, CH) to another suburb of the same city. Just hopping over the border to France – no big deal. I was very wrong. It is a different world in Muespach. For that reason I have renamed the blog – I now call it ‘our alsatian
adventure’. The link will remain swiss family c – changing that would seem to cause some trouble. And of course I am still heavily influenced by Switzerland – it is only a few minutes down the road. So I guess technicall swiss family c is not dead.

First it took us about 3 months to get the Internet up and going after we moved into the house – that is my main excuse. We were told it wasn’t possible. Then all of the sudden it was possible. That just about sums up the past 15 months. Just when you think something won’t work – everything all of the sudden comes together at the last minute. The right paper arrives in the mail. The administrative person (for some unknown reason) says ‘oui’ after many repeated ‘nons’.

Starting in November 2009 there was plenty of unpacking and all the house related fixing etc. Pretty much standard for any move. There was also plenty of administrative stuff – visas, cars, work permits, medical exams, driver’s licenses, etc… Each requiring loads of paperwork in triplicate
delivered to the correct office (some as close as the local mayor – others 2 hours away in Strasbourg), at the correct time, to a specific person.

I have perfected the art of dealing with the French administration. Here is how it works: Go first on a reconnaissance mission – get the checklist of what is needed. Come back a second time with everything on the list (plus copies) and extra papers that might be of use (marriage certificate, birth certificate, 8^th grade French test…). At this point the administrator can tell you what you are missing and you will be all set for the third visit. Simple. Then that administrator goes on strike and the new administrator can’t find your file.

Of course I have also been busy trying to study the French language – not an easy thing. The above-mentioned administrators also require the French language. In Switzerland I was able to get by with very basic German – most Swiss are modest about their English skills but we know the truth – they are all fluent. Not so here in the Alsace where the second language of choice is German (so that everyone has the chance to earn a Swiss salary). That being said – there are many people in the Alsace who speak some English but the majority will expect us to speak French. So I have dusted off the brain and startedstudying again – after a 20+ year break.

Then on top of all the administrative and language issues we made the (insert adjective) decision to put the kids into the local French school. That’s right – we took two kids who had been educated in English (but spent most of their lives a German speaking country) and threw them into a situation where everyone spoke French – and only French. Neither child has a background in French at all. They both walked into school the first day with ‘bonjour’ and ‘merci’. This of course was a challenge for everyone – I was the voice of the family as the administrators and teachers at the school will only to speak to us only in French. At this point Aimee decided it was time to start
learning a bit of the language to keep up.

The school transition took up about 110 percent of our time during the final third of 2010… but since Aimee was transitioning at work she was able to spend much of the latter of 2010 at home.

But – as is usual for us – we weren’t satisfied with all of these challenges. Our wonderful neighbors insisted that we use their builder to start our ‘guest house project’ that was slated for 2011 or 2012. Again – all the planning, administration, communication, etc.. took time away from my
precious blog.

Truth be told – it was a very eventful year and the blog would have been a great record of the events. Some funny – some frustrating.

All of our administrative issues, plus putting the kids into the village school along with tackling the building project has forced us into meeting many of the locals and our neighbors. We are finally on the mayor’s good side. He is one of our greatest allies in the village. He is fluent in English and
always willing to help. He loves America and everything American. Needless to say he was happy to welcome the first American family to town. On the down side he does occasionally scold us for our ‘over-Americanness’ and likes to quote Bobby McFarren….

Our neighbors to the east have been wonderful – providing us with a builder and designer for our garage conversion. They are a Swiss Italian/Swiss German family with grown children and half a dozen Chihuahuas and Papillons. In one household they have native (by birth) speakers of Greek,
German, Italian, Spanish, and English. I have no idea how this is possible but
it is in fact true.

Our neighbors to the west have been a help too. They are a German/Swiss German family with
one daughter - very quiet people who are amateur farmers. We have had some good contact with them. I try to talk with them when they are out tending the vines or the fruit trees… Unfortunately our neighbors to the east donot get along with the neighbors to the west. We didn’t realize that we would end up being neutral party wedged between two Swiss families.

We have met some other interesting folks around town and in the area – such as the owner of the local restaurant who has taken a liking to Fiona, the local doctor who got married in Las Vegas, the mayor’s assistant who also runs the post office, the mayor’s other assistant who has a penchant for
pink sweaters, our friendly gardener who has saved our yard, our builder who made a garage into a house all on his own, our somewhat unglued cleaning lady, our slick insurance agent… plus all of the kids’ teachers/tutors.

So you missed 2010…and about half of 2011. Now that the kids are settled into school and phase one of home renovations is complete I am committing to putting up a post once a week. Won’t promise anything exciting but hopefully I can get the diary of our life back up and running.

The final meeting

Finally - on Friday - after months of waiting we finally had our final meeting at the Notaire. The sellers handed over the keys. All 46 of them - plus a few remote control devices. Of course after they left the room the Notaire looked at us and said. 'You know - you really should have all the locks changed...' Thanks for that... It was nice to finally get the house and have the process behind us.

Prior to our meeting at the Notaire we had our 'final walk through' of the house. Checked out the complex heating system again, watched the sellers show us how to read the many pressure gauges in the basement, looked at the control panel on the jacuzzi, tried to figure out what every button in the house controls... Aimee of course told me - don't touch anything -please don't touch any buttons or knobs. No big surprises.. a few odd bird stickers left on the kitchen window...a missing fountain. Nothing too shocking except for the fact that there were far more light fixtures removed than we expected.

You see in Switzerland and Germany (and the Alsace - especially if you are Swiss or German) everything goes when you move out. Light fixtures, closets, curtain rods, appliances (that are not built in). We were given a list of things we could purchase and opted for a few things here and there but didn't go for the light fixtures. We casually talked with the seller about leaving a couple of old fixtures (basically worthless) upstairs so we had some light. But there was nothing... So - no light but on the bright side we can just put up our own new fixtures now and not deal with removing the old ones... Of course - the lack of light fixtures did mean a valuable packing/moving day spent at IKEA. I can't think of anything I'd rather do less than spend a Saturday morning than IKEA.

Oh maybe there is one thing... Calling EDF (Electricite de France) to have the electric service switched over to our name. At the closing (as I'll call it) the Notaire informed us that the sellers would call the electric company and the water company to give the final meter readings (we read them together at the final walk through) and then the power and water would be in our name. At about 4PM the Notiare called to inform us that the previous owners couldn't have the electricity put into our name and that we had to call... She gave us an 800 number (not usable outside of France - of course we don't have a French phone) and said to call EDF and change it. We were a bit worried about this and wanted to get in touch with the sellers as soon as possible to see what had gone wrong... of course the Notaire didn't have any contact numbers for the sellers.

After a bit of research we found a number for EDF from outside France... I am not one for automated menus. And in rapid French it is even worse. It was wild... Press 1 for this. Enter your zip code. Say no. Say yes. Say your name. What wine growing region are you closest to? Tell me how you feel about French foreign policy? I am not sure but I think they just wanted to get me to an operator who was a good Myers-Briggs match. So finally after just 5 minutes on hold I was able to talk to a nice French woman - I'll call her Marie. I explained my situation to Marie - after telling her I didn't speak French well. And then she broke into English. Very good English. This was amazing - talking to a French service company on a Saturday morning in English! Everything was going so well - until the computer system crashed. It appears that Marie's minitel had some trouble. She actually started saying things in English like 'for God's sake' and 'I am pissed off.' Marie cursed a bit more in English and put me on hold. She came back and her English broke down...I told her to speak in French again.

It was so perfect up to that moment and then... no it couldn't be...I couldn't lose Marie. Thankfully after hitting the minitel a few times it was resolved - she took my bank information for the fifth time and voila - electricty. We ended up having a good laugh - I had her repeat my email address back to make sure the bill would be going to the right place. I started with the 'p (as in parrot)' thing earlier in the conversation when spelling - so she decided to take a stab at it. She said 'c' as in CIA and 'u' as in USA. What a joker!She apologized for the delay and it was done - a very good experience with EDF. And I have a new friend in France.

At the walk through we also discovered that not one but both of the 1500 liter (400 gallon) oil tanks were nearly empty... Time to order oil! Thankfully the sellers gave us the name of the company that ordered from in the past... A quick call, an unsuccessful conversation with the receptionist,  a good conversation with the delivery guy and voila. Oil on tuesday. The only word of English the delivery guy could get out was 5. Not sure why that was his only number but he was happy using the word five in English. The rest was -  a mishmash of German and French - more French than German though. Tuesdays is also the day I expect a call from the appliance store where I ordered a washing machine and dryer. Again, using a mishmash of French and German I am pretty sure someone is going to give me a call and tell me that they have arrived...

