An Easter âne (donkey that is)

Well, something had to help break the unintentional silence on my blog. And if waking up on Easter morning and being greeted by a wet and mangy donkey standing in our front entrance hee-hawing did not do it, I don't know what would.

Fortunately, this did the trick for me. But, why the inability to update recently? I think that our 'to list' had just grown to insane proportions, with everything overlapping and going in completely opposite directions that it was becoming impossible to prioritize. And the more I kept cracking the whip and pushing us harder (because how else were we going to finish in time?), the worse I felt. Just the thought of writing about what was creating so much stress put me in a mini panic. Not writing about did also...It probably did not help that my evening glass of wine was often going beyond the American Medical Association's recommendation for one glass of red per day, so I knew something had to give or I was going to be escorted to the looney bin soon. So, I took the day off. No computer, no email, no phone. I gardened for pleasure and planted some sunflower seeds rather than stressing about getting my potager (vegetable garden) in the ground in time for the upcoming rain. I sewed the dog beds that I'd been wanting to do rather than rushing to make pillows, sachets, purses or aprons in preparation for our gift line. I watched an hysterical movie, "OSS 117 Le Caire nid d'espions" with Jean Dujardin (Hank & I give it 2 thumbs up). This was the first movie I had seen in probably over a year and was a recommendation I found on one of my favorite French language websites: frenchtoday.com.  All these things did help and forced me to remember why we are here in the first place. It had something to do with a better quality of life and I'm pretty sure we were not supposed to kill ourselves in the process.

If you're terribly bored or morbidly curious, following is a copy of last month's 'to do' list and it hardly scratches the surface:

Review and revise Topanga house sales contract
Meet at Notaires to sign Patrick's Commodat (sort of a farmer's rental agreement although we do not get paid or risk our land being taken by said farmer!
Get third septic repair estimate for Topanga house
Study every day for the french driving test
Request Bank of Carlyle loan to pay for Topanga repairs
Schedule structural engineer for Topanga to review crack in foundation
Fine tune renovation finish budget
Meeting at Notaire's to review farming documents
Meeting with Caleigh's teacher to discuss difficulties in history/geography
Get estimate for new fosse septic at Petit Clos
Meeting at Notaire's to sign Acte de Vente (land sale agreement)
Get estimate for gate installation
Attend volunteer 'comite de fete' (summer event) meeting at Mairie's office
Go to Lycee (high school for next year) open house in Villenueve-sur-lot
Buy metal paint for gate and paint
Prep and rototil garden
Send in Lycee application to Magendie (Bordeaux)
Meet with savon d'argan salesman to purchase mini soaps for rooms
Get estimate for pool
Print, sign, scan and return 40+ pages of Topanga contract
Go to Lycee open house in St. Foy la Grande
Get estimate for new central heating (solar and woodburning unit)
Contact tourist office regarding Chambre d'hotes web ad
Go to maire's office to follow up on meeting with Prefet (government administrative office) regarding status on our residency card modification so I can legally work
Follow-up on overpayment reimbursement with Tresor's office
Update Airbnb site to add new listing, coordinate calendar, additional copy in description
Shop for home insurance in LA after State Farm informs us they will not renew our policy
Set up PayPal account for business with french bank account information
Follow up on U.S. tax preparation
Respond to IRS regarding mistake in 2010 filing to avoid $32,000 fine and back taxes
Install bathroom subfloor
Meet with financial consultant regarding french inheritance laws
Cut and stack fallen trees in pastures
Fail the french driver's test after learning that we have been studying off the wrong version of 30 practice tests containing over 1200 questions that we have translated, studied and learned. Apparently they do not use the questions from the latest 2011 version
Pick up Caleigh's scooter license plate
Pour shower concrete base
Revise renovation budget (again)
Burning pile
Initiate book keeping program for business
Install steel studs and drywall in bathroom
Schedule orthodontist appointment for wire repair
Shop and order clawfoot tub shower curtain rod
Move rooms back downstairs
Study french: review workbook and translate books, correspondence and emails
Cut concrete, dig trenches and install underground plumbing
Emergency meeting with financial consultant regarding registering as farmers so we do not lose the valuable 'prime' (similar to a subsidy for farmers)
Find JoJo (horse) new home
Update main website: trouble shoot how to import google map, link to a booking calendar, update copy and pictures, add a special events page
Cancel appoint to sell land until farming issue is sorted out
Sell/Give furniture stored in Topanga. Coordinate moving it.
Swap out winter/summer clothes
Finalize brochure and business card content and send to creative guru and friend, Megan (springcreative.com)
Find ornery, filthy donkey on doorstep and try to figure out who he belongs to

