Category Archives: General Information

Finding Housing Means Beating My Head Against A Wall

No — haven’t dropped off the face of the planet, but I have been firmly beating my head against a wall whilst trying to find us a place to live for a minimum of a year or so when we will qualify for a French mortgage or we find some cheap-as-chips property to buy for cash and subsequently renovate (while living in construction rubble — again!.

It’s a VERY good thing that I am feeling all bright and perky and healthy right now because I think I would have gone back to bed this morning and pulled the covers over my head otherwise. And I’m trying to deal with this 90% on my own since the darling Mark is off at work every day and it wouldn’t help him one little bit to cope with that PLUS this.

We didn’t get the house we interviewed for on Saturday. The owner rented to another French woman and in case you mistakenly think that I am feeling persecuted or discriminated against — no, I am not. It’s just one of those things and I’m not feeling dramatic about it.

This picture below is the view through each of the three French doors onto the balcony, the scene that would have been presented to us each day. It was a perfectly splendid large house and it even had the lock-up garage Mark needed and a separate office-library for me in addition to the 2 bedrooms, large kitchen, and large living and dining room. We had already begun to mentally envision where we would place the furniture and hang the artwork that is on the way from Australia. Now THAT was certainly a mistake we won’t make again!

View from the balcony of the house we did NOT get in St. Girons, Midi-Pyrenees, France

We are having a nightmare trying to find someone who will rent to us here. We don’t have French tax returns for the past year and even with sparkling references, they want a guarantor who will declare that they will be responsible for our rent for three flipping years!

Our friend Becky (whose husband Matt my husband subcontracts for) went with me to make the rounds of all the agencies in St. Girons on Friday and I saw her face when the agent told her that and then she turned and translated it to me. I immediately told her that there was no way I would ever place them in that situation and she said, “We just couldn’t!”

Even the private owners here are asking for the same things —
1. Proof of income (we have that)
2. Proof of local bank (we have that)
3. Bank statements to show solvency (we have that)
4. References from past landlords (we have that)
5. Copies of passports and French residency (we have that)
6. Tax returns from France for a minimum of one year (we do NOT have that!)
OR
7. A guarantor who will promise to pay our rent for up to THREE years (we certainly do NOT have that!)

Understandably, people who are landlords need to protect their interests and the housing market here is quite protective of the rights of tenants. So it is nigh onto impossible to get a renter OUT once you have them in. For those reasons, property owners are very, very conservative. Having owned a small portfolio of property when we lived in the USA, I can see it from both sides of the fence and am completely sympathetic to the position of the landlord as well as our own. But this is, at the moment, very difficult.

I was all chipper this morning and I thought that perhaps the Universe was trying to tell me that it wasn’t that particular house that would be right for us. But the rental apartments or houses are disappearing as fast as they are online and they have that full list of requirements that we can’t meet. I have been on the phone since 9:30 this morning calling property owners who had listed their mobile numbers on the listings. I’ve even had Becks and our other friend Caty calling around for me since they’ve lived here for years and their French is better than mine. The results thus far are a firm brick wall!

I’ll figure it out even if we have to go and rent some caravan for a year. Ah well — back to the online listings since the agencies are now a solid no-go zone. It certainly is NOT as straightforward as England, Australia, or the USA by any stretch of the imagination! Who knew??? (sigh!)

Life In A Tiny French Village

Perhaps I should title this article “Life In A Tiny French Village — For Now”?

The Midi-Pyrenees village of Engomer

We arrived in the Midi-Pyrenees almost 4 weeks ago and have settled — temporarily — into a house that we are renting in a small village. It’s a pretty little bend in the road, I won’t deny that. But this particular village is so small that there isn’t even a village shop or bakery or any kind of amenities.

River bend in the village of Engomer in the Midi-Pyrenees in France

Pretty and quaint is all well and good, but you know a place is wee-tiny when the post office is only open a few hours in the morning, and only for 4 days during each week. The woman who runs the place was actually quite put out that I wanted stamps for cards and letters to Australia and the USA instead of to other locations in France. Sheesh!

Village post office in Engomer & it is only open 4 mornings a week!

