our alsatian adventure

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....