1 month

Gaillac Vineyards

We've been living here in St. Antonin now for 1 month, exactly.  It seems longer, seems almost like home. Fall has arrived and the colors are beautiful.  We had a pretty warm October and November hasn't been too bad except for the last week or so.  We have had rain and cold temps.  Our belongings are still either on the boat or held up in England, we hope to get them sometime in December.  I think once we do, it will really feel like home.  I can't wait to get our stuff.  First of all I'm tired of wearing the same thing.  I keep telling people that I do have more than 2 sweaters and 2 pair of jeans.  I could only bring 1 suitcase and with my boots, heavy jacket, sweaters and such it didn't leave much else.  But luckily I'm not in Paris, people here don't care.

We've been social butterflies, which is pretty unusual for us.  Back in Los Angeles we rarely went out, except with our best friends E and K.  Once in a while we'd go out to dinner (just the two of us) or meet a friend for a drink or go to someones house for dinner, but it wasn't all the time.  This is a very social village and everyone is so nice and friendly.  We've seen some of our old friends and had dinner at their house, we've had dinner at some new friends house and we always go to quiz night once a week.  Basically we're beat.

Last week was our 14 year anniversary.  We got married on the 11th of November, which was also the day of our first day way back when.  We stayed in, made nachos and drank wine.  It was lovely.  It's strange 14 years has passed, it's gone by so quickly.  It still feels like new to me though, even though Bruce and I spend 24x7 together and have since we met.  When I'm not with him, I miss him.

We went down to Ikea the other day to purchase some much needed things.  I love Ikea.  We picked up everything for an office for me (desk, chair, storage, etc...) and everything for a studio for Bruce (table, chair, lighting, etc...).  So I now have my office and he has his studio.  He been drawing every day which is wonderful.

The Village

The Village

Everyday I spent about 2-3 hours on the business - Raison d'Art.  Either sending emails or brochures, working on itineraries for the camps, coordinating activities, or some type of marketing.  We already have kids signed up for camps #1, #2 and #3 which is very exciting for us.  Nobody yet for the women's retreat in May.  I hope it will be something we can do, because I think it will be truly unique and inspiring for women.  Most women put themselves last, so their kids can come to camp or do this or do that, but their needs are on the back burner.  I'm trying to get women over here to unplug, do yoga if they want (we have the most handsome yoga teacher too), paint, do wine tasting, chill, visit villages, etc... focus on themselves for 10 days.  Put themselves first for once.  Work can wait, kids can wait, shopping can wait, driving all over can wait but this shouldn't wait.

We are planning on attending some camp fairs, which I think will be really good for us.  Meet prospective campers, get our name out there.  There are a few in the states (New York, New Jersey, Michigan, Florida).  There is one in Montreal, one in Madrid, one in Milan and 3 in Paris.  We are trying to figure out the one's in the states, but we know we'll do either Madrid or Milan and Paris.  These are at International Schools, so I think they will be good.  We are also trying to break into England and have someone there who will be working with us on getting into camp fairs and getting people interested.  It's a 1.5 hour flight from London and a really inexpensive flight, so we have to try and break into that market.

We finally have internet, television a land line phone and a mobile phone.  Which means we exist in France.  It took 3 weeks to get everything set up and I'm glad I don't have to spend hours down at the cafe trying to work.  I actually really enjoy having a land line phone too.  We haven't had one since we lived here in 2008.  I like the idea of a land line phone, being in one place, great connection, solid, grounded.  Most people just use the cell, but I always go for the land line.  I also miss my daytimer.  I know, most people don't even use those anymore, but I'm going to get one again.  I don't like everything on my computer or phone.  I like to organize it, open it up every day and see what I'm to do, have my addresses written down in my handwriting.  I know, I'm old-fashioned, but they are the best!

It's been a very interesting month and although the weather is getting cold we still bundle up and run with the dogs.  They love it and so do I.  We climb every day that it's dry and when our bikes come in December we'll start cycling again.  Everyday is an adventure or a learning experience and I'm thrilled we took the plunge.