The picture below is of our way-too-large house as seen across the village tennis courts. We rented this house sight unseen at the recommendation of a friend here since she knew we’d be arriving with no place to live and no time to search because Mark would be starting work a mere few days later. It’s charming and fully furnished, but thank heavens we have a month to month option!

Our rented house seen across the village tennis court

For those of you who have followed my writing for years and were familiar with our darling little eco-cottage back in Australia, you will know that a big barn of a place like this is not really our style. The ground floor of this house is as large as our entire little house back in Australia! We are firm believers in a frugal lifestyle with low energy consumption, and this house may be charming, but it certainly won’t be energy efficient. If we want to splash out a bit, we’d rather invest in a new piece of computer or camera or sports equipment — not an electric or fuel oil bill!

A plan is being formulated. Twenty minutes from here is the larger town of St. Girons and that is where I plan to aim my search. We are going to look for a house with a much smaller footprint and a lock-up garage for Mark’s tools and supplies. We are putting the wheels in motion for our household goods to be shipped from Australia as soon as the shipping company can pick everything up within the next week or so.

We had hoped to manage with only one vehicle. But Mark needs the van every day for work and there is no public transport in this tiny spot. In a similar way to our life in Australia, the distances between each village or town means that we are going to be forced to purchase a small car for me. We may have that sorted out in the next couple of weeks and then I can begin the search for another house to rent.

St. Girons is a lovely and old-fashioned market town, but it has quite a lot of amenities. There are narrow streets and tall old houses pressed shoulder-to-shoulder, market squares, and lots of cafes and pretty little shops. It’s the kind of place where you can get out and walk to the shops, the hairdresser, the bookstore, or to a cafe for lunch or dinner with friends. How fab would that be!

As always, I will keep my readers apprised of our progress as things unfold. And thanks for all of the charming off-site notes that you have sent to me privately expressing your happiness about our adventure in resettling in a new country.

Finally, enjoy a slideshow of more village scenes including two shots of the snow covered mountains as seen through our livingroom window.

[wppa type=”slide” album=”6″ size=”760″][/wppa]

Censorship Is Alive And Well In PayPal’s Misguided Little Minds

Deviating from my normal posts about travel, history, or the issues involved in living as an expat, today I am addressing a situation that has just been brought to my attention by one of the publishers of my books.

I publish both of my books about spiritual growth, social and historical issues, and future visions in paper versions — The Dreamkeeper and the most recent book, Darkness Folding Inward, Light Emerging — at Lulu.

But I also publish both books in electronic versions at Smashwords — and I am quite concerned because Smashwords is under attack by PayPal right now.

I found it breathtaking that PayPal has decided that it was appropriate to be ‘content police’ on what is published at Smashwords. They have informed the head of Smashwords, Mark Coker, that unless all books are removed that contain what they consider to be objectionable material, they will cancel the PayPal account that enables authors like me who live in countries other than the USA to be paid our royalties.

This is simply insane on at least three fronts. (1) It would immediately bring the wonderful flow of artistic output from non-USA-writers to a halt since we would not be able to be paid for our book sales. (2) It penalises all Smashwords authors, even if we are not producing what the ‘thought police’ over at PayPal consider objectionable. (3) It sets up PayPal as the judge and jury of what the readers of the world are allowed to read. And what gives them that right???

I will begin to immediately participate in the online protests against this impending action by PayPal against Smashwords. I encourage all of my readers to read this article at Electronic Frontier Foundation and do the same.

Giving France A Chance

We did it! Mark’s paperwork is complete and he is now registered to work in France. And today I finally got the last of my own paperwork done and as of 3 PM this afternoon, I am legally a resident of France!

Carte Du Sejour application for French residency approved and number assigned!

I’ve intentionally kept the photo of my official paperwork small and unreadable for security’s sake. Within a week or so I’ll have a little laminated photo ID card to carry in my wallet instead of this larger piece of paper. But the happy news is that it’s done and we can move forward.

We’ve decided to give France a chance. So I’ll be posting some articles in the future that vary a bit from the travel writing because they will describe our efforts to settle in for awhile.

I think we’re about to be on a large learning curve!

Full Body Scanners Coming To Australia with only No-Scan-No-Fly Available!

