Back again!

Back in France again, and today I’m loving it! (OK, so I wrote that a few days ago, but I'm still loving it!)

Yesterday was the first proper “summer” day we’ve had (the weather’s been like England, but colder at night and without the flooding!). It’s amazing how much happier you are when the sun is shining…

All the little irritations seem so trivial when you are no longer cold & wet (apart from the power supply, more of which later…).

For instance, when it’s cold, I mind having to put a wooden slatted mat down in front of the shower, and then use the towelling bath mat (it’s been too wet to dry out the wooden mat, if I get that wet! Chopping boards & wooden spoons had gone mouldy!).

Obviously, I can’t leave the wooden mat down (and it’s amazing how heavy things are when you’re tired and your back really aches), because then it would be in the way of the kitchen sink!!

Because everywhere is unfinished concrete, there’s so much dust, you daren’t drop anything on the floor – so that means dragging a (heavy-enough, metal) chair round to put the towel/clothes/dressing gown on (putting them on the draining board leads to some stuff falling off and getting very mucky!).

And then there’s getting naked to shower – not bad, in itself: the immersion heater seems remarkably efficient!

But the trying to get dry as quickly as possible afterwards without feeling a draught is the worst part. When it’s only about 12°C, you notice the draughts.

And of course you then have to put the mat and chair away.

I’m itching for the day when I can just chuck dirty clothes in the laundry bin and pad naked across the bathroom to the shower and not get cold/have to close the shutters first so no one on the road can see in!

Did I mention that?

As I say, when it’s warm that all just seems part of the fun!

Needless to say, it gets too hot to work outside pretty quickly, but I can usually find something to do under the trees (it’s usually at least 10 - 15°C cooler in the shade), or even clean something in the house…

Yesterday though I couldn’t put off any longer the dreaded task of trying to connect up to the Internet…

France Telecom vs. Orange:

I’ve read so many stories about France Telecom, and its attitude to customer service (as in “what’s that? No, we don’t do that”!) that I was dreading trying to get a line put in the house.

The worst stories I’ve come across were 2 different sets of people, both of whom had to wait over 12 months to get a phone line!

So, as I say, expecting a frustrating experience…

David phoned France Telecom on the English speaking number that you can call from abroad (you can find it after quite a while in fruitless searching on their less than user-friendly website!) on Thursday afternoon.

Monday morning, I got an email from M. Lorin (who’d kindly let the chap into the house) telling us the phone line was up and running!

Wow!

Orange, on the other hand, after three reminder phone calls (not to mention the numerous aborted attempts when their phone wouldn’t ring, or David had to give up after hanging on in a queue for 15, 20, or even 25 minutes) FINALLY sent out the letter giving our log-in details over a month later!

I should mention that it took only the one phone call to order both phone and broadband, but that was as close as it got to seamless!

Nearly five weeks before we could use the Internet, but they still managed to charge for it!

I’m not so fussed about having the Internet over here, but the package we went for includes free telephone calls to the UK as well as France and French mobiles – that’s what I was after!

It was a palaver, but not nearly as bad as trying to install the BT broadband – that just didn’t work and the instructions didn’t relate to anything that appeared on the screen!

At least the booklet was very user friendly with loads of pictures (that corresponded exactly to what was on screen). Still took a long time, but worth it now.

It was only when I was packing away the box & leftovers that I found a fold-out poster with all the steps on one page! Well, never mind!