We didn't do much on that night because I was quite tired after all the travelling, but the next morning I was home alone as everyone else was at work. Cue the disaster of the day. So, I had to use the bathroom, and I soon realised the flush on the toilet wasn't turning off... Aurélian would get back at 10.30, but this was almost an hour away. I had visions of the bathroom flooding, but thankfully the water was running through the bowl, so it wasn't filling up. I took the lid off the cistern and saw that the flush mechanism was slack, which was why the flush wouldn't stop. It must have been a problem they'd had for a while, because there was a polystyrene block that the lever had clearly been stuck into, so I fiddled around with that until the water shut off. Phew.
When Aurélian got back we took Ippy for a walk, or rather, she took us for a walk. Despite being only 15 months old, she's bigger than the average labrador and at least 3 times as strong. At one point Aurélian let me hold the lead and I was almost instantly pulled off my feet as Ippy rushed towards something in the bushes...
Meeting the Teachers
In the afternoon Marie came to get me so she could show me around her school and so I could meet the teachers. It was lunch time and we ate in one of the classrooms with about 6 other female teachers all having multiple conversations and talking over each other. I could make out a few topics, but there were so many I just quietly ate my baguette (so French) and made the odd interjection. The staff were really friendly though, so I felt quite happy.
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After lunch I met 'le chef', ie. the headmaster. I was a little bit nervous to meet him, since in France work relationships are very hierarchical. The French language has two forms of 'you': the familiar/friendly form 'tu' and the more respectful, distanced 'vous' which is also a plural form. Whilst you would use 'tu' amongst fellow teachers and towards a student, using 'tu' when speaking to your boss might result in a bit of friction to say the least... They will refer to you as 'tu', in general, of course. It takes a bit of getting used to, but thankfully I didn't slip up there!
Moving In
Skipping forward a bit to the most exciting part of the day... finally getting to see my house for the first time!! I could barely contain my excitement all day. I wanted to meet my housemates and settle in a bit more and explore the area. The search for a house had been long and mostly fruitless, with landlords who didn't respond to messages, houses that were much too expensive, and adverts for rooms that were still online despite the rooms no longer being available (grrrrr!). I was incredibly lucky that Marie had kindly offered to view houses on my behalf, she had been to this house the previous week and had told the landlord I'd take it, so I knew it had to be good!
We pulled into the drive and I saw a really beautiful, well-kept house. I knew the landlords lived next door, so when we rung the bell and were invited into a spacious living room and office area I presumed we were in the landlords' side of the house-- it was so smart and well furnished, with a huge TV on the wall. We talked to the landlords and then I realised that this was actually my home for the next few months-- I couldn't believe it!!
My landlords are a couple called Laurence and Philippe and I'd been emailing them over the past week asking various things about the house and moving in and that sort of thing. I'd mainly been emailing Philippe, but Laurence emailed me a bit too, which is where another error comes in... Of course, in England at least, Laurence is a boy's name, but in France it's a girl's name. Naturally, I had no idea of this at the time, and rather embarrassingly I think I referred to Laurence as 'Monsieur' a few times. I'm pretty sure that when she was introduced to me in person I more than likely looked a little surprised that she was a woman, but there you have it. They're both absolutely lovely in any case and I'm very happy to have such friendly people as my landlords.
They took me on a quick tour of the house... the huge TV is 3D (!!), the kitchen (complete with Tassimo machine) had so many utensils provided I thought it must be shared with the landlords, but no! Everything you could possibly imagine is in there! My room is great, it's nice and big with loads of storage and blue décor-- there's even a TV and a nice view of the garden. The garden itself is beautifully kept and the landlords keep chickens and doves in an enclosure at the back. I also found out that their cat had just had kittens!! Essentially, there's no better place on earth. Then there's my lovely housemates, Maud and Nathan, who are both studying at a nearby Lycée (a sort of between college and university type establishment). We're all quite busy so we don't get to see too much of each other, but we often try to cook together.
French Kissing
Not that sort, don't get too excited.
I'm not sure I'll ever quite get my head around this kissing-people-on-the-cheek-but-not-really-only-kissing-the-air-by-their-face-thing-as-a-greeting thing. When Mélanie met me at the train station, we only said hello, but when I got to Marie's she greeted us both with a kiss on each cheek which took me by surprise as I'd forgotten that the French do this. I thought it was just a thing women did to women as well so I was even more surprised when Dave and Aurélian came home and did the same thing. Ippy definitely wanted to get involved, and in fact she wouldn't leave me alone (bless). My landlords, however, didn't kiss me or Marie, but when I met Maud and Nathan for the first time, it was the first thing they did, but then we don't do it when we see each other day-to-day. Some of the teachers at work do it, but not all. Then there's the dilemma of which cheek to go for and the awkward situation where you're both going for the same side of each other's face and it doesn't quite work...
Until next time...
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