Still Searching for our apt

First, let me say that real estate in France is steadily rising just like in the US. Unfortunately for us, we live in the 3^rd most desirable city in France in terms of real estate. Apparently, the fact that there a few more jobs available here and we are centrally located to about everything makes Lyon the place to be, just in behind Paris and Nice.

We have been searching to buy an apt for over 4 months now. We have had one major heartbreak and several near misses as far as Coup de Coeur (love at first site). The amount of money we wanted to invest originally has steadily increased as we have found out more about our desires and our needs. Unfortunately, our desires are perfectly aligned with every other white collar apt hunter in the region. You know; nice view, big spacious front room and bedrooms, lots of sunlight, modern kitchen, with lots of storage. So when an apt becomes available that we really like, it most likely will stay on the market for less than 1 week. All the crappy ones we have seen over the past 4 months are still on the market.

Anyway, our latest let down, was a beautiful 100 m² (1100 ft) apt with a beautiful view overlooking the Saone River that we stumbled across walking one afternoon. The front room was huge with 5 big windows on the river. The kitchen recently renovated and 3 bdrms. The bldg lies in the historical center protected by UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) of the city dating back to the middle ages. We had an immediate coup de Coeur. We waited less than a day to let the seller know we wanted to place an offer. We didn’t even try to negotiate. It was too perfect and we did not want to lose due to a bad offer. Well, we waited two agonizing days to find out someone offer the total in cash. CASH!!! Where the hell do you get that kind of cash? This apt was on the market 3 days.

Anyway, we are still on the hunt. We are going to spend the weekend at a Salon d’Immobilier (real estate convention). Sounds exciting I know, but you never know what may turn up there. We also, just recently saw another apt in the same quarter of the city. The interior is beautiful but the view leaves a bit to be desired. It isn’t quite the coup de Coeur that we are looking for.

Carcassonne (11th century village) Valerie and her cousin

Sushi in Montpellier with Valerie's cousin and god child. 

Fetes et Bal en France

Ok, what can I say, I am feeling inspired today. Anyways, I realized that it was necessary to mention the village festivals or should I say drunken festivals that occur every summer. In France there is a festival for about everything you can imagine in the summer but the most common are the Fete de village and if you live in the country, the Bals. The Bals are a once in a lifetime experience. It is highly unlikely a tourist will come across a Bal. In fact if they can, I highly recommend it. I most likely am one of very few Americans who have attended a Bal. In Haute Savoie there is a Bal every summer. Everyone from miles around attend the Bal. Of the 4 or 5000 people, ages range from 14 to probably 70 and 80% of them are drunk. It is based around a theme and this year was country western. An American flag was even flying. However, I don't think much of the drunken crowd even took notice.

At this particular Bal, we came with a crowd of about 15 people. When we walked up there was a line of about 100 people but when you come from the area apparently there is no such thing as waiting so we walked right up to the front of the line. As we were walking in there was a full cow roasting on a spit. Apparently it was to be eaten the next day.

There are several different areas of entertainment. The VIP area is for champagne only, a live music area, a dance and techno tent, a designated throw up area, (just kidding) and about 3 other areas which for some reason I can't recall there names. Hmmm, a bit strange.....

The people are the best part of the Bal. When the alcohol is flowing the crowd gets wild. There are people dancing on the tables between bottles of champagne. There is champagne coming from every direction unfortunately most of it isn't falling into your glass. Most of the younger crowd are the ones out of control but there are few old ones mixed in.

We left a bit early; I think it was 3 in the morning. At that point Valerie had had enough. In fact she had enough for both of us. I had to control myself since somebody had to get us home. Needless to say the next day was a bit rough for Valerie.

Apartment Hunting in Lyon

I know it has been a while since I have written. I figure now is as good a time as any. It has already been 1 year of life in France! Things are going well. However, Valerie and I are still separated due to work (not marriage wise). I have just finished the période d’essaie (trial period) for my company which means it is safe to say that I will not be losing my job anytime soon. And it also means that Valerie can soon quit her job in the south and move here.

