And the house we chose is....

Fantastic.  First we narrowed our picks down to two.  And then finally to one.  It was a hard decision, we loved both houses, but they were very different.  One was basically a villa, seriously a villa, but once we spoke with the agent about all the other "fees" to keeping the house (gardener, pool cleaning, etc...) the rent basically doubled.  Too expensive for us.  The house we chose is perfect for us and we loved it the minute we walked in. Big fenced in backyard, 5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, studio for Bruce and me, lovely back terrace, great kitchen and lots of light.   It's in a tiny village of about 100 people (no commerce) about 15 minutes north of Girona.  It's also part of a 1,000 year old castle.  It doesn't connect, but is right next door to the castle, which has been restored and it stunning.  The owners of the house and castle are super nice people too.  He was a michelin star chef, who then sold his restaurant and then bought the castle, restored it and opened a restaurant in the castle.  But this year due to health reasons, the restaurant is closed.  She is a famous potter throughout Spain.  They love art and are lovely people.

I'll post some pictures once we move in and get settled.

So excited about our new adventure!

Our landlord was so nice and took us up to the village that our village is part of to get our census. She thought it would be easier for us if she was there.  We got the letter we needed (to show the police for our NEE).  Then we headed into Girona to visit the Police, who give us our NEE card.  We ended up being there for 2 hours, not because of long lines, but because everyone was so nice.  A few of them spoke english and they loved that we were originally from California.  They told us where they were from in Spain and showed us pictures of their home towns.  I swear, everyone is so nice in Spain. We have to return to the Police in 30 days to pick up our card, but we got our number, so that's a good sign.

So we have a house, we have our NEE card, we have a checking account in Spain.  It's all coming together.  We rented a truck and will be taking our stuff down to Spain on the 15th, then we'll come back up to France to clean our house here and then we'll turn around and pack up the dogs and the cats and move into our new home in Spain.  Can't wait.

But wait....it's only been 2 weeks!

8-12 weeks.  That's what the Spanish Consulate told us.  But we were in Spain, again, and we got an email from the Spanish Consulate telling us that our VISA was approved and we had 30 days to come and get it.  WHAT?

We were so excited and thrilled, but we just got back from Chicago, what happened to 8-12 weeks? We do have 30 days to get it, so it's not like we have to go back tomorrow.  Now comes the tricky part.  Once you pick up your VISA and return to the EU, you have 30 days to get your empadronamiento (basically a census) and your NEE card (like a social security card in the states - and you need that card to do anything in Spain - rent a house, get a phone, open a bank account, etc.) and show that you have accommodation set up (lease or deed) for Spain.  Since we are already living in France, we'd return there, so the clock would start immediately.

So, 3 weeks later we were back on a plane to Chicago to pick up our VISA.  Not much to report here, it went very smooth.  I didn't have any pages left in my passport and it expired in 2016, so I needed a new one.  Because of the timing I had to use an agency and get it in 2 days.  That was very easy too, we used an agency in Chicago and everything worked out great.  We went to consulate and picked up our VISA and headed back to France.  Now we'll be heading back to Spain (thank goodness it's only 3.5 hours from our house to Girona) to register and make a decision on a house.  We did give notice to our landlord here in France.  We'll be moving mid-December.....so Christmas in Spain!

Back to Catalunya

Old Town - Girona

We took a trip back down to Catalunya to look at some rental houses.  We saw a total of 5 houses. We loved two, liked two and didn't like the 5th.  Now the decision.

We had the dogs with us and decided to take them to the beach one afternoon.  Then we stopped in L'Escala for a great lunch of fresh seafood. We also went to visit a local climbing area, and they came along that day too.

Dashell loving the stream

Happy Dog

The Med.

Girona was having it's Les Fires de Sant Narcís Girona, a week-long festival.  The city was full of vendors, music, people and great food.  It was so much fun to have a city near that is so lively. Where we are now Toulouse is the closest lively city and it's over an hour away.  Girona is 15 minutes from all the houses we looked at.

Music everywhere

Girona

Placa de Independencia, Girona

Brebis Cheese

Walking over one of the bridges to old town Girona

Our next trip will be to the states.  We haven't been back in over a year, last time to Los Angeles to see Bruce's family.  This time it will be to Michigan to see my family and then to Chicago to apply for our Spanish Visa.  All that will be in the next post.  We've had 2 French long-stay Visas,  it will be interesting to see if Spanish is any different.