A day just for us!

 wer'e going up there...

The other day we went rock climbing at an area called Amiel.  It’s 10 minutes from the house, which is incredible.  It’s about a 20 minute hike up to the cliff, but so worth it.  The cliff is south facing, so it is in the sun all day.  It was about 60 here in the village and a bit windy, but up at the cliff it was about 75 and hot!  I had shorts and a tank on and Bruce had his shirt off.  It’s a perfect winter cliff.  We even said that if we are not climbing and it’s a bit cold here in the village we just might go up and hang out in the sun.  We took the dogs with us, they had a great time running around and just being with us.  We both haven’t climbed in about 8 years.  We stopped when I injured myself and after we moved back from Las Vegas (yes, we lived in Vegas), because the climbing there was pretty amazing too and coming back to Los Angeles, you have to drive so far just to climb.  We also started surfing and then eventually cycling.  I met Bruce through rock climbing, 15 years ago.  He was my private coach for a year before we had our first date.  He introduced me to camping and every weekend we’d hop in the car and go away climbing.  It’s nice to be back in nature and climbing again.  Moving here we knew we had to start climbing again, there are about 10 amazing cliffs within 15 minutes of our house.

The view from up at the crag

 Just hanging out in the sun

Stella too

After coming back from climbing we went to our friends Tyrex and Henriette’s restaurant called Browns for Quiz night.  We met T&H about 2 years ago when first lived in France.  They had a table at the Sunday market here in St. Antonin and they sold Indian food.  We bought some excellent curry dishes and then became friends with them. Their new restaurant is a 3 minute walk from our house.  Quiz night is what it sounds like; it’s like trivial pursuit.  There were 3 teams of 4 people and Tyrex gives us random questions and the team writes the answer on a piece of paper.  There are 40 questions in all, but we do 20 and then score each other’s paper and then break for dinner and then continue with the other 20.  Tyrex did a nacho night and I brought guacamole (because you have to have guacamole with Mexican food).  The nachos were so so good.  Our team consisted of Rob, Carl and Bruce and I and…we won!  Quiz night is once a week, we’ll be back this week to defend our title.

 Brown's

(Update:  we went back again this week for quiz night and our team “the bush/blair haters” won again!)

Our Friday fiasco!

First, let me say that we made it.  We are here in St. Antonin, our new home.  Now, let me tell you that Friday was a nightmare.  Our experience here in France and Belgium makes our DMV look like a smooth running machine.  I’m sure you’re laughing at that because we have all been to the DMV and it’s not a smooth running machine, but once you hear about our day, you’ll realize that I’m right.

Our Village

Look at those limestone cliffs

Looking out from out backyard

Our backyard

So, remember, we bought a car in Belgium and just needed to get it registered or get transit plates to take it into France and then we’d register it here in St. Antonin.  There is a place in Brussels called the DIV and you can get transit plates there, but people told us it was not a fun place to go and you could wait in line for 4 hours or more only to be told you don’t have the required paperwork.  So we checked on line and found that we could register the car in France at any Prefecture (which is new).  So, we got all the necessary paperwork that is listed on the Prefecture’s website for registering the car and head down to Lille, France, about 50 minutes from where we were in Belgium.

Our new Peugeot

We had to pack up the car and check-out of the hotel since we were heading down to Lille and if we couldn’t get the car registered we’d have to continue down to St. Antonin, register the car and drive back up to Belgium to pick it up (not fun).  So, the car is full of bags, 3 dogs and Bruce and I.  When we arrived in Lille, we couldn’t or didn’t want to leave the car because of the dogs and all our stuff so I waited in it.  1 hour goes by and Bruce comes back from the Prefecture only to tell me that the first guy told him that he had to go to St. Antonin to register the car, but as those of you who are here in France know, all you have to do is ask someone else the same question at the Prefecture and you’ll get a different answer.  So, he asked someone else.  They told him that yes, you could register the car but you needed a “quitus fiscal” form filled out.  Bruce asked if that was the VAT tax and he said no, it’s an import tax.  But you couldn’t get it at the Prefecture; you had to go to the Tresor Public, which was across town.  Argh!