However, there are some small problems to overcome as always. First, we need to buy an apartment in Lyon. Since we both have jobs right now we can qualify for a good loan. But without both having jobs we would not qualify. So, we have been searching for several months and are yet to find the right place. Valerie wants something old with character. I would like something newer so we don’t have to pay for unforeseen problems later, like leaking roofs and plumbing that typically occur in older apartments. So this is a bit of a challenge for us. The real problem of searching for an apartment comes from that fact that there is no main listing for the city. In the US you go to one agency and he has a listing for everything available in the area and they are willing to take you around town for the day. Here in France we have to go to each agency and ask about there listings. Usually they have only 1 listing that fits are criteria so it is a real pain in the ass. Second, when we find something we like online we call the agency to ask for a visit. Well, typically we get an answering machine and they never call you back. It is amazing. I swear they have no sense of urgency. It seems like they don’t care to make money. I have two great examples. The first one is when we walked into an agency and the guy looked at us like what the hell are you doing here. Then when we asked him if he could look for an apartment for us he proceeded to pull out a piece of paper from a trash pile to write down what we were looking for. Needless to say we never got a call back. The second example occurred recently. I visited an apartment that I really liked but Valerie wasn’t in Lyon to visit it. I took some photos and Valerie liked it as well but needed to visit it for verification. So she called the agent to ask if he could make a special visit on Sunday for us since it was the only possible time for two weeks that she could come to see it. “What, Sunday, that is unheard of!” He told her, that they would find us another apartment that we would like soon. UNBELIVABLE! They really don’t care about their commission. So we are still searching.

Once we find an apartment, it will take at least 3 months for everything to clear. At this point we are looking at November or December and most likely longer before Valerie can move here.

We are still together every weekend. We have been doing a lot of small travelling on the Mediterranean since it has been so beautiful.

Moving Again......

Wow, just 5 months after moving to Marseille, here we are moving again. I have a job in Lyon which started last week. I am 1 week in and have already written one press release and am working on the corporate brochure. Not bad. However as I write it is snowing pretty hard. It has snowed about 3 out of the 8 days I have been here. Surprisingly it doesn’t bother me too much. It snows constantly all day long when it snows but it really doesn’t stick for long since we are in the middle of the city.

The Apartment
We, actually I for the moment, since Valerie is still living in Marseille, found a place in Lyon on the Presque’ile. The Presque’ile is considered an island bordered by two rivers called the Saone and the Rhone in the center of Lyon. The area of Lyon is considered to be one of the most desired areas to live in Lyon. Not saying we have a nice apt by any means but we do have a great location. We walk out the door and there is a square one block down with a few trendy restaurants. One of the main pedestrian shopping areas of Lyon extends from the square to the center of the Presque’ile called Bellecour. Around the corner from our apt is a small grocery market and the boulanger is right on the corner. A 10 minute walk and we can eat in on Rue Mercier which is probably the most-trendy (very touristic) area to eat in all Lyon. In the same area there are all types of pubs and bars to have a drink at. Across the Saone is Old Lyon. I have yet to explore it but once again it isn’t more than a 15 minute walk. Across the Rhone is where I work. Did I mention the metro takes from my apt to work in less than 15 minutes. No complaints there.

The apt is not glamorous but it works. There is a view of the Rhone and at night it is beautiful. You can see the tall buildings with there blue lights lining the roofs and the ultra modern tramway traversing the city. The river is quiet and flows quickly through the all the edge of the Presque’ile.

The only bad part about the apartment is the bathroom is quite small and we must climb 6 floors which Valerie conveniently counted out to be 125 steps to our apt. It is hell to move into but once moved in I feel content. I get lots of exercise climbing the steps.

