Bail

Don’t worry this is not a post begging for money to get Keith out of jail. Neither Keith nor myself were arrested by the gendarme (national police). In fact we actually have our temporary permits of residence which happen to be on 8” x 6” sheets of thick paper with our horrible photos on them; we will not be issued our actual cards until we pass the medical and really who knows when that might be.  Our residency status is still in the midst of bureaucratic paper shuffling, but our “Bail” (pronounced bye) is almost complete.

 “Bail” is in fact the word for lease and on Thursday we went in to sign the lease for our apartment. Just to remind those who have lost track, because I know I have, this is a quick summary of the process:

1)      Get bank accounts, bank cards and cheques (10 days)

2)      Search for an apartment on line.

3)      Contact agents who show apartments.

4)      Meet with agents to see apartments.

(Steps 2,3 and 4 took approximately a week and a half)

5)      Finally found an apartment we liked. (We first viewed it on my     birthday. Coincidence I think not!)

6)      Begin a dossier with the agent to present to the owner. Giving information such as what Keith’s income is, type of contract, etc...

7)      Get all of Keith’s boss’s information as our guarantor to complete our dossier.

8)      The owner views our dossier and okays it.

9)      Keith’s boss copies (by hand) and signs a document indicating that she would be our guarantor. She had to have it notarized.

10)   Get insurance for the apartment which required information like how many rooms where in the apartment and how many locks are on the door????

11)   Go to the property management company to sign our bail.

Now for those of you who are picturing us breezing into the property management company and simply signing a lease think again. The representative of the property management company went over the lease with us and explained everything which was very nice of her. I think she had been warned before that we were from abroad and our French was somewhat limited. Half of the document was important information about the square footage and what was included in our lease and what wasn’t in terms of utilities, but the other half of the fifty or so pages was basically an insurance policy in the event of earth quakes or forest fires. After the document was explained to us, we had to initial every single page, front and back, of all four copies the representative provided for us. Keith’s boss will also have to initial every page of three of these copies and the owner will do the same. Luckily, we don’t have to have this step complete before we get the keys, so documents-wise we have been cleared to move in. This is the elevator we had to take to get to the property management company. Although the picture may not fully capture its size, it’s basically a telephone booth with a steel cable attached to the top. There would maybe be room for three, but only if you were really friendly and skinny.

We had never imaged that the process of getting an apartment take so long or be so involved. I keep double checking with Keith as to whether there are steps we have forgotten or that we still have to do. It will be a huge relief to have all of this behind us and to be able to start to really live our lives here. I feel like this process has been all consuming. We took two more trips to Ikea this week and I spent almost all day Tuesday and Wednesday shopping around for kitchen stuff and comparing prices at different stores. I would like this stage to be over, but the list of things we need to get seems endless. As much as I enjoy decorating, the budget is limited and spending so much money at once always puts me in a bad mood, even if we really do need everything we are getting. So far I have been very zen about the spending, but I know that eventually one purchase is going to tip me over the edge. I just have to keep breathing, it will be worth it.

Speaking of living a normal life again and breathing, I have spent this week looking for a yoga practice that I would like to join. The only Ashtanga practice is in the centre ville and I am not willing to take the bus or walk all that way just for a yoga class. Yes I know, I was spoiled in Kingston, everything in my life was practically within a 10 minute walking radius, but considering I already have church and shopping within that radius here, I thought why not try to add my yoga class as well. I knew right away the first studio I tried was not for me. As soon as I walked in the heavy smell of incense hit me and she did not have proper yoga mats, both bad signs. Finding a proper yoga mat has been a problem I have been working on for the past three weeks. None of the sports stores here carry them and all the yoga teachers I have emailed have basically said I will have to order one on line. Errr.

 The class at the first studio I tried was an hour long, but consisted of only four positions and a lot of breathing! I know for some of you this is the way you like your yoga, but for me coming from the Ashtanga practice, where you are constantly moving, this was way too slow. The second studio I went to actually started with sun salutation and moved on at a bit of a better pace, although still very gentle in comparison to what I am used to. The teachers at both were extremely helpful and both classes were quite social, which is good for improving my French. I have decided that I will purchase a mat and continue Ashtanga at home and enrol with the second studio starting in January. Hopefully by then the chaos of moving and furnishing our apartment will be over and I will be able to stick to more of a schedule.

Below I have included some of my on-the-go shots from the last week. The kitchen stores here are quite daunting. They are literally packed with stuff from walls of knives to special storage units for camembert.

A fine example of Marseille parking. How do you get into a pedestrian walkway when there are metal barriers on every side?

 There are merry-go-round at all major parks here. This one in the vieux port is especially impressive because it has two levels! No I haven't ridden one yet, but just wait.

My goal is to continue to capture more of these on the go shots of the city and try to forget about Ikea and moving for at least 10 minutes every day.