Or at least that is what I think. Who knows - maybe I'll end up with 3000 liters of fish oil and no electricity. I am always about 90 percent sure that I have said or done the right thing but nothing is ever 100 percent these days....

The next few days will be filled with closing out the apartment and moving to the new house. The movers come on Monday and then Friday morning we will have our final inspection. Hope it passes... We still haven't set up telephone, Internet or TV in France. And of course we don't don't lights in the new place. So we'll be spending more time reading by candlelight than blogging or checking Facebook.

For now here are some pictures from the new house....

house/backyard from the back gate

 

Shed

Shed/house

View from back gate

Backyard

Time out for fun

With all of the excitement surrounding the move we sort of forgot we had kids. This does happen on occassion. So we decided to take some time off from moving to have some fun with the kids.

One evening last week we headed down to the Herbstmesse (fall festival) in Basel with the kids. For two weeks in the fall much of the city is taken over by games, rides, vendors, etc.

 

The kids really enjoy it - this is the fourth year that we have been able to take part in the festivities.

You can check out years past here. It is fun to look back and see how much the kids have grown...

Herbstmesse 2008

Herbstmesse 2007

Herbstmesse 2007a

Herbstmesse 2007b

Herbstmesse 2006 

Herbstmesse 2006a

It was Seth's fourth year on Calypso - a tradition now.

 

Fiona even decided to give it a go and loved it -we have been on a few more times since.

It was a Wednesday afternoon so we walked right on the ferris wheel - no lines - for a great sunset view.

Then of course the slides... Fiona can do it on her own now. It is real sweet - I told Seth to watch out for her and every time they march up to the top he makes sure she is OK. Maybe there is a chance they'll get along!!

Some swings (yawn..) - I think they have outgrown these. They won't even consider the little ride around cars anymore.

Then the kids tricked me into going on a ride called Swing Out or Spin Out...it is right across from the Munster.

I had seen it before but didn't really recall what it did. It wasn't in motion as we walked up to it - and being a slow evening the ticket seller called us over. I asked if it was fine for little Fiona to go on for a ride. The lady selling the tickets laughed and said of course. I assume she would have said the same for a newborn or a puppy...  Seth was on the ride a few says earlier with Aimee so I figured OK - lets give it a try... All three of hopped into a car - the one with the American flag in fact. Oh dear. I thought I was going to be sick - it sped up and slowed down and threw us in the air for a good long time - I swear when the fair is slow the ride operators hit the button marked 'long program'. The kids loved it - I got off and couldn't walk straight for about 10 minutes.... Then off to the bumper cars!!

It is funny to think back to when Seth wasn't even allowed on the little motorcycles that go around a fixed motorized track. Now the kids can really enjoy the fair. Soon they won't even need me to go on the rides...

Of course we nearly forgot about Halloween in all the moving excitement. Luckily Seth selected Halloween as his 'special day' project at school.

In the first grade kids are required to select a holiday, complete a poster on the holiday and then do a presentation on the holiday. This holiday is supposed to be something special to your family or related to your country. Of course Seth chose Arbor Day. While this did originate in the US and I like gardening - we don't really do much for Arbor Day. I think it is great that Seth recognizes the importance of planting trees but I wasn't quite sure about presenting Arbor Day. So I suggested Thanksgiving, Christmas, Fourth of July, and even Presidents Day.. No, NO, NO and NO!!! So we finally agreed upon Halloween. He liked it, the teachers liked it, easy enough to present. 

We kicked off the weekend Seth's Halloween presentation to the class. Then Seth went to a lovely party in the afternoon on Saturday followed by some real trick or treating!

As usual we let the kids decide on their own (about an hour before the party) what they wanted to be... Seth came up with 'an American football fan' and Fiona dressed as 'Fancy Nancy'

We opted out of our own neighborhood this year and visited some friends who live in a very contained expat area. It was great - the kids went from door to door - loads of candy - tons of friends. A really perfect Halloween for a 6 year old and a 4 year old. Even better than I remember as a kid...but that was a while ago.

We had a nice little impromptu party with friends that even included bobbing (or 'dunking?' according to our Scottish friends...) for apples. Haven't done that in years!

Both kids said it was the best Halloween ever!

We finished off the weekend with a nice fall walk in the woods on the Swiss/French border near Oltingue. A lovely little loop with a nice area to rest at the end.

I especially enjoyed the fact that there were old border markers all along the route.

The kids loved that they could be in Switzerland one second and then in France. Here they have a foot in both countries. I guess that pretty much sums up our life right now...

I am keeping all the Fall Photos here.

The Keys!

So today was the day! The day we were supposed to get the keys to the new house. But of course we didn't....

Turns out the Notaire went on vacation a couple weeks ago. Would have been nice if she had told us that she was going away and couldn't be around for the signing. The banker (Vinny) didn't send off our loan documents on time either - since we forgot to give him our insurance information. It would have been nice if he had asked us for the correct documents at some point. Of course the seller isn't bothered - she is out of the house and living with yet another boyfriend - this guy is even younger I hear.

So that leaves us with movers coming next Monday and no keys - plus we need to be out of our current place by the end of next week so they can prep the place for the next tenants. At this point it appears that the Notaire will return on Thursday and then we will get the keys on Friday. Fingers crossed.

This does leave me a bit concerned. Who is the one forking over a few hundred thousand euros? Um. We are. Who is getting all this money? The Notaire...Vinny the banker...the seller. And at this point it really seems as if they could give a fuck about how we feel and that we do actually need a place to live after next Friday. Seriously - I don't get paid to do my job as a hausmann - but if I ever dropped the ball on the job the way this pack of losers has I'd be in jail for neglecting my children. Maybe I should have stayed in the work force. Then I could do shit, slack off, avoid responsibility, and still get a check at the end of the week....

Black market boxes, Fred the Fiat guy and insurance

We are moving exactly 23 minutes from our apartment in Basel to a house in France - but it might as well be halfway around the world. There are times when I wonder why we even thought this might be a good idea...

Thanks to local friends we have a team of very good movers scheduled. Very thorough, very competent (well at least we hear they are). I am a bit hesitant to say the name of the lead mover who helps English speaker...not because I don't want you to know but because his name sounds a bit odd in English. He is Mr. Sexhauer. I always want to say - dude if the day job isn't paying enough you have to use that name in another way. But it is a German name - nothing sexy about it.

Switzerland being Switzerland we found the price of the rental boxes and packing a bit high with Mr. Sexhauer. So we have decided to go it alone on the box purchase and packing.... After a little research we managed to find a source for boxes. Dirt cheap. But I had to pick them up at a vacant loading dock at a specific time and then get the cash to a man (we'll call X) through a third party. A bit shady but again - cheap. I was set to go - map in hand. But Aimee and I couldn't find the loading dock or the 75 boxes. Panic. We call X - he pretends not to understand and gives the call to his assistant. What boxes? is all we can understand. So we are left with the map and no clues....

OK - I may be exaggerating a bit here - but it was very odd. So I dropped Aimee back at work and went to get the kids at school. After a bit of research we found the real location and I went with the kids to get the boxes.

Note to self - never try to fit 75 moving boxes and two small kids in a VW Passat wagon. I just told them to pretend it was a cave and watch their ipods.

Boxes - check.

Then the weekend rolled around - time to pop over to France to do a little consumer research. I am not sure what we were thinking but we started the day by going to Darty to look at appliances. Of course the GPS took us into a field as usual in France - not sure why but our GPS loves to put me on dirt roads, in the forest or going the wrong way up a one way street in France. The reaction at Darty was great. Usually you walk into an appliance/electronics store in the US and sales people are all over you. The same would be true in France but they saw and heard us in all of our loud English speaking glory... Oh dear.

The kids wanted to look at TVs and games. We needed a washer and dryer. We got a smile and a bonjour but that was about it. Took the pressure off and let us look at all the equipment. I am always amazed that the French love their top loading, ancient washing machines. I had one of these in France 10 years ago and thought it was left over from the 1970s. No - they are still a staple appliance. I guess it must be that they are quite narrow and fit nicely in the kitchen. We looked and quickly moved on to a furniture store - things went downhill with the kids...