Working in France
Working is very different in France. So far I really like it. My company offers several benefits but I think there are two that really stick out. First, there is something called RTT, which I am still not sure what it stands for. The normal work week is supposed to be 35 hours however, no one really finishes their work in 35 hours so the govt fashioned a term called RTT to take care of the extra hours worked. At the end of the year you basically end up averaging the 38 hours a week which comes out to be 17 days of overtime. So RTT allows you to take those days anytime during the year. There are some stipulations however. You can only take 3 days in one month once during the year. You can take 0 days in one month once during the year. So ideally you should take 1 to 2 days per month throughout the year. Anyway, these 17 days are given on top of the 4 weeks and the 10 or so holidays per year. So I have about a total of about 7-8 weeks per year of vacation. Ouch!!!!

The second benefit I am enjoying is the Ticket Restaurant. These are checks each worth €7,50. You receive around 20-25 a month so you can use one a day while you work and you are only required to pay 30% of the cost which comes out of your paycheck. It is inherent in the culture at least, nowadays, to go have a long lunch during the work day. Most people head to the restaurant for a full meal and the average meal costs around €10-12. So you use the check to pay for most of the meal and then you pay cash for the leftover. Most restaurants and some grocery stores accept these checks. You are not supposed to use these checks at night but it seems that most restaurants still accept them.

Otherwise, there is also what is called a Comité d’enterprise. The purpose of this organization is to provide leisure benefits to the employees such as, weekends skiing, hiking, etc for a deep discount. For example, we are going snowshoeing next weekend which includes all the equipment, guide and a Fondue Savoyard for lunch. This will cost 15 euros per person. I don’t know about the snowshoeing but I LOVE the fondue.

All other options are typical to the US, stock options, medical, bonus plan and so on….

Lyon- 2 Weeks and Running

2 weeks and running.
After receiving my Working Authorization I have been given two weeks to search an apartment and arrive for my first day of work on Feb 28th. The good news is we have found an apt.
I spent 2 days in Lyon last week pounding the pavement in search of an apt. Valerie called several places to set up appts and I went to look at them.
I arrived last Tuesday morning to a sporadic snow shower. Temperatures never rose about freezing and I definitely did not enjoy the cold. However, regardless I trudged on for 2 days straight block after block, bus after bus, and metro stop after metro stop. I think I probably walked between 10 and 20 miles. However, in that time I was able to see a lot of the city and from first impression; I really like this city. There are tons of great quarters with bars, stores and restaurants. The city is lightyears ahead of Marseille in terms of technology and cleanliness. The architecture is second to none and the food is supposed to be legendary. My kind of city.... I stayed in a Bed & Breakfast which was in quarter filled with restaurants from all over the world. The B&B was literally one extra room and bath that a lady was renting out. She was amusing. She talked to me for an hour about her and her children's travels. Overall I would definitely recommend staying with her and it only costs 37 euros/night.
The story
Anyway on the 2nd day, with recharged cell phone, map and metro pass in hand I was getting heading to my 3rd apt of the day. I had been getting so many calls from people to set up appts I was starting to get a headache. The appt I was headed to was at 1pm and I had another appt at 1:30 pm about 10 blocks away so I had to get in and get out of this apt as quickly as possible. The good this is that I was going to be the first person to see this apt. They wanted everyone to come at 6:30pm but I was leaving at that time so he scheduled me in on his lunch break.
The apt was in one of the most desirable quarters in Lyon. As I approached there was a metro stop about 2 blocks away and tons of restaurants, bars and shopping. The location was perfect!!! Also, not to mention, if I liked the apt I would jump on the metro and be at work in 10 minutes.
Anyway, I arrived at the door right at 1pm and pulled out the cell phone to call him. As he answered the cell phone died.. (battery or something). I had been using it constantly all morning. As I went to open my bag to get out another phone number my bag ripped apart!! What luck. There was no way I was going to figure out where he lived exactly without calling him since there were about 18 residents in the building. So I ran down to the local Tabac to buy a telephone card. (Talk about a ripoff. I paid 8 euros for 50 minutes of calling and I think it lasted about 20 minutes.) I quickly found a telephone booth and called him. By this time it was about 1:10pm and I had another appt in 20 minutes. Also, this guy had come home just for me to visit his place. I quickly told him the story and asked if he could wait downstairs. I ran back to the apt and he was waiting at the bottom. We went up about 6 flights of stair (no elevator) to the apt. The apt was really nice. It was bigger than our current apt with a big bedroom, large open kitchen, some storage but not a lot and even a small view of the Rhone River. I was really impressed and the price was easily in the budget. I talked with him for about 10 minutes, took some pictures and ran to my next appt. I had to stop by a telephone booth and call once again to get in to the apt. In fact the rest of the day was spent stopping at telephone booths to ask if the person could meet me at the door. Crazy Luck!!
Signing the Lease
Needless to say, the apt I have described above was my favorite apt. The following day Valerie called to set up an appt with the owner and we were the first to arrive. In France, it is about timing when renting. At times I walked into apts with 10 other people looking to rent. Lyon is a very tight rental market and can be very difficult to find a place. In fact as we were signing the lease someone called saying they would come over to sign right away but, First Come First Serve!! We are going to be living in one of the most desirable areas of Lyon. Lucky Us. We will have to really get used to a lot of stairs though. 6 flight!!

