Our Temporary House in Toulouse

We have a house in a small, ancient (as in Roman) village outside of Toulouse.  It is all ready and waiting for us.  The only problem is that the house is completely empty.  No stuff, no where.  Our kitchen things and bed are being sent to us via an air shipment sometime in December and we will be able to move in as soon as that happens.  In the meantime, we rented a small apartment in the heart of old Toulouse on a street that was laid out in 1164.  Our place is full of hand-hewn timbers and exposed brick archways, and sits in the gate-house of a block of homes built between 1200-ish and 1840.  There are two small court yards, two Victorian water-pumps near our door and in the brick causeway, and there are still iron rings in the brick once used for tying up horses.  Very cool.

We are also walking distance from most of the inner-city sites and churches, and we have found a VERY yummy bakery just up the street.  Stamp-With-Foot stops every few feet to take pictures and marvel.  She loves Toulouse!

Some Big News…

So… My J-O-B has made us an offer that is very hard to refuse: a two year stint in the south of France and they will fly us home 3 times a year. We get to keep our house and I get to come back to my job in Seattle when that period ends. THE SOUTH OF FRANCE!! Warm weather, amazing wine, spectacular cheese, lavender, honey, the French vacation plan. We would be living outside of Toulouse – the third largest city in France. It sits at the foot of the Pyrenees Mountains, is an hour from the coast, has one of the 10 best Saturday markets in Europe (so says the interwebs), and has more sunshine in 6 weeks of summer than Seattle has all year. We are so freaking doing this!

There is some red tape that we have to cut through, namely a work permit. Since around 27% of the French population under 30 is out of work, getting a permit right now, even in the aerospace field, is tres difficile. Fingers crossed. If this happens, then The Nana will move into La Maison du Talley, pay the utilities, and keep the zombie horde away. Visualize a sweet grandmother rocking away on the front porch with a shotgun across her lap. Add a Marlboro hanging from the corner of her mouth and you will have an accurate picture of The Nana.

I will miss my shop and my yard for those two years, but I will plug the hole in my heart with Cote du Rhone, Comte, a day trip or 6 to the Mediterranean coast, weekends in Paris/Rome, sunshine, and a yearly vacation to Morocco. I will be taking a chest of hand tools and am planning on making some small detailed pieces while there. I also plan on scouring the flea markets over that two year period for planes, chisels, and joinery tools.

Stamps-With-Foot is not concerned about logistics or housing or much of anything other than “How is Brodie going to handle that long flight?!” She feels that we will be taking Brodie back to ancestral homeland and has spent some amount of time talking to the dog about this possibility – trying to get him psyched about the proposition…