What to do next? What do kids hate more than appliance and furniture shopping? Car shopping! How hard could it be - we had already decided on a car - the Fiat 500C. So we plugged the address of the Fiat dealer into the GPS and we were off. Upon arrival we found that there was no Fiat dealer - just apartments. Starting to rain...cranky kids...no car shopping. But we need a car. There isn't any public transportation at the new house and we wanted to get the ball rolling on a second car. Now in France every town has a number of streets and most of these streets are named Rue de (insert another town or city here). So in a general area every town will have the same street names (except of course a street name naming the town that you are in) leading to other towns. So in this town we were on the Rue de Kingersheim or Wittenheim or Somethingheim. Every other town around will also have that street name but it won't necessarily be the same actual road - it will be the road from the one town to another. Confused. So were we. So I put the same exact street address in the next town over into the GPS and voila. We had Fiat.

Easy enough - we walked in and saw the car we wanted! Just a quick test drive to confirm that we liked and that is it -and done. A kind salesman approached us and we exchanged pleasantries. Then I asked to drive the car. All of this was in my 8th grade French. He didn't get it. Then Aimee mentioned that it said TEST DRIVE in very large letters on the ground outside in front of a few cars. Tried the English words TEST DRIVE. That didn't work. We'd have to talk to Fred. He is the English speaking guy. So we waited a few minutes for Fred. And we spoke French. He was younger and much more willing to let us drive - he did understand my version of French and a bit of our English but he could only say two things in English. 'Sounds good and black.' Fair enough - this is France - why should everyone have to speak English. We were fine....

Took the car for a nice long drive. Enjoyed. (except for screaming kids destroying the backseat of the TEST DRIVE car) And then back to see Fred. Well Fred was a bit busy...by this time it was closing in on 4PM and the kids were tired. Fred was in the middle of selling a Fiat Panda to a nice couple and so we were left to wait - for an hour and a half. Come on people it is a Fiat Panda! Cool little car and all but not as if it is a huge decision. Buy the little thing or not. It is about a step up from Seth's ride around mini-jeep...

This gave Seth and Fiona plenty of time to play with all the nice Italian cars - at one point I heard a THUD. Oh no. Seth opened the massive door of a Lancia Phedra (interesting name) into a little Alfa Romeo. Of course that wasn't Seth's fault because as Seth said 'what kind of car dealer puts the cars so close together!' Great. Fiona meanwhile sat in the corner with her ipod - occasionally we would hear hear sing at the top of her lungs 'do-ya do-ya do-ya do-ya wanna da..a...ance.' It wasn't pretty.

Finally Fred came back to us and we said we wanted to order the car - real simple in France. Financing is American style - as opposed to the all cash world of Switzerland. Just needed some basic info, passport, visa (we have that), bill (we have house papers), and a deposit check. Whoops. A check? We don't really do checks anymore...everything gets paid directly from the bank. When we opened the French bank account we never ordered them! Could a credit card work? Nope. Just a check. An American check? No. Only a French check. From a French bank. So car order off - back to the bank to get some checks.... Add in a couple more weeks for the car.

Monday brought even more amusement in France. Time to talk to Mr. J the insurance guy. Now Mr. J has been recommended by a number of other expats living in France. Thank goodness we have so many friends that have been through different parts of this process. At first we had some trouble finding his office - it was cold - again we were confused (or at least I was) and things started to go south. But then we found Mr. J. We had a 9AM appointment to discuss house, car and health insurance. I figured an hour - Aimee said she couldn't stay past 10. Let' just say by 10.15 we had made it through the house and the car but weren't quite to the health insurance.

Mr. J is a wonderful man - but loves to talk. And again - it was a mix of English, French and German. Talking about the house he says - 'if a large eclair hits your house and breaks everything you are covered.' Um ok - what about croissants and baguettes? If he were speaking only in French I might have understood but the mix of English and French threw me off...we had to go over to German and he explained that a 'blitz' could hit our house. Then he drew a zig-zag and an exploding house. It went like that. Trees on fences. Kids in pools. Lots of fun cartoons.

The best part with Mr. J had to have been his facial expressions. He has the classic French mustache with just that little bit of hair on the upper lip and he can raise one eyebrow so high it is almost comical. He gave us some interesting insurance advice - while raising the eyebrow and produced some pretty fair quotes (at least compared to what we pay here in Switzerland). The only problem was the auto insurance. Our Swiss licenses state that we have only been driving since 2003. So he bases the insurance quite on 6 years driving experience... Now we have to prove that we have been driving since the 80s if we want to pay less for the insurance.

Things continue to keep us on our toes - got a note from the bank telling us that we had dated some papers incorrectly. We were supposed to date them the 26th not the 15th. I think I knew this but I am not sure why or how I know this. We always seem to date things wrong. What happened to the day when you just signed and dated things the actual day? So I am off to correct this tomorrow. Hopefully two weeks from now we will finally have access to the house! And we may actually be able to live there too....

Tuscan Break

So in the middle of the moving ordeal we decided to take a little time out to go to Tuscany with some friends....not the best time for us to be away but it was planned months before we decided to buy the house France. As it turned out it was a nice much needed break from the house drama.

Every once in a while I go on a vacation house hunting frenzy. I hit the major places like Homeaway and Homelidays and a then few other sites depending on the location. Way back in the spring I found a small villa in Tuscany - reasonable price and a good location not far from the major sights. After contacting the owners we realized it was a perfect fit and booked the place.

The villa - Antica Sosta - was located in a small hamlet (not really a village - just a cluster of houses) about 10 minutes outside the town of Castlefiorentino in the Chianti region of Tuscany. Castlefiorentino itself isn't a tourist town - parts are a bit scruffy - but that did make it nice in some ways. In town we could see the life of the town without being hit by tour buses. Yes - there were quite a few tourists at the grocery store buying supplies for their Tuscan villas but there were far more locals than visitors. At least in October that seemed to be the norm

entrance

street view

view

street

 

misty morning

Day one took us to the small town of Peccioli which featured a cool elevator from the parking lot up into the old part of of the city. It was a Sunday so quiet in town - but we did have a nice walk and the kids had their first taste of Italian pizza...

We even found a strange dinosaur park that the kids enjoyed...

Day two we found ourselves in Certaldo- a more modern town with a medieval walled section accessible by funicular. Again - being Monday things were quiet but we found a very nice casual place for lunch and let the kids run around the town. We checked out the local art museum and headed back to the house for a swim in the pool. Of course the highlight for the kids in Certaldo was the Gelato

On day three we ended up in Vinci- yes the home of Leonardo da Vinci. It was a fun trip for the kids - although a bit confusing. At first we couldn't find the museum we were looking for - one meant to feature the machines of da Vinci. We ended up at a museum that focused on the Mona Lisa and the interesting ways it has been represented in other art...

The kids enjoyed it - even more interesting than the museum with the mini-replicas of machines that Leo invented. Vinci was fine but had a few more tourists than Certaldo or Peccioli. It felt a little bit less like a real living town. We did get to see the house were Leo was born and enjoyed another nice casual lunch...

That night we were treated to a highlight of the trip - a cooking class which ended with the owners of the house serving us the food in the form of a four course meal. The two 'moms' had a great time cooking with the Pappallardo family.

It was an excellent meal of assorted bruschetta, homemade ravioli, pork and apple cake for dessert. Really great experience. Seth even crashed the cooking class...

 

Day four we ended up in Siena.  The villa was located about halfway between Florence and Siena so we opted for Sienna when it came time for the big trip. It was a bit overwhelming at first - hoards of tourists - overpriced coffee - but it is a beautiful place. As the fog lifted (as it did in about 5 minutes) our spirits improved.

The kids chased pigeons around the square...

 

Lunch time came around and we ducked into Osteria Boccon del Prete. We liked the look of the menu (it wasn't plastic with pictures of the food) and needed some food quick. Turned out to be one of the better meals in Tuscany. Great food - not too touristy - and fine with the kids. We even met a British expat from Umbria who said that this particular restaurant was one of two restaurants he goes to in Siena. He also offered us a glass of the bottle of wine he order by himself. Two odd things about the place though. Wine is only by the glass or bottle (we usually get a half bottle or a bit more but not a whole bottle for the two of us) The bottle vs. glass price wasn't so different - so this expat we met gets a bottle and then drinks as much as he wants and then gives a bit of it to new friends. Second odd thing - no espresso. What? An Italian restaurant without espresso. Shock. Horror. Off to the Duomo and for a walk....