PS, so I start work on Monday and Monday night I pick up the keys to our new apt. I am taking a train on Monday morning to Lyon with two suitcases that I will be living out of in our new apt for the following 5 days. I have bought an air mattress so at least I have a bed. But I have no Fridge, stove, or oven. I guess I will be eating out a lot until the weekend. First purchase will be the Fridge.

Working Authorization

Well, it was two weeks ago now. I decided to go check up on my file at the Prefecture in hopes that it was close to finished. It was a Thursday afternoon and I arrived at the Prefecture around 2pm with the usual 50 people waiting (99% Arab and Algerian and 1% white). There are 3 windows that you can approach and for some bizarre reason everyone goes to the first window nearest the door. This is good for me since I am beginning to know well the queue at the Prefecture. I immediately headed to the 2nd window where the line was much shorter. After waiting about 30 minutes I reached the window. I asked the man behind the window in my best French if he could tell me what stage my file is at and if it would be finished before the end of the month because my job is dependent on me receiving this authorization before the end of the month. He took my passport typed in the some numbers on the computer and nothing came up so he told me that it had not been started yet. In fact, he told me that they were 7 weeks behind and still working on cases filed in December. So I left the Prefecture thinking I am screwed!!! I will not receive my papers in time and I will have to tell the company who has been waiting for 3 months now that I will not be able to work for them. AHHHHH!!!
I immediately went home and told Valerie about the predicament. She said she would try to call the Prefecture and get some info. I told her we should go back in person tomorrow so she could talk to them. I knew that she would ask better questions than me since I am still in the infancy of the French language. We decided that the best thing to do was to try and get the Prefecture to write some kind of letter stating that my file was in the process so I could give the company some notice. We knew this was a long shot but at the time our only shot.
The next morning she contacted the Prefecture. They told her that they were behind on processing files so she asked about the possibility of a letter stating the file was in the process. They said there was nothing they could do. She also asked about the possibility of speeding up the process and they told her that she would need to speak to the Chef de Service (boss). He apparently, has all the control.
So, back to the Prefecture we went. At the Prefecture we talked to the same guy and he said to Valerie the exact same thing he said to me. However, Valerie threw out the name of the Chef de Service and he said you can go upstairs to talk to him but, unfortunately, he is on vacation. But Of Course..........!!!! Anyway, he said we could at least talk to the underlings to see if they could help.
We have been to the Prefecture several times stating the same case and not once have we been told about an upstairs. Upstairs we went. Once upstairs we took a number and sat for another 30 minutes. When we were called we went into a small room where a lady sat. Valerie quickly explained our case to the lady. The lady then said let me go find your file and see what the situation is. As she left with my passport in hand she passed by another lady in the office and said, hey he is from the US. The other lady said really? She immediately got up and came over the window to tell us about her recent trip to Florida and how much she loved it!! She even told us that she was taking Country Western dancing and preceded to show us her cowboy boots. Needless, to say we were both laughing.
The lady who was helping us came back with NOOO file in hand and said she couldn't find my file. She asked, "Did you mail it in?" We said, "No, we turned it in downstairs." She was actually dumbfounded. She turned to the other lady and said my file was actually lost in the transition from downstairs to upstairs. Valerie and I turned to each other and once again that dreaded feeling washed over me. So the lady asked if we could fill out a file right now. We said we could however, we didn't have all the documents required. Then she asked what documents do you have so we gave her everything we could produce. Luckily it was most of the documents required aside from 3 passport photos and a proof of living together. Valerie said to the lady that we could comeback Monday. Per typical of the French she would be on vacation so she said no, we will complete this today. She told me to go downstairs and make some passport photos and then come right back up to her. Within 10 minutes I returned and within another 10 minutes Valerie and I were walking out of the Prefecture with the Working Authorization in hand.
Fricken Crazy!!! France is truly about speaking to the right person. If you come one day and get the wrong person just return another day and hope to speak with the right person.

