View from the Top

The view from our little balcony is of roof tops, windows, the the street below and not far away, a large building crane. We have begun to weave stories about the various people we see through their windows or in the street, our neighbours from our view on high.

In the near distance is "M. Grue", the young man who operates the building crane. We have observed his skill and habits with great interest. He is building an apartment within the architectural details of an old convent. He is a young man, well built. We know this because when it was hot, he worked topless! We watch him as he climbs up and down his tower. Some days he is like a mountain goat, leaping up the stairs; others, he climbs wearily, stopping along the way. We worry about him and his mates on those days. One false move and all their lives are in danger. Earlier this week, a large rainbow shone over him as he worked.

Across the street, are two windows with flower boxes and brightly coloured curtains behind the ubiquitous white shutters. "Madame"  intrigues us as her shutters open late in the afternoon and close again as evening comes on. She is probably in her forties, with long blond hair, beautiful red fingernails and brightly coloured clothing. David has waved to her and said bonjour but she indicated that she does not speak French. We wonder what job she does and decided it is either a factory job or another type of work that takes place at night--thus her nickname.

Farther in the distance are "Les Gars", two young men who live in an attic with a sky light. When the weather was warmer, they climbed out of the skylight onto their very dodgy deck. It is made of planks, with no railing or protection from falling into the street four stories below. Beside the chimney, they have a barbecue where they cook large quantities of what looks like meat. These are clearly not impoverished students! Even horse meat is expensive!

On the street below, are two restaurants side by side. Judging by the number of customers, one is clearly more successful than the other. We try to psychically urge the potential customers into the latter but clearly our skills need improvement as the tables remain empty. We wonder how they can support six staff on the number of customers they have each week and worry for their future. They work long hours often in their white aprons preparing food before we are really functioning in the morning and then attending to customers long after we are asleep.

And on our side of the street is our fellow tenant, M. Book Sex Shop. The window holds a quite tasteful display of sexy underwear, with a few dildos discreetly placed and a modest sex manual. The commonly held notion of  the open-minded French is somewhat destroyed by watching the passersby. Most people slow slightly and quickly glance at the window. Rarely does anyone stop. One older man who appeared to be a grandpa actually covered his young grandson's eyes! We also worry about Olivier who owns the shop as very few people enter. However, as he drives a very superior new motorcycle and a Lexus, we think we have missed something!

We definitely are enjoying witnessing this world beyond our balcony.

I Could Never Do That! Part 1

As we told friends of our plan to move to La Rochelle, we were met with one of two reactions: "How wonderful, what a great idea!" or "You are so brave. I could never do that." We were happy to have the support and excitement of the former. When we asked the latter what would constrain them, they usually wondered how they could leave their life and possessions behind and how they could ever afford to do such a thing. Having had our wonderful idea, we, too, wondered about the same things. We have two cars, a large trailer, a house and a garden that need maintenance. Thus began a long and laborious research project!  

House 
The house was the major consideration. Our goal was to find a way to cover the running and maintenance costs of the house in Toronto and therefore have money to pay rent in France. First, we investigated house exchanges which seemed the most likely and cheapest answer. However, it is rare to find one for a year. Too late, we thought of going through universities to find someone on sabbatical. We should have tried harder in this area. It might have required us to be more flexible in our choice of town. By the time, someone suggested it to us, we had already begun to fall in love with La Rochelle. We will definitely try this out in the future as we have heard only of positive experiences. The next logical solution was renting the house. Furnished or unfurnished? How to find a good tenant? Who would do the maintenance? Research on management companies uncovered a good one and we realized that we could still make a good profit if we left them in charge. Having decided to store our belongings, we then started the hunt for a storage unit. Luckily for us, our neighbour manages a very good one! Then fortune smiled. My daughter, a great traveller herself, decided to remain in Toronto for at least a year. The perfect answer. Someone we trust would be in charge and the expenses would be covered. We started a maintenance fund for any possible problems, put together a list of maintenance professionals and a month by month "manual" mainly for the garden. For those of you who may not have this lovely solution, the management company seems to us the best alternative if you are renting to a stranger.  

Vehicles 
This was relatively easy. We left our car in the driveway and the truck and trailer are stored in a parking lot north of the city. We took most of the insurance off the vehicles. If you were really organized and wanted to save more money, you could also remove the license plates. There is some good advice on the Internet about the care of a stored vehicle. Having someone run the engine every couple of months seems to be one of the main ones as well as putting a preservative into a full gas tank. 

Banking 
Finding an efficient and inexpensive method to transfer money from Canada to France on a regular basis is difficult. David spent many hours surfing the net and on the phone. The ease of internet banking in Canada perhaps gave us high expectations of what would be possible. There are many regulations, both national and international that impede transfers and make them expensive. The solution breaks down into a number of steps, the main one finding a company that transfers money easily and cheaply around the world. We found Currencies Direct, a UK firm recently set up in Canada. Then we needed an account in France to which the funds could be transferred. This can be done through international banks such as HSBC but they can be expensive. We were given the email address of an English speaking representative of a Banque Populaire branch in France. She has been unfailing helpful and thus has been christened "Patient Patricia". The next step was to find out how to transfer money from our bank account to Currencies Direct. This is where we realized Canadian banks are not very sophisticated in international money transfers. Paypal has  become expensive so we are using Telpay, recommended by Currencies Direct. We received a bank card from the French bank as soon as we had established residence in France which works well with merchants and withdrawing cash. Transferring money to our landlord's French bank account is possible as well although cheques are cheaper. We also have learned new banking jargon. For all this to work you need an international bank account that includes IBAN, BIC and in France, "le RIB".  

Airline tickets 
After researching Air Canada, Air France, KLM and British Airways, Air Canada proved to be the most efficient for one year tickets. None of the systems can take a one year return however Air Canada will book the ticket for the limit of their system and then give you one free change which allows you to book the return. You just have to remember to do it!