It’s now 11:45 and we head over, really not knowing where we are going.  We actually found it pretty easily but then drove around and around for 10 minutes trying to find parking.  By the time we found parking it was 11:55, Bruce ran to the building but when he got there…it was closed for lunch until 1:30.  Welcome to France.

We had lunch and went back at 1:30.  But the guy Bruce spoke with told him that he could not give him the “quitus fiscal” in Lille, it can only be giving in the department you are living (but he couldn’t say why).  He told him that if all we needed were “transit plates” to take the car to France, we could do that back at the Prefecture.  So back to the Prefecture we go.   When Bruce got there the guy he spoke with told him that they don’t give transit plates, but there was a shop next door that did (for 100 euros).  So Bruce went in and that guy told him he couldn’t do it unless he had the “quitus fiscal”.  Are you kidding! Bruce told him our story and that our car was in Belgium and he said he had a friend in Belgium that did transit plates and you didn’t need a “quitus fiscal” in Belgium.  So he gave us his address (if that’s what you call it…more like a town and postal code) and said he was 30 minutes away, so off we went, back to Belgium.  It’s now 3:00 pm.  Our guy at the Peugeot dealership was only there until 5:00 and he’s not there on Saturday and we were NOT staying until Monday. 

We finally, after getting lost 10 or so times, found the “transit plate” place.  It was more like the back of a truck in the middle of the Belgian countryside.  Shady for sure.  They told us we had 2 options.  The first was a Belgian plate, but they couldn’t get it until Monday.  The second was a European plate and we could get that today, but “it had risks”.  What kind of risks we asked.  We were told that it’s valid throughout Europe but that it’s not recognized or in the law books in Belgium and France.  And that if the police stopped us, which some do (but some don’t), they would take the plates and we’d be stuck.  There was another man there, from Germany, and he told us he’s used these plates before and has never had a problem.  He said, “go for it”.  So, at 4:15 pm on Friday, we did.  We just needed to get out of Belgium and really couldn’t afford to spend 3 more nights in a hotel and pay three more days for a rental car.  We got the plates, rushed up to the Peugeot dealership and picked up our car.  But we still had to drop off the rental car, and that was 30 minutes away.  So off we went, to Brugge to drop off the car.  We did that and then decided we’d just start driving down into France and see what happened.  We stopped for dinner and then kept driving.  I drove until 1:00 am and then Bruce drove until 2:30 am.  We stopped at a rest stop, which are nothing like the rest stops in America.  They are amazing, food, restaurants, shopping, etc.  We tried to nap in the car, very hard to do with 3 dogs and all our luggage, but we did manage to get a few hours of sleep.  We got back on the road at 6:00 am.  We were close, very close.  After stopping at the market for food for a few days we arrived in St. Antonin, home!

We stopped at our landlord’s house and picked up the key to our new house.  Unloaded the car, stocked the fridge, walked the dogs and then took a 2 hour nap!  We were exhausted from the non-stop crazy ride we were on.  Our house is lovely and we know we are going to be so happy here in a village.  It already feels like home.  Later in the afternoon we took the dogs out and let them run, poor things have been stuck in the hotel room in Belgium with only walks and then they were in the car most of the day yesterday.  They were great though.

It’s Sunday morning right now and we are going to head out to the open market (our village has an amazing one).  We’ll start unpacking and getting organized too.  Tomorrow we have to register the car, get our French plates, get a phone, and set up our tv and internet service.  But, hopefully we can do it all here, as we have no desire to get in the car for a few days.

We still feel that buying a car in Belgium was cheaper than in France, but it was a bit of a challenge getting it here.  We had to laugh because in America you can go to a dealership and within say 1 hour you have a car, with plates, insurance, registration, etc…and you can drive it home.  If you want to live here you have to deal with the paperwork and confusion.  I’m sure when we go to register the business it will be just as difficult, but again our motto is “no expectations”.  We’ll go with the flow, take a deep breathe and it will get done. 

Stay tuned.