Day five and we were in Volterra. Apparently the place to go if you are avoiding vampire attacks... Maybe that is why the Cullens didn't like it very much. I guess the Twilight movie was set there. I haven't read these books yet but I hear that there are some vampires in the book - some of them are the Cullens. It was funny. Quite honestly I would have to say it was one of our least favorite town visits (OK Pisa was a bit much - but that is a city) Volterra is in a stunning location but didn't have too much to offer. We saw the duomo and Seth and Aimee hit the torture museum. Of course we did the gelato stop. Mediocre lunch. Plenty of tourists and not too many locals. I dunno - as a Cullen I am biased. I would pass on Volterra - not sure I would attack a Volturi if I saw one walking the streets though....

Here are the Cullen kids ready to attack in Volterra...

I should read the books...Aimee has just started the first one.

Back at the house that evening it was time for the pizza party! We weren't sure what to expect but it turned out to be great. The owners of the villa invited the eight of us over for a pizza party. They live just around the corner in a house with an outdoor pizza oven and gorgeous Tuscan views. The kids all had a chance to make pizzas while the adults did a pizza tasting -

Day six we found San Miniato- a great little hill town halfway between Pisa and Florence. This had the perfect balance of low-key sights and minimal tourist traffic. We found a great little spot for lunch and had the back room all to ourselves - I was able to have my final 'cinghiale (wild-boar)' based meal. The area is also known for its truffle oil - we had some drizzled over peccorino cheese. The highlights of the town were the quick walk up the tower (amazing views of Tuscany) and an spectacular duomo. I think we ran into about 20 other tourists during the few hours we were in town. I am sure that in summer there is more of a crowd - but for us it was perfect.

After plenty of good meals and fun with friends - the week came to an end. On the way back to Switzerland we decided to take the coastal route north to Genoa and then up through the St. Bernard pass back into Switzerland. A longer trip - we stopped overnight - but worth it. Very little traffic and some great scenery.

First we stopped for lunch in Pisa

 

And yes the tower is leaning. If we harnessed all the power of the tourists pushing it back up I am pretty sure we could straighten it. There were of plenty of other people with the same idea.... Luckily our friends had been to Pisa earlier in the week and directed us away from the tower for lunch - so we found a nice little spot and had a good lunch. Long...but good.

Then it was off to lower part of the Aosta Valley- an interesting part of Italy on the border of Switzerland and France - right by the Alps. The air seemed so crisp and clean. The people were happy to speak French as French it is one of the official languages of the Province of Aosta - many spoke German also...even a few spoke English. Interestingly there are communities where German is the official language. And it was clean. Felt almost Swiss!

We stayed at a small place called La Maison des Vignerons. It was a good rest for the night in a tiny commune called Grand Vert outside Donnas. Amazing ancient little wine town with houses crammed one on top of another.

 

In the morning we woke up to this....

the walking of the cows. Just a farmer and his cows going out the field. Very odd considering how small and densely populated the town was - people literally just keep a few animals in the courtyard. The B and B was the highlight of the town - not much else happening besides dogs and kids running through the streets and the occasional ancient Fiat Panda. After a very nice breakfast we were on our way...tried to stop at the castle in Fenis but of course by tour only - on the hour in Italian. We opted for a look and then were on our way back to Switzerland.

Our final quick stop was in the town of Aigle just east of Lake Geneva. 

After a quick stop at the castle it was back to Basel. And the reality of trying to finish up the house purchase and move....

All the Tuscany pictures are in a set on flickr here.

 
 
  

The house drama continues....

Now going back even further into time.... we have been on holiday (as is the norm here) in Tuscany for the past week or so. Nothing fancy - just a quick trip for good food and some warmer weather.

So as of September 2 we agreed to purchase the house - exactly two months later on November 2. We had a seven day window to back out of the agreement - so September 9 was the last day to back out of the deal. At this point we still didn't have confirmation on whether we could legally live in France so it was off to see our friend Didier in Geneva - Didier is the visa guy at the French consulate. A few weeks earlier we had scheduled an appointment for September 3 so it was all planned carefully. With the house agreement we had an address...the key to a French visa.

So off to Geneva...this may not seem like much but Geneva and Basel aren't exactly next to each other. It would be like driving to New York to get your visa if you lived in Boston or DC. Or maybe from San Diego to LA (in very bad traffic). Three hour drive... Why so far you ask when we live 10 minutes from France? All we got in response is - Didier is in charge of all French visas in Switzerland. OK.

So off to Geneva.. Aimee and I had to appear in person, together. Dropped the kids off at school and set off on a drive south... GPS said 2 hours 30 minutes. Easy enough for a 12.30 appointment. The drive was fine until we hit Geneva. Crunch - not a city to drive in...add in an extra hour. We finally made our way to the French consulate - even arrived a few minutes early and voila. We were in. Very low security - doors propped open while the receptionist was smoking outside...

We walked in and told the smokey, yet very kind, receptionist we had a 12.30 appointment with Didier the visa guy... Hmmm.. not on the list. What? Not on the list! OK - we just drove over 3 hours to get these visas...day off from work, buying a house. Panic. Didier walks out and looks at us. Sorry - you are not on the list. I must leave now. We plead. He shakes his head, shrugs and walks out of the consulate... We turn to the receptionist for help... Thank goodness he was a kind man. He called in another consulate-type worker and they agreed to let us come back at 1PM to try to work things out...

Unpleasant lunch.....won't go into the details...

So at 1PM we returned to the consulate. I decided that if we didn't get the visas that day we would call the notaire and tell her to cancel the deal. So we went into the consulate and Didier was happy to welcome us back! (maybe he had some wine at lunch - he was in much better spirits) It turns out that the French government decided to hire a new scheduling contractor during the summer (always a bad move to undertake things like that in the summer....) and any appointment made at any French consulate before July 14 had been removed from the system. An appointment revolution. Aimee made the appointment in early July.... Didier had people showing up randomly at all hours claiming to have appointments. He would schedule things on his own, the new company would schedule things and then phantom appointments (like us) would show up. Just imagine how pissed you would be if that happened in your line of work...then imagine you were an administrator for the French government. Not fun.

So after presenting the 78 forms and photos in triplicate we were good to go - on the road to a visa. But not on that day...it had to be approved. Somewhere else. By someone else. He said that we were 99 percent approved since he gave his OK and we weren't 'Libyan or Iranian' - but nothing was 100 percent. 

Didier also explained that he was now the only visa person in Switzerland. They took the function out of the embassy in Bern and the visa guy at the French consulate in Zurich was a bit bi-polar and would reject people for crazy reasons...maybe like being Libyan or Iranian. So he was let go during the appointment purge of summer 2009. It does make sense because most people looking for visas want to work in Switzerland and live in France. As Geneva is right on the border it is the obvious place for visa issuing... Basel has less of an international crowd (most non-EU people tend to stay in Basel) and Basel is German speaking. Who knows. This is the way it is. 

Of course he added the disclaimer - I can give you the visa but I can't guarantee you will be able to live in France. What? Well it turns out the French really want us there - they are happy to have anyone who is well employed and won't burden the system living in their country. It is the Swiss who might have a problem. In Canton (state) Geneva you can work in Switzerland and live in France, provided you have spent six months in Geneva. But in Canton Vaud you can't live in France and work in Switzerland.... so if you work in Lausanne forget it - you are stuck. This only applies to non-EU people - for the most part if you have a passport from an EU country you can live and work where you like. But as an American it isn't so easy. He wasn't so sure about Basel. Aimee has checked with her company (one of the largest in the country and the largest in Basel) and they say it is just fine - we are approved for the cross border permit. But that is still one final hurdle that will be dealt with after we move....

Our time with Didier was up . We walked back out into the waiting room of the French consulate and there were about half a dozen angry looking people....all with 1.30/1.45/2.00 PM appointments...

At this point things started to look good - everything was in place. Money, visas, mayor, etc....So we contacted the bank and told Vinny we had signed for the house and wanted to meet with him regarding the mortgage. Oh la la. Once again Vinny was off for two weeks. Either things are really good for Vinny or really bad.... So we waited a couple of weeks and then he sent us some forms. We called the scheduling company (please work! please work!) to make an appointment and set it for the last day of September - just a few days before our holiday.

More papers from the bank - one asking for a medical exam. This came just a day before our meeting with Vinny. In France there is a regulation that the primary earner (Aimee) must have insurance so that in the event of her death the mortgage is paid off. So she set an appointment with her doctor here in Switzerland (as you do in the US) for October 15. Plenty of time to meet the November 2 deadline. No problem.

Moving on....