So, it's sort of been like that lately.
Our house in Topanga finally sold thankfully and we quickly received and spent our first option payment lickity-split a on a new septic system at Petit Clos (yes, that is 2 new septic systems that we have paid for in less than a month for both houses), gate installation and my personal favorite; final removal of old electrical and plumbing conversion to the new system. I'm really not sure why this stuff doesn't excite me the same way it does Hank and I have a very hard time parting with our money on it. I want the nice, shiny new bathroom or a bedroom remodel to mask the war-torn look of our current one instead.

Some day though. Or, as Hank loves to say to just about anyone we meet, "une petite une petite, l'oiseau fait son nid."  It means, little by little, the bird build its nest."

Skill Sets

We have been living in limbo for the past few months (oh, who am I kidding, one year, 2 months and 4 days to be exact) waiting on a small land sale to go through, negotiating terms for our LA house sale, and gathering estimates for a new heating system to be installed, new septic (at both Petit Clos AND Topanga) and hopefully, some day please, something fun like a swimming pool. And because of all these pending matters, we have sort have been forced to put our final home renovations on hold, mainly due to budget. We knew that we needed to make use of this down time though and began with the pruning of our Sauvignon Blanc vines early last month which was sure romantic for about the first hour and a half.

"Ah, the life in southwest France working on our very own vineyard!" we exclaimed, smiling at each other as we analyzed the vines, counted the buds and clipped them one-by-one. And it really did feel like a dream-come-true until it began getting really cold. "Are there really 2995 plants to go?" I wondered to myself after about two hours and my fingers felt like they were frostbitten. Now, Hank was in heaven and could not get enough of it, but he could tell that I was fading from the chill and kept saying that maybe we should focus on each of our "skill sets" instead. I believe that may have been code for, "you're kind of lagging in the pruning department. Perhaps there's somewhere else on the farm you could better utilize your talents." I'm just guessing.

Well, even I had to admit that he was probably right and since there is so much to do everywhere you look around here, I decided to go in search of my special skill set. Voila! It did not take long. I just had to walk into one of the 4-5 barns and outbuildings, including Hank's workshop - where you could not locate a hammer or screw driver if you needed one - to decide my next project. Don't get me wrong, he's an amazing designer and builder, but he moves like a tornado from project to project with little regard to the aftermath of a demolition so everything - tools, conduits, pipes and small mountains of trash and debris are left strewn about the entire compound.  Since I'm a tad compulsive about tidiness, I guess I had just discovered my skill set.

I started small organizing his tools and all of our inventory of renovation materials. Then, got bolder and began bagging and hauling the trash that would have to be deposited at the local dump. I was getting so into it, I even cleaned the chicken coop and old bunny cages. Both Hank and I continued in our respective skills for about a week until the deep freeze arrived and we were forced to switch gears and focus on keeping ourselves alive (Hank began each day thawing frozen pipes with a hair dryer and continued hauling in wood for our fires which we kept going almost 24/7). Friend and neighbor, Dominique checked in regularly to make sure we were okay. As uncomfortable as our living conditions were for two weeks, we were able to stay warm and toasty - in quite beautifully appointed rooms I must add - upstairs and with little we could do outside for the time being, including taking Caleigh to her school which was closed for the week, I was able to spend some quality time with her by watching some of MTV's finest reality shows. Yep, I'm now a Snooki follower.

The thaw came about two weeks later and we kicked into high gear with Hank finishing the vine pruning and then moved onto hauling all the trash and debris to either the dump or burning pile. With this pre-spring cleaning out of the way, we're now ready to go back into the house and finish it up in time for opening the Chambres d'hotes in May.