Worst Day of Teaching

First French Confrontation
It was a Monday morning like any other. Except the difference was that I had been absent the week before so it was going on 2 weeks since I had been to the specific school. I arrived to my second class late. The teacher asked me if I was prepared for a game that apparently I had told her we would do the next week I arrived. Somehow, I had written down that we were doing fruit this week so I told her that I wasn't prepared and that I had 2 other lessons prepared and ready to go. She became very angry and decided to yell at me in front of her students saying that I had told them we would do this game. I told her that I was sorry but I didn't have the pieces for the game and that I would do it next week. She sat down in back completely sulking and said nothing more. Basically, I had nothing more to say but to start a lesson I had prepared. As soon as I started the lesson she stood up and walked out of the room. She knew full well the kids would take advantage of the time and me. She came back about 30 minutes later just as the class was ending. After she excused the kids she immediately left without even looking at me. At that point I was really pissed off. I followed her down to the Director's office where I overheard her telling the story so I walked right in and told her exactly how I felt in the most broken french you can imagine but I got my point across. I told her, she had no right to treat me that way and that I am not the teacher of the class. She immediately got up and walked out. The director came over to me and told me to calm down. He said he would straigten it out. I told him there is no reason for me to put up with this crap. This is the second time she has berated me in front of her students. The first time I was prepared but I had forgotten a piece to the lesson downstairs. He said that they needed me at the school so he would make sure it was fixed.
The next week I really didn't want to go back to the school but I did. She acted like nothing had happened. Pretty funny. Overall, I like all the rest of the teachers. They are all very nice to me and helpful when necessary. In fact, the teachers in all my schools are very nice. Unfortunately, this teacher is very strict and I feel somewhat sorry for the kids because they don't seem to have fun in her class. I think that if she does this again I am just going to walk out of the class.

Marriage In France

Well,
Marriage in France is definitely different from the US. There is no Vegas, and there is definitely no shortage of beaurocratic hell... First I should say, Valerie and I were rushed into getting married. We have been together for almost 4 and half years but neither of us were ready to take the plunge. Not saying by any means that we don't love each other, it is to say marriage wasn't a high priority.

Prefecture Fun
To begin, I received a job offer from a company here in France. They have given me a contract stating I must start by the end of February. However, I cannot work with out having a Carte de Sejour (green card in france). The funny thing is, that originally we thought we could get this carte de sejour by applying for the PACs. In a simple breakdown the PACs allows partners to avoid being married and it is offered very quickly. However, after obtaining this document and going to the Prefecture for the 10th time which I might add the guy remembers me everytime since I am one of the very few white persons that go there, we were told I would need to live on french soil for 1 year before they would give me my carte de sejour.