Last day of September comes - we walk into the bank with all the paperwork filled out, new bank accounts arranged in France... Time to sign and have Vinny send it off to the Notaire in plenty of time for the legally required 11 day period that we are given to back out of the mortgage. The French sure do give you lots of cooling off time.

Sign, initial, sign, initial, fill in this line, fill in that line.

Then a tense look from Vinny. 'Your medical exam?'

Aimee: It is scheduled for when we get back from Italy.

Vinny: 'No - that is not possible. You must do it before you go.'

Aimee: Um - but our doctor in Switzerland has a three week waiting list.

Vinny: 'You must do it now'

Aimee: Why?

You see the mortgage rate depends on the price of the insurance which depends on your health. So - no check up, no insurance, no mortgage. It takes one week from the date of the exam to process the insurance and get a price to the bank. Then there is that funny 11 day cooling off requirement. So the mortgage would not be approved until 18 days after the exam and would then have to be processed by the Notaire. This would leave us with a closing date in the middle of November if Aimee waited until the 15th of October for the check up.

Oh - and I forgot - we gave notice on our place and have to be out by November 15.... That leads to another great story...

We call to give our three month notice in September:

us: Hi we are moving out in three months.

landlord: Ha. No you aren't. Didn't you see in the contract you can't move out in December or January?

us: oh. But we sign for a new house on November 2nd.

landlord: That is fine. You can move.

us: Thanks.

landlord: You can just pay until the end of January. But let us know when you are out. 

Thankfully we have friends moving back to Basel and want to move into our place...so we were able to get their relocation people in touch with our rental company and things came together so that we can leave in mid-November and our friends can move in soon after...no extra rent paid.

But I am off topic...back to the medical exam. How sad that it has all come down to the timing of a medical exam. Vinny says - no problem! I'll call some people you can see a French doctor today.

What? No appointment? No waiting? Imagine this in the US.

Vinny picks up the phone...dials a few people...pokes around on the Internet... Voila! Dr. Charon will see you now. OK.

Everything is signed and we are ready to go - Vinny walks us out to the anti-terrorist/bank robber trap doors at the bank and points to a small building down the street. Dr. Charon's office. Just go - you don't have to pay and he will send back the papers. OK dude.

We walked down the street to the brick building and all we saw were computer consultants working away... So we backtracked up the street and finally found a 100 year old building with Dr. Charon's name on it. Good stuff. Aimee had never been to a doctor in France before - I have been once and also to a dentist. In this older sort of practice you just walk into the living room of a house and sit down with the other patients. Everyone gives you a bonjour and you wait. No receptionist. No sign in. No line. Just a bunch of sick people in a lounge waiting for the doc.

We opened the door and walked in. I had a quick look around. The most prominent thing in the room was a hand written sign that says 'do not believe the rumors. the doctor is not retiring.' Oh dear. What are we in for? A minute later an old man pops his head into the room. Looks around - and calls a woman. 15 minutes later he is back - pulls in a dad and his sick kid.

Then it is us... Bonjour. And we are in. No questions. He doesn't know us from Adam and all the sudden we are in his office. Quickly he realizes that we might have a language problem.... My French is passable but Aimee is the subject and she doesn't speak French at all. So we go into the German/English/ French mix.

After a few questions it is time for the exam. This consisted of asking Aimee how much she weighs, how tall she is and how much wine she drinks. Then - no joke - he measured her boobs. He gave some weight distribution story but I think he just wanted to touch her boobs. He did go on to her hips and waist too.... It was like The Pink Panther. Really. We can't talk about the exam without laughing until we cry.

So that was it. He sent Aimee off to a lab down the street for bloodwork and within 24 hours it was all taken care of. Plenty of time for the mortgage to be finalized. If we tried to pull off an appointment that quick in the US I am pretty sure we would still be on hold listening to The Girl from Ipanema - on October 15.

That pretty much brings us to the present on the move...the movers are set for November 10 - boxes arrive tomorrow. Right now it all seems like it could actually happen. Of course we still have to buy a new car and yet again transfer our life to another country.... There are a number of new forms that we will have to take care of once we get there. More medical exams. New insurance. Cross-border stuff... I am sure that some day we will feel settled again. Of course then we will move again.

Understanding 'the system' in France

First a disclaimer: As I write these blog posts it is all in the past - the house is bought -a moving date is set. We hit the point of no return sometime over the summer and I am just recounting the past 6 - 8 months....

So starting the summer we weren't sure how much 'the dream house' was worth, how much it would cost, or how much the bank would loan us for the house. We weren't sure if, as Americans, we could live in France and work in Switzerland. We weren't sure about some sort of land dispute with a neighbor. We were sure that the mayor liked us, we liked the house and most importantly we could afford it.

We decided to use the summer to tackle all of our issues. Oh. That's right. Summer + France = nothing gets done. Where was Vinny from the bank? Provence. Mrs. R - where was she? Tractor competition in Germany. The mayor? Nice. OK - we spent some time in Gascony and a weekend Burgundy... Just so everyone is aware - nothing - I mean zero - gets done in France over the summer. Except for tanning, Pastis drinking, and relaxing. Everyone is on holiday or just back or is going or has visitors. Forget coordinating a real estate transaction. 

We (ok Aimee) dove into the dirty task of hammering out a price with the seller. It took weeks - but we finally came to an agreement.  So now we had a price. Vinny liked it - we liked it. All was good with the purchase. Except the issue of living in France...time to get serious.

So we contacted the French authorities. There is one man in Switzerland who issues visas to live in France - Didier. Didier seemed happy to help - but we needed an address in France to qualify for the visa. We asked 'How do we do that?'  'Buy a house!' he says... So we agree to buy Mrs. R's house and set a date for signing for the house.

Purchasing a house in France is interesting - the buyer and seller meet with a Notaire (roughly a Notary with a bit more real estate knowledge) and sign a Compromis de Vente. This is basically an agreement to buy the house with a seven day period to back out (just enough time to get to apply for the visa and find out if we are worthy enough). The agreement also has plenty of details on furniture and fixtures that are staying in the house (to reduce the value so the tax/fee is a bit lower) and sets a date for the handover of the keys among other things...all sorts of fun details.  So why not?

The meeting with the Notaire was set - September 2 - we were all back from holiday refreshed and ready to get to work.  Oh - but wait. What about that little issue with the neighbors? The land dispute. Probably something to be discussed at the meeting...

So we arrive at the Notaire's office ready to go. We met Mrs. R in the lobby - she really is a nice woman - no hard feelings about the negotiations or what happened in the past. She basically wants to move on and we are willing to buy the house. Ben shows up a bit later and we start the transaction.

This is the first of many crazy meetings over the past month that we have held in a mixture of French, English and German.

Here is the language breakdown for this meeting:

Ben: French and German (but a Swiss/Alsatian variety)

Mrs. R: German, basic English, and basic French

Aimee: English, basic German

Me: English, basic French, basic German

You do the venn diagram. It wasn't easy. But if you ever need a fully tri-lingual Notaire in the Southern Alsace I can help you out. Basically (if you drew the diagram) - everything had to be stated in French, then German and then in English. Looking back at the diagram you just drew German was probably the best language to use BUTwe were Americans in France buying a house from an English speaking German woman and her French boyfriend. Language is such a situational thing here - it is all about where you are, how much of what language each person speaks and the legal language a contact is written in. It was a fun three hours of signing papers and debating the best words to use in each language....

Then we got to a word that nobody wanted to translate into English. Tribunal. The Notaire says 'What is this word? Um.. I do not know zis in English. Zer was a decision at the tribunal about ze land.' I may not sprechen the französisch so well but I can understand it pretty well. And the tribunal would be 'the court' to us englische sprecherers. 

So the alarms went off.  Crap. But as it turns out the decision was in our favor...

Here is the story. There is a great garage on the property we are buying. Mrs. R and Ben built it for his tractors - three bays with tons of space upstairs. We don't have too many tractors and since there are two other garage bays we decided that it would make a great garage/guest house if we finished it off. A major selling point for us as we have guests who might want to stay for a while - and eventually we could put the kids out there a la Mike Seaver. Looked great when we saw it but then Mrs. R told the story of the garage.

Way back when Mrs. R was in her thirties and Ben was in his twenties (early twenties) they built the garage. The neighbors took notice and complained that it was too close to their plot line (the lots are real narrow). So the neighbors forced Mrs. R to move the garage 10cm away from the plot line... That is how it started.

