1) Go to the Mairie for this year's letter stating my validity as a resident in France. As usual, my Carte de Séjour is late. It expires today and there's no indication that the new one will arrive any time soon.
2) Drop off 5 liter cubie (a plastic jug that holds 5-10 liters of wine) at neighbor's to be filled with his fantastic, 100% Cabernet rosé. If he's not at home I'm to leave it on his windowsill between the flowerpots and he'll fill it and bring it to our house.
3) Tuesday market in Olonzac. Must go early to avoid the August crowds.
4) Price paint for the bedroom. This involves driving to Olonzac, Lézignan and Narbonne or Carcassonne to BricoRama, Brico Marché, Monsieur Bricolage and Tridome. It could be September by the time I find the color I want at the price I'm willing to pay.
Doesn't €60 for 2.5 liters of wall paint seem rather exorbitant?
5) Order 6 cases of Domaine Coudoulet Viognier.
6) Do something with all of these tomatoes. I need my kitchen counters back.
7) Teach kitten to use the stairs so I don't have to keep carrying him upstairs to the litter box.
8) Go to the bank to find out why they haven't moved money from our account in the States to our account in France yet. This normally takes 1-2 days. When I went in last week after 3 days, they shrugged and said, "it's August, c'est les vacances, check after 7-8 days." Unfortunately the direct debits due to come out of the account this week don't know that it's August.
9) Invite summer friends around for a drink before they head back home.
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13 comments:
Wow you are going to be busy!!!
Your right about the paint, very pricey.
O.M.G. The price of paint here is just outrageous. One of the things I have NOT been able internalize.
Yes, paint prices are just crazy here -- I don't understand it. And if you go for cheap paint, you find you need 3 coats instead of 2, so it ends up costing just as much ...
PS, our six years' wait is now at an end (to our toal and utter surprise) and we are officially French, so there is light at the end of the tunnel!
Yep, paint over there costs la peau du cul.
I love that you can get your cubi refilled by your neighbor!
If your list and paint search is frustrating, I had a similar experience chasing a small but intricate part for a lawn mower! I tried all the brico's in Narbonne, Carcassonne and Lezignan. Finally found someone in Lezignan to order the part. I was fobbed off with the 'be here in a couple of days', then a week later..'quinze jour'..you know its August! Finally after 4 weeks the part arrived. I collected it yesterday. GREAT. Back home I did a web search as I don't want to go through that hassle again....I paid €28 for the part in Lezignan...I can buy online for £3.50. Fantastic.
I'll second what veronica said. Did my kitchen with LeRoy-Merlin brand instead of the pricier Dulux-V. And I needed three coats of the supposedly monocouche paint!
Do you mind sharing what service you use for transferring money from the states? I've been using HiFX lately and am wondering what else is out there.
anne
Never a dull moment around here! :)
papa
Why does it cost so much? It's a mystery to me.
Good to hear from you again!
veronica
We bought cheap paint when we first moved here and now only buy Dulux, because when it says monocouche, it is monocouche!
CONGRATS on the citizenship. I'm so happy for you. Six years...your patience is extraordinary.
alison
Was the reason for the high price of pain ever explained to you?
Having vignerons as neighbors has its advantages!
hamish
What a story! So typical, huh? :)
wcs
That cheaper paint just isn't worth it. But 50-60€ for a can of paint is painful!
We don't use a service to move money, just write a check on our American bank account and our French bank account moves the money. Only costs about 30€ and the rate is great.
And it usually only takes about 48 hours. Not this time though!
I take it you're not with the Credit Agricole then, Loulou? They charge us a fortune to pay in cheques in foreign currency (usually sterling, but occasionally USD). So which bank are you with?
veronica
We do bank with Credit Agricole! The charges are very small.
What the heck???
hmm, what's with that then?? We've had so many hassles with them ... maybe it's because it's a business account, and they charge for everything you can possibly think of and a few things you can't!
Crédit Agricole here in the Centre no longer charges us to receive a wire transfer from overseas, and that's good. They no longer charge for on-line access. We have never talked to them about wire transfers -- virements -- but we think we are getting a good deal from HIFX (hifx.com, I think). They charge no fees and seem to give good rates.
you will be busy, If I was there I'd help you with the cubie, maybe the market in Olonzac, pass on the training the kitten, would take some of those tomatos off your hands and check into HFIX, we use them as well, our bank in Credit Agricole in Toulouse and we love them and we love HFIX, unbelievable rates and you can even lock in a rate for up to 2 years, they don't charge to wire money and do it in 2 days, CA in Toulouse doesn't charge anything to receive the money either.
veronica
Possibly because it's a business account. That would make sense.
We've had a few hassles over the year, but not enough to go through the hassle of changing banks and all of our direct debits.
ken
Thanks for the HIFX info. I'll have to check them out.
our juicy life
the kitten actually figured out the stairs on his own, so there's one off the list!
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