I normally write very calm and measured or funny and informative travel articles on this website. I have avoided political statements and since they weren’t particularly relevant to the theme I had established, it hadn’t occurred to me to use this as avenue for a rant. But I have just discovered some news from ‘back home’ in Australia that has alarm bells clanging in my head.

It is, in my opinion, simply appalling that the Australian government has decided that it is wise, safe, or admirable to introduce Full Body Scanners to Australia. This will leave the travelling public over there with no option but to drive or take a train within the country or simply not travel overseas at all if you object to being scanned and having your body dosed with radiation.

The media reports that I have read thus far are simply not mentioning the cumulative health effects of radiation and the studies that have been done in both the USA and Europe that show that this is an unknown and potentially dangerous path to be heading down. Doctors in many countries have told their patients that if they have damaged immune systems, have just had chemotherapy or radiation for cancer, have devices implanted internally that could be damaged by the radiation, or who are already at risk for the cumulative effects of radiation to simply opt-out of full body scans.

This proposed roll-out of these machines in Australia doesn’t even give the travelling public the option of the humiliating but less health-damaging pat down that they do in the USA unless they have what is deemed to be a very serious health condition. This is plainly not a well thought out plan and I am shocked that this is being foisted on the Australian public and international travellers under the guise of the so-called ‘war on terrorism.’

I am complete unconvinced of the truthfulness of the quotes in this article in The Australian.

“The “no scan, no fly” amendment closes a loophole in the legislation, which allows passengers to request a pat-down instead of having to pass through a metal detector.

Transport Minister Anthony Albanese said mandatory body scans were necessary to ensure the safety of airports.

“I think the public understands that we live in a world where there are threats to our security and experience shows they want the peace of mind that comes with knowing government is doing all it can,” he said.

The Government has compared the strength of the radio waves emitted from the body scanners as the same as those from a regular mobile phone used several metres away.”

This is simply ludicrous to make these claims when the EU is banning, removing, or cancelling the installation of these same machines. This November 2011 article in a British newspaper details the concerns that are being addressed in Europe. So why is there so little regard for the health and welfare of the Australian travelling public or for international travellers who come and go on holidays or business?

If you too are concerned about the long term effects of radiation when you travel and you don’t qualify for the exemption-via-doctor’s-note option, take a few minutes from your busy day and write to…
1. The Parliament of Australia regarding Aviation Transport Security Amendment (Air Cargo) Bill 2011 at the contact links for the (a) MP list or the (b) Senator list.
2. Contact GetUp: Action For Australia and urge them to QUICKLY begin one of their very successful online campaigns to contest this legislation.
3. Make online comments in the COMMENTS BOX of articles such as this one in The Australian.
4. TWITTER your objections to all of your followers.
5. FACEBOOK your objections to all of your followers.
6. Forward this page with all of the links to your own private email list.

Let’s hope that we can stop this dead in its tracks before it is too late!

A New Facebook Page to Click On LIKE

Just set up a Facebook Page for this website A Wanderful Life — Around The World and Around The Neighbourhood Travels.

So if you are already on Facebook or planning to sign up, please DO go over there and click LIKE so I can get the minimum 80 LIKES this weekend and begin being indexed. Thanks ever so much!

HERE is the link for the FACEBOOK page!

Photos Of The Day: Drive Oh-So-Alertly At This French Beach

The sign below is not something to glance quickly at and then ignore. If you happen to be in a car, you will be ignoring it at your peril!

Pay attention! Drivers need to be alert about what is right in front of them!

This sign is on one of the main streets in St. Martin de Brehal on the Atlantic seacoast of France. It may have been a gloomy and chilly day when we took our walk last Saturday through this village in Normandy, but at least the rain wasn’t horizontal as it had been for the previous four weeks.

Here is what the street looks like with a restaurant and bar right on the corner as you approach the beach.

The beach and the sea are just past the last building on the corner in St. Martin de Brehal in Normandy, France.

And this is the beach scene below. Walking on that beach is one thing, but trying to get a car out of the sand or potentially plunging into the high tide is another matter altogether!

If you drive down the wrong street in St. Martin de Brehal in Normandy, France -- this is where your car will end up!