A few years later the neighbors decided to build a garage close to the plot line... The did it within 5 cm. Bad move. Mrs. R (being German and all) told them to stop and then had surveyors come out to check the plot lines. Well the French surveyors were a bit late and the garage was built. BUT Mrs. R discovered that the assumed plot lines were WRONG and that the neighbors had actually built their garage 3cm over  onto her property. So now there is a 10m x 3cm piece of the neighbor's garage that is on Mrs. R's property. Uh-oh. From there it goes to court.

Of course in the days leading up to the house purchase Mrs. R gets the order from a high court that she can demolish the neighbor's garage...or sell them the land.

Fun stuff - and so this is September 2. Our meeting with the French consulate is set for September 3 - the next day. So we really needed the Compromis de Vente to proceed. That is is IF we were actually allowed to live in France. Still no official response to the question at this point....

Meeting the mayor...among other things

As it turns out in our quest for a house, finding the house and getting the money in place was the easy part...

The game really started once we decided to buy the house. Again we were told by a number of people to give up any hopes of living in France since, as Americans, we couldn't live in France and work in Switzerland (part of me still isn't sure if we can). Who do we ask? The seller Mrs. R? 'Oh ja - of course you can - you are American you can do anything you want.' She drives a Jeep and has a John Deere tractor - clearly biased - and she is selling the house. Maybe Vinny the banker could tell us if were legal.  'Like, yeah, it's cool. Why not? Why wouldn't we want your tax money?' Or more like why wouldn't you want our loan business in this market....

Vinny was quite helpful though - he is from the town where we found the house. And his brother still lives there. So he was off to a party in the village and was going to check out the house. He'd make sure it was OK and try to help us with the value. He did come up with a nice value for the house using his little formula provided by the bank.  

That lead us to the next question - how much to pay for the house? Vinny gave us a number based on square footage and build-able land. Only about 2/3 of the land has a high value because - the rest is open space that has to be left natural. Or so they say. So we had an idea of what to offer. But OK Vinny, let's look at the comparables. 'Oh we can't do that. The agent does that.' Ok - no agent. What to do?  'Ask the neighbors? The mayor? ' Vinny did a a few strange things with the computer that I can't mention here and we came up with a final number....

Time to make an offer - we haven't quite done this whole house buying without an agent thing before - so clearly I left it up to Aimee. Mrs. R and Aimee work at the same company together so it seemed natural that they meet there. Nothing too serious - coffee in the marble floored, art adorned visitor center. Sounded easy enough. Aimee sat down with Mrs. R and a nice cup of coffee. Aimee then proceeded to tell her that we were offering 10 percent below the asking price. That was pretty much the end of discussions... Mrs. R literally got up and stormed off. That could have been the end. Aimee stopped her and probed a bit more. Then the tears started flowing.

As it turns out Mrs. R had remodeled the house to be her dream house and while Ben was unemployed for a few years (and not contributing towards the mortgage)  she had to put up most of her retirement as collateral. So she had quite a bit invested in the house. Hence, her emotional state and inability to lower the price. There was talk of cash outside the deal or something along those lines ..I didn't try to get much clarification on that. After hearing about this fun outburst in the visitor center I was pretty much done with the house...   

There was a quiet period. A few weeks went by. A few emails. Not much action.

So we still had to figure out how much the house was really worth. Time to visit the mayor. We were told it was a good idea to talk to the mayor before trying to buy a house in France. So we made an appointment and went with the kids (Seth was ipoded for the meeting). The mayor turns out to be a very kind older man who used to work an international company in Basel - same one as Aimee and Mrs. R. He was quite excited to have a REAL American family moving into town. He loves America - and all things American. Loves Boston. New York is great! He has a few Brits in town now and wasn't sure but thought he might have an American married to a French - but they blend in.  We spoke to him for about an hour and tried to have our two major questions answered:

Can we live in France?

How much is the house worth?

Of course we could live in France. No problem there. Why not? You are so nice. You have such a sweet daughter. (Seth was ipoded in the lobby) You would be such a good addition to the town. Please come live here.... That sounded great. Then we probed on the law. The response from the mayor was - 'OH NO -  You have to make sure you can live here before you buy the house! Don't buy it without making sure you can live here!' Um. I thought that was why we were all gathered at the town hall at 7PM on a Tuesday. His final response was 'I don't know - you'll have to ask the French government.' OK - thanks for that. I sort of felt like the Powerpuff Girls were going to swoop down and tell the Mayor that there was an urgent problem in Townsville...

Response to question number two: house value. 'Oh we can't talk about that. It is private. But may I ask...how much are you going to pay?' Then we started to get into the details of the property. We asked about what the process would be if we finished off an outbuilding to be a guest area. 'Just declare it for taxes.' What if we add a bit to the back of the house? 'Just declare it for taxes.' How about a pool in the 'natural area' of the yard? 'Just declare it for taxes.' Three ring circus with elephants and a lion? 'Just declare it for taxes.' OK I see where this is going. We started to like the mayor....

It really was a good meeting - we all got along. We got along so well that he decided to tell us that Mrs. R. had been in to visit him quite a few times. And she wasn't happy. And the next door neighbor was with her. And there was a land dispute. Oh no! 

So to recap  - not sure if we can actually live in France PLUS a land dispute... As nice as the house is and as much as the mayor wanted us in the town I was pretty much at the point of walking away...yet again. 

Pink Houses

As you may know Fiona loves pink houses. She has started a little tradition of posing for pictures in font of pink houses if we happen upon one. There are a few of those photos here.Well a few weeks ago we purchased a pink house. Or should I say another pink house. Yes - this will be the second pink house we have owned. Years ago in Southern California we were the proud owners of, as one visitor put it, a big pink box. All it needed was a bow on top...

(pic: our old house in Encinitas)

The new house is less of a coral/princess pink and more of a salmon/orange pink but it still falls within the range of pink according to our daughter. This qualifies it for Hello Kitty curtains and princess awnings.

A pink house may seem strange to some - but we have purchased a house not far from Basel in the Alsace region of France. As in many American communities there are strict rules on house color - except in the Alsace your house must be pink, purple, mint green, or electric blue. Seriously - the mayor has already told us we need permission if we want to change the house color - which we don't.

Just over a year ago we decided to buy a house somewhere near Basel. We don't own any property in the US and  we want to stay in the Basel region for a few more years. Buying a house makes financial sense and will give us a bit more flexibility. So we started to investigate buying a house here in Switzerland.

The real estate process is a bit different than in the US - there isn't a buyer's agent so we were on our own to look for places and make appointments. In fact most people here rent and there is very little on the market - driving prices up. We were shocked by the prices - well not shocked by the prices since they were on par with Southern California - but more what you got for the price. After a few depressing months of looking we decided that we might just be better off in a new larger rental. Until someone suggested we look over the border in France. There were apparently some deals to be had - larger houses for less money. Of course France isn't quite as clean or efficient as Switzerland but - in my opinion - they speak a language I can understand a bit more of and they eat better food. Enogh said - I was OK with the idea.

We had been told that as Americans it was nearly impossible to live in France and work in Switzerland. In fact all of the people we know living over there are European or Swiss. No visas required - easy living. We decided to go ahead anyway.

Our first step was to meet with the bank across the border in France - just to make sure they would loan us the money. We found a banker through the recommendation of friends - Vinny as I call him. Thank goodness for Vinny.  Vinny is a young and energetic (OK as energetic as French bankers can be) - plus he speaks English almost fluently. Although it was a strange start. Vinny tends to speak English with what I would call a 'Friends' or 'Seinfeld' accent. At first I couldn't place it but after getting to know him a bit he has certainly learned much of his English from TV and likes to throw in a Chandler, Ross or Joey phrase. Well Vinny didn't see a problem with us living in France - could that BE any easier? Like, I don't think so. Cool.

Phase two - finding the house. Not quite as easy as it seems. I do enjoy going over to France - I have a nice pastry, buy some low cost meat/cheese/wine and then head home. Now we were looking for something a bit bigger. We started off with the real estate advertisements. Not so much luck there... Even with the help of some friends we didn't find much on the private sites or through new advertisements. Then one day Aimee found someone at work who was selling a house.

We had looked at a few houses and none of them really came close to what we wanted. They were all a bit close to the city. It is possible to find a house in France that is just a few minutes from downtown Basel and not far from the International school - but these villages come with a premium. So Aimee convinced me to look at a place about 35 minutes from school and 30 minutes from downtown Basel. As the main driver I was quite skeptical. Quite far but some nice scenery sort of like this...

or maybe this...