Which brings us to advertising and publicity for the Bed and Breakfast. We're on two sites so far and even received our first scam or arnaque as it is called here, over a 2-month booking. We were just fortunate that had not given our deposit information to our potential "guest"and his family before our dear friend Arlette thought something sounding fishy about his email.  She was right. And soon after, we learned that these scams are fairly common and have now been advised on what to look for. Who knew? What the inquiry did though, was force us to prepare a thorough and professional booking form with the help of our dear friends, Andrew and Arlette. The way we look at it is we learned a valuable lesson, were fortunate enough not lose any money and now there is one less thing on our to do list.

Check us out:

http://www.paysdeduras.com/chambres-d-hotes/petit-clos.html

http://www.airbnb.com/rooms/364513

So, this week we return to the house. Try to finalize some things on the Colina sale which has been a bit problematic with some necessary repairs. We're apparently being considered by the Prefet for a modification on our residency which was wonderful news. Caleigh is doing great and has made some new friends which has really lifted her spirits. Spring is truly around the corner as the temperatures rose into the 80's last week and I'm already planning this year's vegetable and herb garden and hopefully some nice landscaping in the front of the house. Now, back to paperwork, my curse and apparent strongest skill set.

Maison temporaire

As I lay about recuperating after 4 hellacious nights of coughing, night sweats and headaches, instead of having the strength to be able to develop our final "master plan" and schedule the finishing of the house over the next two months, I find myself instead fixating on all the little unfinished details in every room I find myself recuperating in. I'm sure that Hank wishes that I would just stay put in one room.


Doorknobs are a big one. We've got ancient doorknobs that do not close easily, doorknobs that inexplicably lock us out of a room, or my favorite, my very own bedroom doorknob - that truly and literally consists of said "knob" - that comes off in my hand about half the time if I'm lucky enough to catch it (that, or Ella the kitty finds it and you can hear it going back and forth over the stone tiles down the hallway in the middle of the night).

I've also found myself focusing on our ancient french windows and doors and I'm seriously wondering about our wisdom in keeping them as they all need attention as well. Most need new panes or at the very least, putty applied to make sure the existing panes do not fall out when you open them. All have special instructions like "do not open this one," "cannot lock that one," "if you open this one, don't expect to be able to close it." Right about now I want big-ass, strong, double-pane, weather proof windows. I guess this explains why we have found people throwing beautiful, authentic and original french doors and windows away at the dump (which I of course made Hank go in and retrieve for the gites).


We have house rules for everything. How many showers can we fit in per day under our current water heater and not to use the water when someone is taking their allocated shower to avoid scalding each other. How many flushes we can make before the septic system needs to be pumped? I cannot think of a more fun guessing game, especially when expecting guests.  What time in the middle-of-the-night should I program the washer to do laundry or should I run the dish washer instead tonight? Cannot seem to do both, so I have to decide.  Many of these rules will of course be lifted once we install the new water heater and septic system, but both require time and money, something that is still in short supply here.


Sometimes, I just find myself longing for a non-ancient, non-stone, fully insulated, even,  modern home that I now look at longingly when we're running one of our errands through the countryside. A house  without drafts. One with wall-to-wall carpeting sounds really tempting right now. Who really needs gorgeous hardwood or original tile floors? They're frickin' cold!  I also want one of those fluffy toilet seat covers so I don't have to sit on my hands when I have to skip to the loo in the middle of the night. Does anyone know if they still make those? Mom, can you knit me one? I want; I mean, what I really would like right now is a house that is no longer a, "maison temporaire" I think to myself after a year of living here. Rather than carrying a portable electric heater from room to room, I'd like to feel heat throughout the house rather than sound like Darth Vader when forced to have to make the run down the Arctic hallway in order to get to the toilet. Not sure why I sound like Darth Vader, but I just do. Maybe the heavy breathing out is my lamaze method of keeping warm.


