In our second week in Limoges, we got to move into our new "home-away-from-home" or as the French would say, "chez nous." For anyone who would like our mailing address (or to look it up on Google Maps):
Sarah Wood/Wood Family/Whichever Wood You Would Like to Address
Chez Mr. Gibert Lucas
216 Boulevard de Vanteaux
87000 Limoges, France
Here is our apartment building. See the little sign on the 5th floor balcony? That's our place!
Boulevard de Vanteaux is a large busy road; 3 lanes in each direction with a median. (And probably half the width of a six lane highway in America!) But it also has plenty of crosswalks and traffic lights. (Traffic lights on the left and/or right, not above. Just another adjustment to life in France.) It is part of the major road that rings around the city. We live on the top floor. No elevator. Every time I'm carrying stuff upstairs, I am doing pretty well until I get to the fourth floor, thinking I've arrived, and then I'm like, "Crud. There's still one more flight to go!"
Behind our building is a predominantly residential area. Across the street are a couple of University buildings; an elementary school just beyond that (not the one my kids are going to); more homes. I do like the view from the top! Our kitchen window faces the east, so I need sunglasses while cooking breakfast!
One of our first mornings in the apartment, Lucy planned breakfast and wrote out the menu: apples + meat stick (dried sausage cut into slices)+ goat cheese + baguette + yogurt + cereal The end.
Breakfast all laid out!
Here's a little video of Lucy getting breakfast ready and you can see our kitchen a little bit.
Our apartment has three bedrooms, a family room, a kitchen, a "water closet" (i.e. the toilet is by itself in a separate room), and a bathroom with a sink and stand-up shower stall. The entry way hall has lots of storage shelves, bars for hanging coats and whatnot, and our bigger cleaning equipment like the vacuum, broom, and mop bucket. Thankfully we haven't run into any emergencies yet with having only one bathroom to share. (Something that I am a little worried about!)
Mine and Samuel's bedroom.
Each bedroom has a cupboard and one desk with chair and one double bed. Joseph and Simon share a room; Clara and Lucy share; Samuel and I are sharing a room.
The kitchen has a small dishwasher and a washing machine, (no dryer), an induction cook top (frustrating, so far), and an oven and a microwave. We don't have a hamper, so we're just putting our dirty clothes directly in the washing machine until it is full. We don't have a laundry basket, so when the machine is done, we make an assembly line from the washing machine to the drying rack which I set up in the family room and pass the clothes from one to the next and hang them up to dry. (Line drying clothes is another adjustment since sometimes it takes more than a day for things to dry. How will I be able to wash pajamas and have them dried in time for bedtime??)
None of the windows have screens. It was like that in Céret as well. Nonetheless, we often have the windows open for the benefits of the breeze and general air circulation. There aren't very many bugs. I was wondering today how often birds fly into people's homes through the open windows... The boulevard out front is pretty noisy due to all the traffic, but windows do a good job of dampening the sound when they are closed. It seems that shutters in France are an important home accessory and not just for show as they are in the States. When you don't have any air conditioning, closing the shutters to the sunny side of the house helps significantly to regulate the temperature.
Boulevard de Vanteaux. Downward view from the front of the apartment. That's my van parked below. Some university building is across the way (the yellow and reddish one.)
This is a view from the kitchen window, which is the back of the apartment. Houses; residential area.
Another view from the front windows (Boulevard side), further into the distance. More university buildings. This was taken early in the morning when the moon was still visible and mist was rising from the valley areas.
There is a big grocery store within walking distance, which is nice. However, I don't have a caddy, so I'm not sure that I could do a grocery run on foot without one. However, it is so close, it seems excessive to drive there on a regular basis, which I've done this week because I've had to do some pretty big shopping trips to get us stocked up on our staples and necessities. Keep in mind, I'm used to shopping at Costco once a month and filling an American mini-van trunk full of groceries about once a week. I don't have that much pantry space; no garage; our fridge is about half the size of our fridge back home. Plus the delicious baguettes and breads that are baked fresh daily at every grocery store and bakery aren't nearly as good after the first day, so I think I might end up going to the grocery store multiple times a week for smaller shopping trips. (Which I've been doing anyway, honestly!)
There are a variety of other shops, bakeries, etc. that are within walking distance, although I haven't checked them out yet. I will wait until the the kids are in school to do some leisurely exploring of the neighborhood and local merchants. The parish in which we live has three physical churches, each church has one weekend Mass at a different time. Two of them are within walking distance and we walked to church this past Sunday. (The other one within walking distance has the Saturday vigil Mass.) The other Mass-goers seemed friendly and many of them greeted us as we came into church and I chatted a little bit with the priest and a young dad after Mass as well. Father Vincent offered to come and bless our apartment sometime soon! He also told me that ours in the only parish in Limoges that has three priests! (Apparently the priests of this parish are part of a religious society: of St. Jean Vianney; and they live in community, which is why there are a few of them.)
I'll post a little video of the apartment in the coming days. It will be easier to do when the kids are at school.
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