We arrived for the first viewing and met the owner - Mrs. Robinson as I like to call her and her boyfriend Ben as I will call him. She is German but purchased and renovated the house Ben who is French - she works in big pharma he is a landscaper. Things haven't been so great between them lately (he wasn't living there when we looked at the house) and hence she needs to sell.

We pretty much knew after a few minutes that the house was what we wanted. The showing was quite odd in that Mrs. R, although a native German speaker, speaks English well but not perfectly. When showing us the jacuzzi she held up a chemical tablet and said 'I take one of these before I bathe.' Clearly she meant she put it in the jacuzzi - i just hope the kids don't start popping chemical tablets. We also had a detailed explanation of the oil/wood burning heater. I'm pretty sure we'll be layering on the sweaters for the first few weeks until we actually figure it out.

Ben on the other hand spoke only French and German (sort of Swiss German/Alsatian sounding German). So he explained everything to me in French. Aimee has basic German and I have basic German and basic French. So we were able to get through it and could understand enough to know that they weren't saying - ha ha look at the silly Americans paying too much for the house. They saved that for later. But we were sold and decided to move forward with the buying process... to be continued..

Summer is over

It is official - the first day of Fall is here. I hate to let summer go - I still haven't readjusted to a life with wintertime yet. But it is a good time of year to stay inside and get back to the blog. After taking a summer break from blogging I have decided to dust off the typepad account and try to put up posts on a more regular basis...

The truth is - the summer was busy. End of school year PLUS busy summer trips to France and Ireland PLUS start of new school year makes for a busy family. Also both flickr and facebook seem to have taken over the little computer time I do get. And of course there is the ipod...that evil little thing filled with podcasts that I just can't resist. But I have uploaded many pictures from the summer - you can see them on flickr. Oh - and we bought a house. It was busy. 

The summer started with a great trip to Ireland. We all had a fun time with the grandparents and Seth got right into the spirit...

Fiona on the other hand stayed with pink and flowers...

We all enjoyed staying at a lovely house in the village of Clifden - about an hour west of Galway. The weather was even cool enough to throw some turf in the stove...

The weather cooperated for most of the week - no rain for a few days straight! This allowed us to take the kids to a 'bug discovery class' at the Connemara National Park, for numerous drives through the countryside, a visit to a wool factory,go on a bog walk, visit Kylmore Abbey, and hit the beach (with wellies). The rain did eventually come on the last couple of days  - but we were lucky for most of the week.

If only the kids were able to get along that well all week long....

All of the Ireland pictures are here.

We returned to Switzerland in early July for a month filled with camp, pools, and a few local trips. Of course the kids enjoyed the public pools the most. This was the first summer that I wasn't constantly worried about them at our public pools - although the busy days had me a bit on edge. With so many kids in the pool you do worry about an accident. Seth's swimming is coming along and Fiona has no fear of the water - although she is still required to wear water wings.

We even managed to squeeze in a hike at the Creux-du-Van, a Swiss gorge just a couple hours drive from Basel. I didn't quite realize how far we had parked from the view point... The kids were good about the 3 hour hike up and down without food or drink. Well - Fiona had no reason to complain - I carried her.

Seth is thrilled as you can see. It was another 'National Lampoon's Vacation'  moment. -  Wow Dad it is a big hole in the ground. Thanks for making me walk for three hours. - The only person less thrilled was Aimee...

The Creux-du-Van pictures are all here.

Summer fun can be found here.

We took a quick weekend break in Burgundy - a small town called Givry to be exact. Just a couple hours away from Basel but a nice break from the city. We stayed at a a chambres d'hotes (bed and breakfast) called Cote Park. Please visit the link...not only because it is a great place but you can see the picture that the owner has put up since we visited. It was a relaxing trip with some swimming, castle seeing and great food...

Fiona loved her 'garlic meat' - she has since found out what it is and isn't too bothered. She doesn't like them to be called snails though - escargot sounds much better to her.

Aimee had to sneak around town... I am not wiz zat silly American family...

All of the Givry pictures are here.

Our final trip of the summer took us to Gascony where we met up with some friends from the UK. This was the 'chill out and sit by the pool trip'. We stayed in the minuscule village of Meilhan, not far from Simorre, which is about an hour from Auch. Interesting location not far from the Pyrenees - remote but not without some charm. This part of France does have its tourists but not nearly the crowds of the beach or Provence. There really isn't a whole lot to do except enjoy the local scenery and flavors - which is why we loved it.

 This was the main road which ran by the house.

The house was an ancient Gascon farmhouse with tons of character. And no - that is not our dog. The house came with a dog and horses. Oh and dozens of free range silkie chickens. Was an interesting setup. The house was split into two units - basically two separate houses connected by a door. In the winter the Dutch homeowners live in half the house and rent out the other half. In summer they move into a chalet/bunker behind the house and rent out the entire house. So not only did we have a farm we had Dutch farmers. Nice people but I think they dropped off the radar screen for a reason. Nice to have Farmer Dick around to answer questions - but on the other hand I think we served as the weeks entertainment under the watchful eye of the Dutch couple.

It was a fun week - we were able to visit a castle, a few churches, markets in the larger towns, and a cheese producing farm. Of course none of these places had tours in English...so by the time we hit the cheese farm everyone was pretty much done with guided tour option. So we spent the rest of the week by the pool...

One of our great discoveries of the trip was the table d'hotes. We decided to break the 12 hour drive up by stopping overnight on the way to and from Gascony. Knowing that we would be tired I specifically chose bed and breakfasts with a table d'hote - those serving an evening meal for a reasonable price. It was a great experience for us - sitting around the kitchen of our French hosts enjoying two delicious meals rather than scrambling for food after driving all day. On the way home at La Roussiere the kids even had their own outdoor table...

They were served a four course meal (with cheese course) and were expected to use their manners and engage in some small talk. Seriously - they were expected to start practicing the party talk. Seth sat next a girl who had just come back from a summer home stay in suburban Boston where she had studied English..Ok she was a bit older than Seth maybe a tween or early teen. But it worked out - they had plenty to talk about. This allowed the adults to enjoy an aperitif and then a wonderful chicken confit dinner in the kitchen... I would highly recommend this place. Once couple was actually staying at the house for the entire summer. Wonderful attention - amazing hosts. Was a bit surreal like we had been dropped into a set of some French movie. Thankfully my lame French and the excellent English of the owner saved the day.  

All of the Gascony pictures are here.

That pretty much brings us up the start of school for he kids. Hopefully I can be better about my blogging and share some of the things that we encounter as we move forward with the new house and moving to France!

 

Paris Trip

Seth and I decided to take a quick trip to Paris last week. It was a four day weekend so we were able to take the TGV up from Basel on Thursday and shoot back on Sunday...

 

We left Basel just before lunch and were sitting in our rented Parisian apartment by mid-afternoon...

 

We stayed right near my original apartment in Paris - in the 5th arr. - right at the bottom of Rue Mouffetard. It was a cozy little spot with a view over the St. Medard church, two cafes and a fountain...

 

 

There was also a good view up rue Mouffetard - a bit noisy with the market starting early in the AM and stragglers out at night until 2 or 3AM...

 

After settling in and buying a few groceries to stash in the kitchen (major advantage over a hotel...) we were off and up rue Moufettard. First purchase - a beret for Seth. He has always wanted to walk through Paris with a beret....so for 4 euros we made the dream come true.

 

Then it was off to see the sights -

The Pantheon...

Notre Dame...

 

The next day we were up early to see the Eiffel Tower - Seth has always wanted to see it - and gasped when he walked around the corner and caught sight of it...

 

I was a bit shocked by the lines...but we waited for an hour and a half and made it to the top (which had been closed by the time we got down due to the high number of visitors)

 

 

Then after a lunch break and a rest in the apartment we were off the Jardin des Plantes for a quick walk and a crepe. Then we tried North African food for dinner - Seth like the mint tea best. And finally a late evening trip up the Arc de Triomphe.

 

This gave us a great view of the Eiffel Tower...

 

Of course every single day started with a coffee and hot chocolate...

Either at the bar -

 

Or sitting outside -

Seth made it his quest to meet as many dogs as possible...

 

The highlight of the trip was probably playing in the Jardin du Luxembourg.

Seth climbed in the playground...

 

And loved chasing his rented boat around the Octagonal Lake...

 

Then there was the relaxing and people watching...

 

 

By day four we were pretty tired out - it was a busy long weekend with lots of exploring and eating different types of food...plus staying up late. But we had a wonderful time in Paris. All of the pictures from the trip are on flickr.