I know it's the dead of winter and I've been sick so am obviously in a funk right now which of course will pass. In fact, I think I had a post like this last winter just to keep myself in check as in, "are we really sure about this?" which of course, we still are.  But, I decided to record this anyway so we do not overly romanticize any of this and that we always remember what it was really like this winter. Also, if anyone else happens to be going through the winter doldrums like I just was and imagines that living in southwest france would be a dream come true (I cannot tell you how often I did this as I stared out my office window), maybe after reading this, you will think again and just appreciate where you are today and how nice modern conveniences really are.

p.s. oh, we did not pass the written part of the driving test last week, but we actually did pretty well and just missed a few more than we could to pass, so we'll take it again in March. In the meantime, we just try to avoid the gendarmerie or "flics" as they say here.

L'hiver

 Okay, I get it now.

but, it's gorgeous...

À santé 2012

Happy New Year, bonne annee and a votre sante (to your health)! I don't think I have ever really appreciated just how fortunate we have been to have our health, but after Caleigh's mysterious and frightening episode on Christmas Eve and lingering headaches, backaches and non stop hacking for weeks since, I have been forced to take our health very seriously. "Could it be due to living in this old, cold, stone house?" I pondered and began to worry that moving here could be the cause of her illness and having back-to-back colds and flus. But maybe it was just due to new and foreign viruses that her body was not used to; much like the ones that the Spanish explorers brought to the the New World. Maybe she was being attacked by "Old World" viruses that her body had not had time to build up immunities against. And maybe instead of this major move improving her life and expanding her horizons, we had turned a healthy teenager who scoffed at colds or flus when living in California into a sickly child prone to every virus or bacterial infection that reared its ugly head? Fortunately, the only reason I think I can write about this at all now is that I am confident she is finally on the mend and after all that she has gone through this past year and I'm sure she is slowly building up her resistance to these local bugs. Just another precautionary appointment to see a brain specialist in a week (for her seizure) and finish off 15 days of antibiotics for a bacterial infection that was diagnosed in her lungs, and we should be good I am thinking. Below is a photo of all three of us in the hospital on Christmas Eve after I noticed that her gurney in the emergency room was right next to a cute little Christmas tree and was attempting to make light of the situation.

One of the things I think I learned during these past few weeks is that the french healthcare system is amazing; i.e. real good for what many back home might call and insult as "socialized medicine." If that's what it is, then, please, by all means, socialize me! From the care and attention we received from the speedy arrival of the paramedics out to our farm located out in the boonies, to the thorough and exhaustive tests including a spinal tap, catscan and beaucoup blood tests that were performed in the emergency room and the cautionary advise to keep her overnight in the hospital (even suggesting keeping her longer if need be), I could not help but think that she would not have received the same treatment back home - in fact, I truly doubt that she would have even been advised to go to the hospital in the first case. And nor would it have been remotely affordable. Not to say that her and our doctors in LA were not great. They were and are. It's just that it might have been a lot more difficult for them to recommend a hospital visit knowing that we would have been out thousands of dollars for something that might have only amounted to a bad flu. In France, they just don't seem chance such odds  and for us, it gave us a huge sense of relief knowing that we were receiving the best care available.

Okay, it's not a perfect system here by any means. Seeing your personal doctor in a timely manner while sick is not as easy as we found out this week when our only option was to wait in our doctor's waiting room for a minimum of 3-4 hours with the first actual appointment not available until late February. Caleigh was too weak to do that so I spent countless hours trying to find a new doctor, explain her situation and latest symptoms and request that her hospital records be transferred. Luckily, when calling the hospital for her records, they instead suggested we just come there first thing the next morning and they were able to perform the necessary xray that ultimately finally determined her lung infection. This sure beat a typical office visit which would have entailed sending us off to a radiographie office in a separate town where we would be required to take a number and wait; then possibly stop and wait at the local lab for blood tests (again, take a number and wait) only have to return for the results and go back to the doctor's office (who cannot make an appointment for over a month so we'll wait again for 3-4 hours) who would then issue a prescription for such and such that we'll have to fill. So, a simple one hour's doctor's visit can easily turn into a day's event which is not easy to get used to, but at least I won't go bankrupt over it or the hospital stay either.

