Blue Sky Living

Construction update

Just when I thought there would be no more problems with our construction project I had a phone call from the builder. The bank funding the whole project was refusing to pay up. The builder had incurred €100,000 worth of costs and in a series of emails with the bank it had been agreed that payment could take place once we’d signed the formal mortgage offer. Signing at the notaires could wait, at least that was the agreement. 

The last few days have therefore been a little difficult - the documents for the Notaire were lost in the post, the builder was so agitated that I can only assume he was about to go bust, and I was losing sleep trying to figure out who would take responsibility if the whole project fell through. 

The bank refused to budge from its position despite the email evidence, and only after three days of pushing did they see fit to tell us that if the required documents hadn’t arrived at the Notaire they were downloadable from the internet. A useful piece of information you would have thought. Then again being bankers the management was probably busy squabbling over the diminishing bonus pool.

Still everything is alright now. I hope…. 

The accidental bouliste

Here's something from earlier in the summer:

Residents warned me about Marseille. Hold on to your wallet. Hold on to your wife. Given the order of the advice it sounded like a misogynists charter, still I was keen not to prejudge the city. 

First impressions weren’t favourable. High on an electricity wire I noticed a pair of trainers swinging from their laces and into my mind came a vision of some unfortunate tourist, cowering naked down a back alley. Stripped of all his possessions, apart from the shoes, he was unable even to hop to the nearest gendarmerie to ask whether anyone had seen his wife.

I’d also be warned about the driving. “Remember that famous French film Taxi, where Marseille resembles a Formula One circuit? It’s not fiction, it’s fact.”  Sure enough sitting at a set of red traffic lights, the driver of a Renault Laguna, decided to convert his car into an impromptu moped. David Blaine might struggle with this particular trick, but not apparently the locals. The secret is to hit the curb at the right pace and voila four wheels become two.

Creche

Last week was a pretty traumatic week. Elodie started at Creche. The idea was for us to leave her alone for half an hour on the first day, an hour on the second day and then finally two hours. Day one was okay, Day two was a disaster. We heard her screams as we left, and we heard them an hour later as we came to pick her up. The creche assistants helpfully informed us that Elodie had occasionally stopped crying. 

For the rest of the week Elodie wouldn't let us out of her sight and now I am dreading tomorrow when she's due back at Creche.  The first week seems to have really affected her. Perhaps it was the language barrier - her only French word is au revoir - then again she only has twenty or so English words. Perhaps it was the discipline - French mothers and by extension child minders are much stricter with their children than the English. Whatever the problem, we need to sort it out, because we have one unhappy little girl.

Wish us luck.

La Gripe Porcine 2

Swine flu nearly stopped us from going back to England this summer. It was late July and the country was experiencing over 100,000 cases a week. Pregnant women and young children were particularly at risk. In the end we decided to go. The atmosphere was strange - surgical masks everywhere and people constantly disinfecting their hands with wipes. And this was England, a place where people usually dismiss illnesses as nothing serious. The French, with a pharmacy on every corner, have a different attitude. The smallest scratch requires bedrest and ten different medicines.

What might happen in France if the flu reaches the same level? Well as yet France is way down the list of effected countries and yet outside the school gates on the first day of term I spotted one mother with a surgical mask on. She looked ridiculous, but I predict within a week the trend will catch on. Already there have been mutterings about the french government shutting down all schools to combat the virus.

My advice - buy shares in French surgical mask manufacturers.