My house has been rented to a Brandeis grad student coming from
France! Aline arrives 8/21; her husband Olivier will be arriving several days later
with Paolo (6), Avril (4), and Andy (1). The location, of course, is perfect,
as my house is 1.4 miles from the Brandeis entrance. The street? “NOT so much!”
Aline and I first spoke one Sunday afternoon maybe six weeks
ago. That night, her friend Joanne, who lives about a mile away, came to see
the house. She told Aline
that the house was fine (great?), but there are no sidewalks and definitely not
a neighborhood! And because route 128 is across the street, the yard is noisy,
but the house is not, and that always surprises people.
When the price had dropped, she emailed me and said that now
they could maybe buy another car, and the house would work for them. We went through
the traditional process-application, talk with their references, complete and sign
the lease, arrange for the various checks like first and last month’s rent
complicated by the challenge of them having to send money from France to my
bank!
The emails were flying back and forth! Paolo will be in
first grade; both Aline and I had to communicate with the school department.
I needed to have a form notarized proving that I the landlord was renting to
them. Aline will meet with someone to register him when she arrives. Luckily
there will be another French boy in the same class with Paolo.
Plus, as luck would have it, we will meet when I am visiting
with Pascale. They have invited me to spend the night at her mother’s house in
Brioude on August 17th!
In the process of our emails, I had told Aline that I had seen
signs of children nearby (this translates to 1-1.5 miles). I also
volunteered to stop by to see if they
might have possible playmates for any of Aline’s children. I met five "neighbors”
whom I would not have met ! Three families do have young children, and all the mothers
were most hospitable and readily gave me their contact info which I passed
along to Aline. The fourth person just lives next door-but up a long driveway with
prominent NO TRESPASSING SIGNS. (His house is situated up the hill, so we would
normally never see each other or have occasion to talk.) No kids there! The
fifth stop has the babysitter! They had literally just moved in the day before, and Isabel will be a senior and had done a lot of babysitting in Pittsburgh!
When I return, I have vowed to stop into to say hello to new people in the neighborhood.
The car?? The 2006 Ford Hybrid Escape with 89,000+ miles had
to go, too. IF I had found a storage place, it would have cost me probably $100
a month. I won’t belabor the saga of the aforementioned buyer in Burlington who started at $7000; then his
offer got to $6000. Time was clearly an issue, but I called Scott in
Wayland at State Road Auto Body the morning before I was going to sell my car. Scott
has a small car rental place ($25/day), and he ended up buying for $6300. So
the Escape joined the “fleet”!
I’m now on a layover in Reykjavik en route to Paris! Ask me how
happy I was to just sit at Logan after my friends Pat and Rich dropped me
(earlier than I really needed at my request)! No need to be packing or cleaning out the house…nothing
to think about but the experiences before me….
Pascale met me at the Porte Maillot stop on the Airfrance bus route from Charles deGaulle Airport.
Her brother Jerome and his two kids plus a friend were packing to head home, when we arrived. She went of to work; I started the interesting process of "getting organized". (I think one of the real challenges of travel is getting a totally new system to know where all your stuff is!) I finally lay down about 3; Pascale came in at 7, and I misunderstood and thought she said she was going to work, instead of saying she had come home from work! So I thought I had slept through the night! After dinner, we watched a program about a huge party (costumes) celebrating the 400th anniversary of the Versailles. I went to be at 2 and awoke at 9; I feel somewhat oriented to the time difference. Tonight Pascale is having three friends for dinner, and that will be fun!
On a technical note...I am having trouble uploading pictures to this laptop (WIndows 8-GRRRRRRR!!) I get error message saying that Explorer has to close. Any ideas??
Check back when I can tell you about what I am seeing and learning about Paris.
Pascale met me at the Porte Maillot stop on the Airfrance bus route from Charles deGaulle Airport.
Her brother Jerome and his two kids plus a friend were packing to head home, when we arrived. She went of to work; I started the interesting process of "getting organized". (I think one of the real challenges of travel is getting a totally new system to know where all your stuff is!) I finally lay down about 3; Pascale came in at 7, and I misunderstood and thought she said she was going to work, instead of saying she had come home from work! So I thought I had slept through the night! After dinner, we watched a program about a huge party (costumes) celebrating the 400th anniversary of the Versailles. I went to be at 2 and awoke at 9; I feel somewhat oriented to the time difference. Tonight Pascale is having three friends for dinner, and that will be fun!
On a technical note...I am having trouble uploading pictures to this laptop (WIndows 8-GRRRRRRR!!) I get error message saying that Explorer has to close. Any ideas??
Check back when I can tell you about what I am seeing and learning about Paris.