There was one sad outcome from this whole ordeal that I sincerely hope is only temporary. When we had to cancel our Noel fete with Colette on the morning of Christmas eve, she was clearly and understandably disappointed and told me, "oh, don't worry, I'm used to being alone."  I know she had lovingly prepared various canapes for our party and for the first time in years, she looked forward to spending this special evening with friends. I did too. When I called to to let her know that if Caleigh was fortunate enough to be released from the hospital on Christmas day, we would try to move our celebration a day later. She was clearly annoyed and told me that she had already given our canapes away. "That's alright Colette, we have plenty of things to eat for the party," I told her which in retrospect may have been considered more of an insult since the appetizers she had made and quickly gave away were really her "gifts" to us since we had earlier decided to forego exchanging gifts and here I had just dismissed them as easily replaceable. Who knows, she might have also dreaded what fare I planned to offer knowing that I was the one doing the cooking. Whatever the reason, hopefully with some time, she will be able to understand some day that we did not have a whole lot of control over what happened and that contrary to her opinion, we did and will continue to, provide our child with a nourishing diet (along with Caleigh's dietary teen supplements consisting of chocolate and an occasional Mc Do's). And even if we failed at that, she still eats better than most due to the gourmet fare offered at her school cafeteria 5 days a week.

I've read some other's observations about the differences in our cultures and how Americans are prone to be more on the vague side of making plans and will often say, "yeah, we really ought to get together soon," but not actually schedule a time and date. Hank and I unintentionally learned this early last year when we said to new acquaintances, "Oh, you'll have to see our progress at the house," only to be asked immediately and matter-of-factly, "When?" and then fumbling around for an answer until we just said, "Well, how about this afternoon?" when we still did not have a kitchen to sit in, had only meager offerings of instant nescafe and stale biscuits and the temperature inside the house was about about 0 degrees. But, it was more than worth it, as Dominique and Patricia have become some of our closest friends.

The French are also more direct and precise and when they make plans which are rarely broken. Now I'm sure most of my younger french girlfriends would have understood completely about canceling a party because our daughter was in the hospital, but due to my limitations with the language I have also learned how awkward and/or unintentially one can make (or inadvertently, break) plans in France. Throw in the french style of telling time based on the 24hr clock and add a few metric conversions in the directions just for the hell of it, and it's a miracle I have ever made it anywhere remotely on time which I have to admit, I often do not.  In fact, I have driven to the wrong town (Moustier instead of Monsteir) and been late for a few appointments - arriving at 3pm when it should have been 1pm (or as they say, treize heure).

Anyway, last summer, when my dear friend Patricia assisted me in signing up for a few of the local vide greniers (village garage sales) because I had mentioned to her that I wanted to test the waters in selling our gift line, I had no idea that she actually wished to join me at them at my table which was unfortunately lost in translation. When I decided to change plans and participate in a different vide in another village so I could help out a friend, I failed to inform Patricia because I did not realize that she planned on attending. About a week later when I entered the mairie's office where Patricia works and where I typically receive enthusiastic kisses, "ca vas," etc., I could tell something was wrong when she quietly said hello. Luckily for me though, I did not have to wonder long about the obvious slight because she soon asked, "where were you?" "Where was I when?" I innocently asked. "At the vide grenier. I waited and waited for you all day, but you didn't show up." she said.
"Oh, please tell me that she didn't just say that," I thought to myself slowly becoming mortified when I visualized her so kindly introducing me to the locals and helping me sign up and then waiting for me the day of and ultimately being stood up. By me. I then struggled to explain in my god-awful french that only Patricia is kind enough to always somehow understand and apologized with tears in my eyes. And not only did she understand, thankfully, more importantly, she forgave me.

Well, Hank and I take our first written driving test tomorrow which reminds me that rather than blogging, I should be studying, so I'll have to update you about that next time as well give a progress report on the house.

L'automne

An interesting last few months I must say. I turned 50. And, although I was not dreading the milestone, I certainly was not embracing it enthusiastically which is probably why I was in a funk the whole week prior. What I am sure I was feeling was uncertainty. My freelance assignment was ending at the end of the month, we had decided to give our LA tenants notice that we would be selling our house in 2012 rather than renew their lease (giving them the opportunity to move and thus, lose our monthly rent that covered both mortgages) and we still had a good amount of work to finish the main house. Thankfully, we had money for the moment, although we knew it would have to last us through winter, not to mention be there for unplanned emergencies, property taxes, and yes, the holidays were approaching...so I was worried and feeling a bit out of sorts trying to come to terms with the constant insecurity we had lived in for so long now.  Having paid the price of turning the big 5-0, one would hope that as a consolation price, all of our financial worries would lesson. Ha!