Prefecture, Marie and Embassy
Well, the next option was for me to give up this job offer or to get married. The funny thing about the Prefecture is that, no one ever tells you the same thing. One person may say you can get your papers tomorrow while another may say it will take 3 months. The best thing to do is to stay calm otherwise it may take years! I must also add, Valerie has been great with these people. Everytime she talks to them the situation seems to get better. What would I do with out her!!
So for a marriage there are two separate departments you need to deal with (actually 3 if you include the US embassy). First you need to go to the Marie (city hall) to get a file of all the things you must do prior to the wedding. Then after the wedding you need to apply at the Prefecture (AGAIN) for a carte de sejour. At the Marie you receive a dossier (file) with about 10 different things to bring back filled out perfectly or else they send you home which I learned hard way. Also, you must publicise your marriage. Which is just plain stupid!! You pay something like 20 euros for a small advertisement stating who is getting married. Basically this advertisement is placed on the wall at the Marie so that if someone objects to the marriage they can state it at the Marie. Pretty funny, since no one really ever sees these ads. Next, I (being foreign) must go to the embassy and get an Attestation of Marriage and another obscure paper stating that I am single and haven't been married. Needless, to say they aren't free. Then , once all is filled out your return to the Marie. Well I returned alone to hand in the info. Apparently, on the first attempt I had not filled out the date in the correct order so they sent me to back to the embassy. On the second attempt all was good but Valerie didn't accompany me. You would think the the people who now practically know by name would have told me the first time that Valerie must come with me. But they didn't. So, as they say, the 3rd time is the charm.
C'est la vie en france!!!

Wedding Day
The day of the wedding was comical. Valerie's cousin and a good friend of ours who Valerie met in the US attended with us. First off, we have a very small apartment and having 4 people is not easy. Valerie slepted on the futon with Bettina and I drew the lucky straw to sleep the night before the wedding in the same bed with Val's cousin, Laurent who I might add snores about as loud as a freight train. Sleeping was out of the question. We started the morning off knowing our wedding was at 2:30 pm. So we decided to have lunch at a restaurant on the beach. I think it was about 2pm when we realized we had a wedding in 30 minutes. Normally it takes 15-20 minutes to get home from the beach. I think I cut that in half. We dressed in 5 minutes and made it to the Marie where the wedding was to take place with about 3 minutes to spare.
The wedding lasted all of about 10 minutes. Pretty crazy seeing we had to practically dress in the car. The assistant of the marie (mayor) did the ceremony. During the ceremony we signed the contract of marriage and then exchanged rings and of course the cermonial kiss. The room was rather empty since there were only 4 of us but it didn't really matter. We loved it just the same. We even took a picture with me standing in front of a picture of my new president (Jacque Chirac) to finish off the ceremony. I am getting all teary eyed now.......hahha
After the ceremony we went to centre ville (downtown) to our hotel which Val booked for the 4 of us. We arrived in our room to a bottle of champagne and a beautiful bouquet of flowers sent from my parents. Of course, we indulged as quickly as possible to drink the champagne. Soon after we walked a few short blocks to the La Part des Anges (bar of angels). This is a great little wine bar with a sort of tuscan atmosphere where the walls are filled with beautiful paintings all available for a small fortune. We met up with about 10 of our new friends and celebrated the night away!!!!!

Back To The Marie and Prefecture
The following Monday we returned to the Marie to pick up our official contract of marriage which is pretty cool looking and then on to the Prefecture to drop off my application for the carte de sejour. Everything flowed smoothly for a change. At this point I am checking the mail box religiously everyday in hopes that the carte de sejour has arrived. I still have 3 more weeks of February to stress out before my work contract is up. Cross your fingers for me!!!

A bientot!!!