We have moved to a new house. Clos Mirabel. It is like a scene from a movie. Like in a Room with a View. I have a room with a view. Seriously, my bedroom looks out over this... and I have a giant window to admire it. That would be the neighboring vineyard that produces a sweet white wine. In the distance, are the Pyrenees. Beyond that, is Spain. I love all the signs that are shaped like an arrow and say, "Espagne." It's so much cooler than that sign in Vancouver that says, "Portland."
I have a lot to get caught up on, but let's start with the new location. We arrived late Sunday night after a whirlwind trip to the Mediterranean. We were exhausted. And it was a lot cooler here. We got settled in and went to bed. The next morning, we spent a good deal of time at the grocery store, which I am getting much better at navigating. It takes me a while to read everything and to figure out what to buy. Seriously though, how hard is it to buy cheese, bread, ham and wine? It is so shockingly cheap to buy wine and cheese, I always buy 3. Yup, three different kinds of cheese and three bottles of wine. I was sad my St. Marcellin was squished, but at less than two euro, I didn't shed too many tears. We are here for two weeks, so I had to buy stuff like various soap (bath, hair, laundry) and paper towels.
This is my life... in France. Same crap, different location. That's the exciting part. My window is on the second floor, above the open doors to the house.
Remember last week when I complained about the dryer that needed espionage level of decoding to start it?
This week - there is no dryer. I spent all of Monday doing the laundry. Literally, after marathon time at the grocery store, I spent all day turning the laundry over in the sun. I had so much to do from the weekend, I spread it out in the yard on the table and turned it like a chicken on a rotisserie.
What we lost in convenience, we made up for in lizards. Which has entertained the two youngest to no end. They love catching lizards. Poor Special K is left holding a tail more often than not. Which is just plain gross.
We also have a resident bunny, named Tiny. I fear Tiny might be loved to death by K. I apologize to the poor thing for SpecK all the time.
There is a trampoline and the kids spend as much time in the pool as possible. This week is the week the kid's started to get a bit tired of only having each other. They play well together and then they fight well together. There is no break for them, no other friends, no camps, nothing but each other. This is the best and most challenging part. Because they are so close and will have these memories, but only if they don't end up hating each other in the next six weeks.
So I was visiting with Andre today (our host) and I was asking him about some of the buildings that I can see from the house. It seems so appropriate that I am surround by "sanitoriums." Back in the 19th century when England had ruined it's environment with the industrial revolution, half of the population of this area was populated by Brits that moved from England to France for "the air." And a sanitorium business came through and built a bunch of operations. HA! Now, they are all "old people homes." I said to Andre, "retirement living." Yes, yes he said. I'm in the right valley, no?
Trying to remain positive and not complain about the lack of dryer or the spotty "wee-fee," I have successfully found locally roasted whole coffee beans. This house does not have pod coffee (don't miss it) but it does have a French press. After a lot of pointing and gesticulating, I managed to get some strong, whole bean coffee, ground, and I am hoping to figure it out tomorrow. I can tell you what - once he figured out I did not want a shot of espresso (well, I did), he packed my coffee... and I let out a "Praise Jesus!" the shopkeeper GOT THAT and laughed. I expect to see him in a few days. Let's hope this work, because the past two days I have been rocking a massive coffee withdrawal headache and for the good of France, I'd prefer to avoid an international incident and just get a good cup of joe.
More good news is that I guess I'll only do laundry on the sunny days. And we don't have a bell tower. And the wi-fi works almost all over the house, not just in the kitchen. And seriously, somebody has to do the laundry.
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