So, with no excess cash in our pockets,  it was only fitting that we found the painting we had been dreaming about for the past 7 months, still tucked away in the back office at our favorite brocante, Flash, in Bordeaux. We were also pleasantly surprised to find that the stolen bedroom furniture from Petit Clos  was being stored in a friend's barn less than a mile away. This friend and neighbor who buys and sells all kinds of odds and ends for a living, was approached last year by the owner's children to sell and/or store the contents of Petit Clos. But, after becoming friends with us over the past year and probably because he had heard us tell the story of how the owner's son sold our furniture out from under us ad nauseum, he finally dropped by one afternoon, put his head in his hands and said, "I've got to come clean..."  and he explained how he had been hired to remove and try selling the loot last year. We did not have a problem with him. He did not know us at the time and he was just hired to do this not knowing the story behind the furniture. But, as luck would have it, apparently overly ornate dark wood french furniture (bordering on campy) is not very popular here as everyone found out to their dismay, you literally cannot give it away. Modern is definitely the preferred look, but since I've never been one to follow trends too closely and in this `110-year-old farm house with incredibly high ceilings, the older style suits it perfectly. So, after a few weeks thinking about it whether we actually wanted it back or not - you know bad mojo or whatever - we decided it made just made more sense to bring it back "home" where it always belonged.

We also managed to make the deadline to get into the local tourist brochure for our department - Lot-et-Garonne and have begun researching many of the internet sites for booking reservations and will start actively attacking next year's adverting right after the holidays.

Caleigh turned 15 this week, and she continues to amaze us. We know that we threw her in the deep end last year, hopeful that she would at the very least, tread water. We never expected her to become Mark Spitz and that she'd be fluent in french and develop the admiration from her teachers who say that they are now confident that she will have no problem getting into a lycee generale and achieve her baccalaureate in three year's time. I am definitely oversimplifying here as I'm still learning the ins and outs of the french education system, but basically, at troiseme (9th grade equivalent), students are preparing for a very important test called the brevet which is taken in May. While their grades, or "moyens" (averages) are taken into account; combined, these all have an impact on whether her teachers and school administrators will recommend her to move up to the next academic level. Or instead, they could suggest that she be better suited to go to a trade school or half-and-half academic/professional experience route. Of course, we want her to have choices and not decide her life's fate next year, so continuing academically is our goal and now the headmistress (principal), and each of her teachers that we met with last week say that she is bright, a very hard worker (plus forte) and will have no problem going to the next level. I am so proud. Just wish she would quit correcting me all the time and didn't have such a heavy french accent. I can barely understand her.

We're still dealing with our residency or lack thereof other than the "tourist card" we currently hold. We seem to have done all of our paperwork correctly, but it appears that one office (OFII - immigration office) did not speak to the other (Prefecture - government administrative office) and a few well-meaning attempts to assist us by our very own Maire's office only seemed to have confused matters more. Thankfully, we have the services of Yvonne, who has drafted a letter to the Prefect outlining the mistakes that were made and has requested a modification to our carte de sejour. We'll see how this goes, but for now, the result is that I cannot be granted my own auto entrepreneur activity and be assigned the necessary SIRET number (a tax ID) that would allow me to work as a small business. And the result of that is that I cannot work in weekly markets other than a few of the Marches de Noel this month that do not require the professional status. It's really not the end of the world if I cannot work in marches right now. For one thing, we're almost in the dead of winter and two, my products are not exactly flying off the shelves. For example, I spent all of last Sunday in a Marche de Noel at a school in Mousteir and I'll be lucky if I took home 26 euros. But realistically, probably not even that as I paid a 15 euro fee to participate and spent a few euros buying a baby gift and champagne for friend's coming by the following week...But, the good news is that I made more local contacts that offered advice and suggestions as they thought my products were great and had potential, even with my professional limitations (think word-of-mouth, online, etc). So, I really was not terribly discouraged and spend a nice day unwinding (from a 4-month advertising assignment that I had just finished days before).

