Chronopost!!!

This post is more cathartic than really about France.  Its a cautionary tale with a bit of a rant but we can all hope for a Saturnalian miracle to happen!

OK....deep breath.  Before we left for France we organised an express delivery box via Australia post.  This express service would ensure we had the vital stuff we needed - ugg boots, wireless music system, warm clothes..etc. to be delivered soon after we arrived.  Always nice to have some music for xmas!

The box had a tracking number so we could see its progress.  It left Australia on 14th October on a five day door to door delivery.  It  arrived in Paris three days later....and then didn't move for a week.  The frustrating thing was with this tracking number we could see exactly where it was.  After a number of calls to Chronopost it finally made it out of Paris.  In fact a week later it go all the way to Toulouse.  There it had a 'dysfonctionnement' and was promptly sent back to Australia.

We could see all this happening, but calls to Chronopost to stop it being sent back were to no avail. It's too late, we were told. The Chronopost agent (one of many, each of whom take no notes so each time you repeat yourself) said that we (not them who caused the problem) to contact Australia post when it arrived back in Australia and have it sent back to France and would then have it delivered to our address.

Australia post said they would intercept the parcel before it got delivered back to our old address and send it back, but they didn't and it ended up back at our old house in Perth.  No-one lives there so it ended up back in the local post office.  Eventually we were able to persuade Australia post to send it back to France. Yay!

It arrived back in France, by this time over a month has passed since it was originally sent.  Again it sat in Paris for a week.  We called Chronopost again and asked why the hold up this time.  We were told it had been sent back to Australia again.  No reason, no explanation!  Bloody hell Chronopost, you admit fault, say send it back and then when it gets back to you return it back again!!!!!

So once again it was sent back to our old address. Once again we said intercept it before it gets delivered back to our old address. Once again they said they would. Once again there is an attempted delivery back at our old address. If only I had signed this box up for frequent flyer points!

Throughout all of this both agencies don't seem to know what the other is doing.  It's only through multiple calls to Chronopost and email chats to Australia post that its got anywhere. Aghhhh!!!

So it's now back again to Australia.  I have now given up on trying to send it to us in France  Maybe,  I will send it to the UK instead and go and pick it up!

Getting wood!

Michelle and I both grew up in the UK, and for me in particular (wife is a soft southerner!) in the bleak winters of Cumbria.   You would think I would be used to a bit of cold.  Obviously not!  It's only November and I am cold...really cold!  It doesn't help that I haven't yet bought a coat.  Well I didn't really use one before.  It didn't get shivering  cold in Perth. At the moment wearing a couple of fleece tops seem to do the job but I reckon by looking at the snow on the not so far peaks that a blast of real winter is only around the corner.

Having said that we are prepared!  On the road between L’Aguillion and Lavelanet we found a timber yard which delivered wood.  Anyway for those interested in this the minimum delivery is 2 cubic metres and they supply beech and oak. The oak is a little more expensive but quite frankly I’m none the wiser what was being dumped outside our house! We asked for a mixture of the two which worked out at €167.

We don’t really have enough room in the house for all this wood so we used the pavement outside. Our French neighbour came out and approved of the quality so apparently it should burn well. Anyway he also told us a particular French law that apparently the homeowner is responsible for his own pavement so it’s our area to use basically.  I’ve never seen anyone walk by as it’s such an odd strip outside our window and the few churchgoers just walk straight out the doors, no real reason to turn right for 10 feet of pavement. We were advised to stack it a little away from the wall (damp) and to buy a bâche (tarpaulin).  If you need one we got our for €5 at Action stores.

We were a bit concerned that the 50cm lengths were not going to fit but they do just and having them bigger means less visits to the wood burner.  The cat approved too!

Back in France and collecting our cat!

Bonjour a tous,
Well, we’re  finally here.  We arrived via Heathrow and then coach to Stansted which allowed us to catch a Ryanair flight into Carcassonne, which is only 45 mins from our house  We have hired a Renault Clio for a month (FYI best deals can be found at Le Clerc supermarket!) in which time we plan to find a cheap second hand car to buy.

We had a couple of days to get over jet lag but on the Sunday (we arrived on the Wednesday) had a rendezvous in Barcelona to pick up our cat, Kitty.  At the time of booking we thought Barcelona would be fine but had no idea of the demonstrations and road closures that would cause such chaos to the region.

Our preferred route alone the A9 motorway was blocked by protestors so we had to take the path over the Pyrenees.  Don't do it unless the mountains are your intended destination or you fancy something in Andorra. It's a pain in the backside,  particulary with a manual car as its constant gear changing and very winding.  Plus the tolls are exorbitant!!!

Anyway the cat was arriving on EK185 from Dubai at around 1:20 pm so we arrived good and early to get all the paperwork sorted.  Once we had found the WFS cargo building near Terminal 2, we had her pet papers processed, paid the duty (around 90 euros for a cat) and was told we had to go to the customs area in terminal 2 to get the papers stamped. We could then return and pick up the cat.

skeleton staff on the weekend!


So we traipsed over to Terminal 2 and found the Customs Office.  After 10 mins a lady came to see us. She told us that before the cat could be released a vet had to sign off.  So to retrieve your  pet you need three different people from three different departments to give three different stamps who reside in three different buildings!   This is where the problem started as no vet was on site at the airport on a Sunday!   They knew our cat was arriving but no-one seemed to take responsibility for making sure the vet would be there.   A vet had to be called. She  didn’t turn up until 5pm.  Eventually at 6:15pm the poor car was released to us.  Oh, and then the vet came back saying she couldn't be released as we didn't have the original health certificate.  I turned out to be glued in a sleeve on top of her cage, but had it not it really would have been the final straw!!    It's a common old rescue cat for f@#s sake  (excuse my French) not a bloody endangered Bengal tiger!

