Found a place to live!

 Dear family and friends, 

Thanks be to God and our Blessed Mother, it appears that we have finally found a place to live! For those I've talked to since beginning to plan this trip, you've heard me say that finding accomodations for our stay in Limoges has been the single most difficult thing to arrange. For many reasons.

 It's been a roller coaster with various back-and-forths... Anyways, I was very close to reserving a 2 BR apartment because I had finally found one owner who was actually nice enough to consider my request...but then it started to get a little squirrely... in the meantime, there was a 3 BR apartment that looked really good, but I could not for the life of me get a hold of the owner or anyone connected to the property. It was listed on more than one site. I sent MULTIPLE inquiries via the website.  Then I found it on Booking.com and reserved it, even though the rate there was astronomical... I was hoping to invoke the price match guarantee, and I had a couple days to do a free cancellation. Anyways, Booking.com's requirements for "price match guarantee" are so specific that it's easy for them to get avoid it, so that was a dead end. But, after having made the reservation, I got a bona fide telephone number for the property. So I tried calling them. Got an answering machine. Left a message. Tried again the next day. Left another message. Then!! I GOT A TEXT MESSAGE FROM THE PROPERTY! Contact at last! I texted them back... negotiated a little to get the rent I was hoping for; it worked; they requested that I email them my info and told me that I would need to pay a security deposit. (expected). So that's where we are. I haven't actually signed on a dotted line or received a formal agreement; so I am still praying that this is a sure thing. (Please pray for that too!) And since I don't have a French bank account, I obviously can't write a check for a security deposit, so I have to figure that out too. I think I will try to get a cashier's check with Michèle (since I also cannot get a cashier's check without having a bank account.) BUT the agent who contacted me in on vacation this week, so I won't hear back about what she wants until Monday at the earliest. (I'm thankful she reached out despite being on vacation.)

Apologies to those close to us who are wanting more frequent updates. Our days our as full as can be and the schedule always unfolds in an unexpected way, or we have learned to expect to add a minimum of one hour to whatever we were "expecting." We have been eating our meals very late; leaving later than anticipated for outings, etc... and by the time we are done for the day and I could theorhetically sit down and write, I am also "done" for the day, or I don't want to subject myself to millions of mosquito bites while sitting on the terrace at Michèle's house where I have WiFi. 

So, since I reserved that aforementioned appartment, I have adjusted our itinerary. I had originally planned to go to Limoges today so that I could house hunt, but now that I have a place, and it is not available until Aug 22, we are staying in Céret until Rachel departs on the 17th. I had planned to go to Lourdes after dropping Rachel off at the airport on the 17th (less than 2 hours from Toulouse) and we will spend one night there, and then I will drive to Limoges on the 18th (about a 5 hour drive). Then we'll stay in a hotel from the 18th to the 22nd, and God willing, move into the appartment on the 22nd. 

Once in Limoges, I will also need to find out what the kids need for school supplies; check in with the school; probably pay them some money for registration fees and/or tuition; etc. 

To my new readers: Welcome and I hope you enjoy following along with our adventures. This blog is essentially a letter to family and friends; I am not seeking any status or recognition on the blogosphere and I am trying to keep it semi-private; it was just the most handy and efficient way I have to share news and updates. 

(Please forgive spelling errors as my autocorrect is set to French and sometimes cognates have a similar but slightly different spelling, such as the word "apartment" (English, right?) or "appartement" (French, I believe?) and I get confused as to which is which, how many consonants, etc. I also don't know how to make accents on demand with my keyboard, so I rely on autocorrect to suggest them to me.) 

Some pictures:

This is the road up to Michele's house. Notice all the twists and turns that are completely blind, and very narrow. It is a two way street, but about half the width of a typical American street. The yellow S curve is actually kinda fun to drive. There are some steep drop offs around those turns. (I feel OK about them, Rachel gets a little nervous!) The pink turn is THE tightest turn I've ever had to drive. The first time I did it, I had to stop and go in reverse to avoid hitting the rocky side of the mountain. But I have since observed that most drivers go out of their lane in order to make a wider turn. Just be careful there isn't another car coming that you cannot see!!

Lucy is my bed-mate. Excatly where am I supposed to sleep?

Hillarious and charming tiny car.

We weren't allowed to eat on the outside tables without La Passe Sanitaire. (Health Pass.)

An eclaire for Clara on her nameday.

Enjoying fancy pastries in honor of Clara's name day and for the fun of it. I'm sure we looked like tourists eating pastries on the street. But oh well!

Since Joseph tends to prefer savory treats, we got this "sausage pastry." I was expecting there to be some sort of seasoned ground sausage inside. But no! It was a hotdog!!

Sunset. View from Michele's terrace.

Just climbing on some rocks making Mommy nervous!

View from our evening walk to the prehistoric Dolmen. That is the town of Le Boulou or Maraillas.

This is a prehistoric Dolmen, which is basically an ancient selpuchre or burial place. It dates back 5000 years. 

There were cows pasturing around the Dolmen site. The kids thought that was neat.

Group photo with Michele. 

This is a pic of the Saturday market in Ceret, Michele's favorite place to shop, and this produce stand is run by her friends. We bought two flats of peaches and nectarines, 3.5 melons, a quarter of watermelon, 3 or 4 tomatoes, a kilo of apricots, and probably some other things I am forgetting. They gifted us with some herbs which Clara is holding in the picture below.

At the market with Simon and Clara.

The old chapel in the background is a place where Picasso lived. 

This was our first meal on the Terrace at Michele's house. It was very sunny.

The kids are having fun catching various insects.

Michele's house.

That's Michele's car, and that's where I normally park my car when we're at the house. (View from the house.)