And lastly, we tied up our new farming "commodat" with our dear friend and neighbor, Dominque this week. In celebration, we invited he and his wife over for dinner. Weeks before when we originally made our plans, Patricia had offered to bring a rich local pumpkin based-soup, so I planned our menu accordingly thinking that I should not try overpowering the soup by making a rich, large main course or one of the hearty delicious veal or lamb stews that Colette has taught me to make over this past month. Knowing that Patricia loved cous-cous, I decided to make this amazing seafood taboule with cous-cous that Colette had also taught me. But when we had to push the date of our dinner back by a week, I incorrectly assumed that Patricia was still bringing her soup and you can imagine my expression when she did not arrive carrying a large terrine. It also did not help that as I was preparing the ingredients for the taboule earlier in the day, I noticed a little note on the recipe saying that this dish was perfect for l'ete (summer), or a day time pik-nik. "Oh geez," I think to myself...not another faux pas please...

I decide to do what any other desperate cook would and begin overfilling their glasses with plenty of the champagne I recently purchased...maybe they won't notice that the meal is sans entre (which was supposed to be the soup course) and just a cold summertime salad I have prepared in early December. But I did of course and apologetically explained that I just didn't cook much and primarily made simple dishes....which in turn brought on the discussion of how much they loved to cook and I just wanted to hide my head under the table because of course anyone who knows me knows that I love to cook too (and had recently made the most incredible new dishes just the week before sans guest of course) and here I was having to pretend that I don't cook much due to my poor offerings this evening. Well,  the evening ended up just fine and we had plenty of cheese and dessert and vin bien sur, and presented Dominique with the Sheriff's badge Teddy had brought over in thanks for his heroics months before when someone was illegally farming some of our land.

On to our first Christmas spent in Petit Clos!

Smothered in Paperwork

While waiting for my first few paychecks to arrive so we can resume the final home renovations before winter (second upstairs bath, downstairs hall and bath; front entry, etc.) Hank continued working outside, quickly transforming into Paul Bunyon, hauling fallen tree trunks from the forest and cutting them into our winter firewood. He finished clearing any remaining debris hanging around the barns and hauled large rocks and stones to make our garden and driveway borders. We had a large pile of gravel dropped off for our driveway that he spread practically by hand although Dominique was kind enough to drop by with his large tractor and finish the task. We also had two wood burning stoves dropped off that he immediately installed and we have been nice and toasty as the weather dipped down in the 30's last week. Needless to say, Hank's looking tanned and buffed; better than he has in years.

Me, on the other hand, have been sitting on my ass, working behind a computer most of my waking hours for the past two months and have of course found that 10 lbs I had miraculously lost over the summer. But I will not complain for one second. I am working with a great group of people from home and will start having paychecks soon. When I'm not working, I continue on with the myriad of french paperwork that seems to be neverending and never easy. Thankfully, we have two right-hand people who have been invaluable in assisting us decipher and translate the administrative challenges that confront us just about every week these days: our financial advisor, Yvonne Droshagen at droshagen.yvonne@free.fr and our friend and language and administrative consultant, Natalie Goodenough at goodenough.nathalie@orange.fr.

Warning: the following is kind of boring, but reflects the reality of being an American living in France their first year (without a French spouse, or employer/state department taking care of all the legalities of residency, nor having a firm grasp of the language; that being my issue and obligation to correct). I'll try breaking it up with pictures...

Certificat d'urbanisme - this is our building permission to convert the barns into habitable space, or gites (holiday homes) in our case. We have always known that we had up to 18 months to submit our stamped plans (Dec 23, 2011), or, we could request an extension 60 days in advance of that expiration that would give us another year in which to submit plans. So, last week I took our extension request in writing to the maire's office and was informed that the extension could not be extended if the existing laws had been modified which of course have been. A simple extension procedure that was described as a slam dunk by this same office less than 6 months ago, was now not an option. Now we are in the process of reapplying for a new certificate d'urbanisme which in my mind has the potential to remove our rights to convert our barns into gites. And because I am no longer a believer in "oh, it's just standard procedure; it will be no problem to obtain," we will also work on submitting our plans before the existing expiration of Dec 23, just to be safe.