I shall return

Just over 10 years ago I moved to Paris. Can it be that long ago? It was early May 1999. It seems like a world away. And although it wasn't easy - and wasn't what I expected - I knew that I'd return to Europe to live...and here we are. But I haven't been back to Paris since Emily and I left our apartment in late 1999 (hmm..anyone confused...living with another woman while married???) Although the program  I signed up for wasn't exactly as advertised Emily and I had a good time and will always have the experience of living in Paris.

This time I am going with Seth and staying right in the 5th arr. right near my first apartment. I had a good luck/bad luck situation when I lived there - great neighborhood - horrible accomodations!! I was rescued by Emily and moved to the 16th arr. into a wonderful place for the remainder of the year. She was also able to leave some luggage behind at her old place... Anyway. It will be fun to show Seth the city. I am so much more comfortable with this trip compared to our 'boys trip' last spring when we went to London. I know Paris - plus we are taking the train and staying in a one bedroom apartment. So easy.... I can't wait to see his reaction when he gets there!

Happy Birthday

The blog is now 3 years old! Imagine that - three years ago we started this to keep track of our move to Switzerland. Things have been quiet lately - maybe a combination of being settled and busy. It is amazing how much life has changed for us in so many ways... I wonder what things will be like three years from now. I'll be over 40 and the Seth will be 9 and Fiona will be nearly 7...

Luck of the Irish

Seth came storming in the house the other day - DAD! DAD!!!! I FOUND A FOUR LEAF CLOVER!!

You see - here they don't use any pesticides or chemicals to kill "weeds" - so our yard is full of clover, dandelions, wild flower, etc... Nice to look and and fun for the kids but OH so bad for the allergies. That is another story.

So I checked it out - it was in fact a four leaf clover - he was so excited. He ran back outside with his friend happy as could be. I went out a few minutes later and my neighbor said she asked him what he was going to wish for. Seth said - just for everyone around the world to be happy and get along. That was it.

I went to get the clover from him so we could press it in a book or something only to learn that he had throw the clover back into the grass so someone else could find it... I like these rare selfless moments.

Oh, how times have changed...

So, I was reading Fiona a bedtime story tonight, Nurse Nancy (1st printing, 1952).  Actually, she wanted to read it to me.  So she started with the front cover, pointed to the girl and said, "This is Dr....Suess."  Then pointed to the boy and said "And this is the nurse."  Once she opened the book, the story pretty much went like this: 

"Dr. Seuss went to school for a really long time and then she became a doctor.  She didn't have anything to do, then the boys came in and one got a cut.  Dr. Seuss needed to clean it and put him to bed.  Then the Mommy hugged Dr. Seuss and told she was the best Dr. in the whole world."  The end.

I just had to laugh since in 1952, the thought of the girl being the "best doctor in the world" would probably have not even occurred to any girl reading this story.  Times really have changed.  :-)

Holidays

We are in the heart of holiday season here. Today is May Day - we have the day off. We have a couple more long weekends coming up this month. And of course who could forget the 5 day Easter weekend...Great news for us as we celebrated Easter on Easter Monday (we traveled on Easter Sunday) The kids had the annual egg hunt in the back yard.

 

 

 

 

Of course it wasn't too hard to find the eggs this year - just Seth and Fiona were hear for the egg hunt. This year seemed to be filled with Easter celebrations - school just wouldn't stop. We made Easter bonets, boiled eggs, hunted for eggs, rolled eggs, etc...  The kids enjoyed it. Well - Seth did. Not sure what Fiona thought of the egg hunt at school. She found it a bit overwhelming - and being the smallest in the class her egg take wasn't so great.

It is also birthday season - the kids seem to have more friends with birthdays in the spring.

One recent party featured ponies...

Fiona seems happy enough - odd considering the smallest cat will cause her to hide and scream and cry... She is not an animal lover.

Then the pony moved:

 

She got down REAL quick. Animals are for eating not riding or playing with. That is her mentality. When Fiona is hungry she will often see an animal like a cow or rabbit and say - let's just tear the skin off and eat it!!! True carnivore

Seth liked the ride - he has done it before and he doesn't fear animals. It is so strange what certain children fear. Fiona fears animals and when we leave her unexpectedly - she also stays close to us when we are in public. If she knows she is going to be without us separation is fine - play dates without me are not a problem. Seth on the other hand doesn't really mind when we disappear or he walks away from us in public - always has. BUT he has such anxiety leading up to separating from us - he is better now but at 3.5 years old it was nearly impossible.

We have also had time for some relaxation at the salon this spring...

 

And playing with friends...this is Fiona with Evie and her wonderful hat!

 

The garden is coming along...

 

 

The allergies have been quite severe this year as well - for me anyway. My eyes were red, puffy and watering for about 3 weeks - after numerous trips to the doctor and several medications things seem to be under control... The weather has been wild - going from cold in March to super-warm and now to rainly and cool with a bit of sun here and there. The kids (especially Fiona) are insisting on wearing summer clothes now.

The kids are getting geared up for summer - a week in Ireland with grandparents and then a week in France with friends...plus soccer camp for Seth and then 2 weeks of kids camp for both Seth and Fiona.

 

The Hills are Alive...

Going back in time once again....

We took a week off at Easter to see the sights of Salzburg Austria - it is within a days drive (5 hours or so) and seemed like a fun place to see with the kids.

Aimee and I were in Salzburg once before - in the rain - for just a few hours. And I was very sick. This time though we had a week and a place to stay - and the most perfect weather I have ever seen.

We found a nice looking place on the Internet - turns out it was the third floor of a large house just outside Salzburg. Three bedrooms - plenty of space and the Altmullers. A lovely Austiran couple who rent the place out to families. Very kind people who enjoyed our energetic kids - as it turns out they have grandchildren in America and loved speaking English with our kids. We were well taken care of and given plenty of advice - our wood fired oven was filled every night and they even let us use their dining room and washed the dishes - it was great.

The house was in a small village about 30 minutes outside Salzburg.

View from the house...

 

Here is a shot of the Kachelofen - kept us warm. The Altmullers kept it full of wood at all times!

The village...

 

The owner of the house even walked us to the local farm to collect Easter eggs - it was a real working farm with livestock just off the kitchen...

 

Fiona enjoyed checking out the eggs more than the animals on the farm...

 

Then there was Salzburg - a great small city. A bit touristy - but still fun for all of us.

 

We were able to get up to the Fortress.

 

Also got a feel for the churches in town...

 

Hit some great audio tours...

 

That one was at Mozart's Residence... we also saw his birthplace. The highlight in the city might have been Hellbrunn Castle. It is an amazing castle - well the castle is OK - but the grounds are filled with gardens and grottos that contain trick water fountains. It is by guided tour only - so you don't get too wet. But Seth did find a way to get pretty well soaked...

 

Best to go on a hot day...

We also visited the Open Air Museum. Some nice local buildings preserved in a great museum. A fun walk for the kids... Really a great setting.

 

We enjoy this sort of museum and this was one of the best we have seen.

Then there was the food -

Sacher Torte was a favortie...

 

Every afternoon - an Einspanner - espresso with milk and whipped cream.

And of course strudel -

 

Since we were staying outside the city we were able to spend quite a bit of time in the lakes region just outside Salzburg. We visited a number of small villages - including Hallstatt a nice village with some amazing views of the lakes and surrounding mountains.

 

 

Then there was the Sound of Music tour! What an experience... If you have seen the movie - it is a must. So goofy - but so good - it even pokes fun at itself and the movie. It confirmed that we are NOT tour bus people - but we had a good time laughing and singing along. Seth even got up in front of the bus and sang for us. Typical Seth - it was great.

  

(note the curtain skirt)

 

 

 

 

I have put hundreds of other photos up on Flickr!

Visitors

Well - I need to get this post in so I don't go a month without a post... I am up on the 3 year anniversary of the blog and it is getting slow! We have been so busy and sick and busy and other things....

Over a month ago we had a great visit from Aimee's sister and both of her children. It was wonderful. The kids loved seeing their cousins and Aunt - they played cards and had fun. The cousins had a good time - I hope - even though it was a bit of a quick trip. They were able to see most of Switzerland in just over a week.

We had them up in France at the Haut Koenigsbourg Castle...

 

And took the gondola up to Waserfallen...

 

 

We had plenty of lunches out - and the visitors saw plenty of museusm. We even took the ferry ride!

All of the pictures from the trip are here.