I know, I know, it’s been a minute. I said I would start doing this about once a month, and it’s been at Least 3 months, but I have my reasons. Some of them are really good reasons, and some are simply excuses, but at least I’m honest, right?
To bring you somewhat up to date, what we have been up to are a Lot of different things. We did spend a substantial amount of time getting this place (almost) ready to rent out by the end of August, but progress in France is sometimes frustrating. There’s a word used often here, “normalement”, which literally means normally. But the real translation works a bit differently on a Lot of things here. For example, if a contractor says “I will be back Tuesday to finish the job, normalement”, that pretty much means he will Not be back Tuesday.
He may arrive Wednesday, Thursday or Friday (oh yeah Friday is a holiday, so forget that), maybe next week.
In other words, there were a Lot of finishing touches that needed to be done, once things were close to opening, and some of them took waaaaaay longer than expected.
The good news is that most all of them are done now, with only a few exceptions.
In fact, rather than posting a bunch of pictures in the post, I am just adding the link to the AirBnB site where you can see the listing, and a lot of official pics of the place.
I also can recommend, for any of you who are on Facebook, and are Not already friends with Sharon, send her a friend request, And a message telling her you are a subscriber to our newsletter, so she can automatically add you as a friend. She posts a Lot of great picks, as she is a Much better photographer than I am.
So, here is a link to the AirBnB site: https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/876861836314870833?adults=8&check_in=2023-08-08&check_out=2023-08-13&children=0&enable_m3_private_room=true&federated_search_id=0501277f-aee9-4813-894f-140e0e28ad06&infants=0&locale=en&pets=0&previous_page_section_name=1000&source_impression_id=p3_1691486018_5FJl%2BsiwOGp9hPMy
And here is a link to Sharon’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/sharon.bloom.984
In the meantime, Sharon and I have had our hands full trying to navigate the French bureaucracy involved in getting signed up for our Gov’t sponsored French classes, as well as getting our French Drivers Licenses.
Each of these tasks has taken an incredible amount of research (thanks, Sharon) and time spent trying to figure out how it really works.
For example, out of 50 US states, there are only 13 that are allowed to simply trade a US Drivers Licenses for a French one.
Unfortunately Washington State is Not one of those 13.
So the process goes something like this:
1. You have to register on a website called ANTS, where you have to fill out a form, attach your passport pic, another pic of yourself, proof of address and a couple other docs.
The website, not unlike Every other French Gov’t website we have had to use (don’t get me started on us trying to get our Work Visas, before we came) is Not very user friendly, and doesn’t work all that well. In fact I had to submit some of my docs 2 or 3 times before they were “accepted”.
Once that is all done you have to wait for your ANTS number, which takes a fair amount of time, unless it is August, in which case, it takes even longer, because most everyone is on Vancances.
When you finally get your number, you need to take a written test, which is given in French, so unless you are fairly fluent, that could be difficult. We were told we could have a translator for the written test (Not the driving test, though), so we are working on that. Oh, and registering for the written test is not a simple as it sounds, but we did find a couple local angels to help us through the process.
Once you have taken And passed the written test, you have to register to take the driving test.
That also takes a while, big surprise, right?
We were told by a young lady who had recently taken (and failed) her driving test, that the person who gives the test just gets in the car and tells you to drive to a specific village (hopefully nearby), but you can’t use the navigation system, so hopefully you know where it is. Oh, and they do Not talk, so don’t try to have a conversation, just Drive!
Once you take, and pass your driving test, guess what? You have to register/apply to actually get the DL!!!
I mean, how many times do you need to register with basically the same organization to complete this process?
And That was just to get a French DL!!
PS. We are now scheduled to take our written tests in Nov, so we are studying the “Code Route” which is the official book on French driving laws, what the incredible number of road signs, and rules about what to do when. Some things are common sense, but some are Very different from the US.
We also got signed up for our French classes. Both of us have been studying Duolingo for months, and also taking French lessons with a friend in Paris, who does this for a living. We were taking an hour a week each, but now we are taking two 45-minute lessons a week. It is helping, but French is a Very difficult and complex language, with a Lot of “weird” rules. Like almost Every word has a gender, so that determines what words you use with it, in order to not confuse the person you are talking with (that is If they can understand your version of their language:-).
The lessons we are taking, via Google meet, are quite technical, but helpful.
The classes, which we will start the 1st week of October, will be even more helpful, as they are 9-5 3 days a week (Yikes), with an hour lunch break. If we can pass a test proving we have reached level 1A after the 1st 100 hours, we can graduate early, so that is our goal. Wish us luck, Please!!
I will try to keep these more “regular” and post more fun content going forward, but since it’s been so long since I posted, I thought it only fair to give you some of the reasons I have been M.I.A.
Please feel free to send us an email, or a comment or question, and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
Please click on this link, in order to see more of Sharon’s pics, as well as anything I may have missed here: https://guesthouseadventures.com/progress-pictures-included-and-some-updates-on-mas-de-toulair/
You can also see any of our previous posts on the website, if you missed anything, or want to share with a friend.
Until next time……
Ray & Sharon