Attended the Blonde Aquitance Expo in Bergerac in September with our buddies, Dominique and Patricia...Patricia is on the left and Dom is in the ladies attire in case you were wondering.

yes, that's Hank offering a bottle of Bordeaux to one of the vache...

I kid you not, this American bad boy was on display at the Fete.


Carte de Sejour (Residency Card) Renewal Snafu
Even though I began our renewal paperwork back in August (it was due by Nov 1), and submitted all of the necessary paperwork (including translating our birth certificates because the confusion over how we date documents in the U.S.), we found out 2 weeks ago that the renewal was incorrectly submitted (for the second year in a row) and our residency card reflects us only as visitors and not residents. So, although it's legal for us to stay here, apparently, it's not legal for us to make any income and for me to become my own small business (an auto Entrepreneur), nor obtain the necessary commercant ambulant card necessary for me to participate in weekly markets. That's a bit of a problem as I'm sure you can imagine. Yvonne called on our behalf and was told that we could request a modification as we were still before the deadline. But our Maire's office has said that they never received our renewal card  and when they called the Prefecture, they were told that this modification could not be done until next year unless of course, we wished to drive down to the Prefecture in Agen with our new cards and sort of "beg" for a modification. Oay vay. Surprisingly, I did not completely lose it, although I must admit that my eyes did begin to well up...and I could not contain an involuntary and audible, "humph" while thinking, "this is not happening." Hank gave me a look that said, "pull it together," so I did, just barely. We called Yvonne who was also a bit annoyed and said that she would call on Monday and try to get this sorted out for us, saying it was absolutely ridiculous for them to deny us a normal residency.

Theo & Caleigh

Carte Vitale (Henri et Caleigh)
One little stroke of luck we encountered was obtaining health care for Hank and Caleigh (my coverage was supposed to be tied to my company which I am not allowed to have at the moment so we'll attempt to add me to Hank's in the meantime). After initially following the Anglo Info articles advising us on how to get into the French healthcare system when we first arrived in France and subsequently, receiving an astronomical bill and collection notices that we had to fight for months to get removed (thanks again to Yvonne),  Hank's company was successfully established interestingly enough. I say that because he had the same exact carte de sejour, except for the fact that he's a man, I suppose, as his was not redflagged and denied. Frankly, I'm not going to ponder the potential sexist slant to this and will just shut up and be appreciative that we can at least run our B&B and obtain health care under his business.

 discovered that Elle likes cantelope

...and Skye prefers sleeping in the fireplace


Permis de Conduire
Just a quick update. Still studying for the written test (hey, I passed 10 of the trial examens so far) and found a great new site with advise about the procedures and test itself in English: americansinfrance.com. We were preparing to be scheduled by the Prefecture to take our test any day now (before our 1-year residency expiration date of Nov 1) and when we had not heard anything after sending in all of our required paperwork (demande de permis de conduire, medical exams, translated birth certificates, my great-grandmother's maiden name, Hank's third sister's 1st born middle name, etc.), we called on our friend and professional consultant, Nathalie. She spoke to the person who handled les permis and she was informed that yes, they have our paperwork, but that it takes up to three months to schedule the test, especially one for l'etrangers (us, foreigners) because they will attempt to have a translator for the test which is great news. Only problem is, we will be driving illegally after Nov 1 and were warned to drive very, very carefully and avoid getting pulled over by the gendarmerie.

So, other than getting our farming commodats updated in the near future and putting our 2 extra parcels up for sale (I'm thinking swimming pool next Spring), we're mainly trying to figure out the best way to keep afloat until then. But, you know, it's Sunday and I'm not supposed to think about finances today. So, I'm going to get my butt outside, enjoy the gorgeous Autumn day and rest up for next week's beaucoup challenges.

Throughout all of these obstacles, sometimes it's a wonder Hank and I are still happily married, but thankfully we are. We celebrated our 17th anniversary on October 1!