It was now dark so it meant we would have to drive the four hours back to France in the dark. On the plus side the motorway was now open, but on the negative side is quite badly lit for a 130kph route, especially with a complaining back seat passenger. Poor Kitty had been trapped in her cage now for probably 12 plus hours and was complaining loudly in no uncertain terms about her treatment the entire trip back stopping her meowing every now and then to break wind with a stench that could strip wallpaper! Fair enough, I would probably have done similar or worse under the same circumstances.

Ok, now it gets real!

As those who have been reading our infrequent posts we bought a little house in the Ariège, and for the past few years have been staying there during the summer and gradually bringing it back to life.

Each time we went back to Perth if felt like we were leaving a part of us behind.  We locked the place up, put the shutters up and went back to our drone like existence in Perth.  Well, I suppose there is a time when you simply need to take the plunge. We have therefore made the decision to pack up and move to France and see where the pieces fall!  As a brief aside I suppose we have a bit of form for this, having done exactly the same in 2010 when we moved to Australia.  Well its been nearly 10 years living and working in Perth so I'm not sure we can be called 'flighty' just yet. We will finally have our French xmas and get the log fire going as the appropriate time of the year!

So its goodbye to loading planes!

Michelle’s French is excellent whilst mine is more rabbit in headlights panic as soon as someone speaks to me.  I've been flitting around like a verbal bee between various French apps attempting to improve.  I think though that the only way I'm going to get any real progress is to throw myself wholeheartedly into the mix.  For this reason I have told Michelle I will do the hard yards and spend a minimum of 4 hours each day in a selection of local bars listening and engaging with the locals.  Now this may involve me having the odd glass of beer or wine but I'm prepared to put the hours in for the greater good.

All is basically now packed up. The hardest decision we had to make was what to do with our cat. It would have cost $2500 to bring her back with us.  The sensible approach would be to give her to a friend and we had a kind lady all lined up  (thanks Rachel) but because we are both pathetic we relented and now have her arriving a few days after us in Barcelona.

Painting

Yup, it's a three pronged attack on the house.  Taking no prisoners. This time we are leaving the house complete!  One of the things that wasn't completed last year was the painting.  We got one side of the house done with two coats and it looks great.  Around the side was a bit of a different matter, as the painter ran out of paint so it only had one coat and the top part was not done at all.

We managed to get in touch with the Dutch company that made the original paint and were able to order the exact same colour.  I suggested to Michelle that the side bit wouldn't matter so much, but from the look she gave me it obviously does.

Sometimes we forget the sorry appearance the house had when we first bought it....what were we thinking!!!

...there was no way I was going up there!

Electrics!

When we planned for Michelle to go back to France for a month in April we thought it would be a simple job of doing a bit of plastering in the kitchen and fixing a couple of sockets.  Enough time for her to check on our house, see her parents and maybe get an internet connection sorted.

Well on the plus side we did get all the internet sorted, but it did come with quite an effort of drilling through stone walls and rewiring the inside.  Old houses again.

For the past 12 months we had been waiting for our builder to reconnect one side of our downstairs electrics, install a new light and switch  and fix a hole in the wall that he had previously created in trying to install said new light switch. As we were only visiting once a year it wasn't a big deal but it was quite a pain not having one side of the downstairs having power, especially with a small kitchen.

Finally able to use the old sockets again!

Eventually we realised we would have to engage a professional electrician to do the work.
Michelle asked around and found a reliable electrician who was available.  He was able to reconnect the non functioning plugs downstairs, create a new switch for a hall light and put in some new electric sockets upstairs.  He was even able to fill in the hole in the wall downstairs.

When we bought the house in 2015 we were told it had all been rewired. I suppose in the fine print it didn’t say rewired correctly, but when ever you hear a French sparky suck his teeth, shake his head  or go 'merde' under his breath you know that your wallet is going to take another hammering!

The new fuses

..and these were the old ones which are apparently not very good. Yeah I'm none the wiser either.

It turns outside that all the fuses were basically crap and noone had bothered to set our massive hot water boiler ( I’m still at a loss why it’s so big) to only heat during off peak times. So they are now replaced and we on ‘heures creuses.  Hopefully the bills will reduce.

Ok so that's plumbing and electrics sorted, just one more thing to sort out before Michelle has to lock up and join me back in Perth.

Plumbing!

I think most old properties in France have idiosyncratic plumbing and ours is no different. There are still noises and gurgling sounds in the house I choose to ignore, but some have to be addressed.  When we bought the house there was a pump under the sink. There was some sort of gravity issue, so after the sink emptied the pump kicked in, and moved the water under the lounge floor and into the waste water pipe in the laundry.   When we had the kitchen remodelled our builder took a different approach and connected the waste water to run straight outside the house along the gutter into the drain halfway across the square and down the road!  Très rustique non?  Well apparently not. We were advised this was ok by our builder. Anyway, the Marie asked us to get it running underground.  I thought it went very well with the medieval history of the village. Ah well.

Michelle found a contact on the Ariège network Facebook group who was available and able to do the job. Sighh....more money!  The local tradesmen must rub their hands in glee every time we arrive!  This house is getting more like a financial tardis each time we visit!!!