First week here...

We spent the first week trying to get ourselves setup (new car, new cell phones, internet, home phone, TV, etc.). It was challenging but it all seems to have come together fine. Our first day of work Ran took two train connections and found her office. I took a cab to the car lease place and then took our new car to find my office. We were excited to exchange mail with each other that morning and know that we were both ok! :)

The highlight during the week was going to an English pub called "The Frog and Rosbif" with a couple of guys from Randi's work, who also came to Toulouse from Minnesota. The pub is named after what the Brit's call the French (The Frog) and what the French call the Brits (Rosbif, or Roastbeef). It was fun to hang out with those guys and here about their experiences (they have both been here about 9 months). I ordered a pastis and mentioned to the bartender I had never had one. He promptly turned around and ran a bell behind the bar, told everyone it was my first and asked that I chug it down. Luckily I've built up an immunity to alcohol and I like the taste of anise. It was good.

That Sunday we took a ride through the "Gaillac" wine region, which is the 2nd oldest wine growing region in France. It has had vineyards here since before the birth of Christ. We took the scenic route there, taking D988, as opposed to the A68 tollroad. We stopped at the Chateau de Tauzies. It was a huge house on top of a hill...big view...totally deserted. We stood outside for a while looking around and started to drive off when Pierre came out...old guy in his 60s maybe. He didn't speak any English or our new broken French but knew the international sign Randi gave him of tipping a glass back for a wine tasting :) He sent his wife out who spoke a little English and was very nice.

Then we continued on and traveled to the village of Cordes Sur Ciel, which is about a 75 minute drive from Toulouse. It is this little medieval village that sits on top of a hill. We ate and drank some free wine at some kind of festival that was going on right as we entered the town. We weren't sure exactly what we were celebrating but we were very happy for whoever or whatever it was, that everyone else was happy about :) It was really pretty cool. It was sunny out and everybody seemed to be kickin back. Since returning, we found out more about the 'Festival of Responchons' we attended there. We look forward to visiting Cordes again someday soon.

We made it!...but our hearts are heavy

Yes, we made it. It took a lot of phone calls and email/paperwork but we got it done. We realized that apparently you really gotta WANT IT...to move to
France. The toughest part turned out to be the unexpected loss of our sweet dog, Belle Kelley.
We thought we'd see her again when we were to come back to the States for our work visas in May but then our arrival was delayed a week because those work visas were ready...and then Belle had to be put down just a week before we left. If there was a reason for this delay in the start of our adventure, it was that Belle was leaving this world and we needed to grieve our loss with our friends and family, while we were still home for the week. She will always be in our hearts.

We were very tired on our arrival, at noon on Easter Sunday. We were concerned that the one demo on getting into our apartment might not have been enough but able to open the 3 doorways into the building and the 3 different locks on our door! We hear the French are quite paranoid about theft. There are stories of people even stealing trees here! But we don't have any trees, so we got that goin for us.

We went for a walk that day on Easter and found one of the only places open, a church...a really huge church! It's St. Etienne, which is only a few blocks from our apartment. We caught the end of a service there and got to hear their grand organ, that sits about 3 or 4 stories high in the back of the church.

After stopping for a coffee and dessert, we headed back to the apartment to try our new sleeping arrangements...we were very tired. And man did we sleep!! We have electric shades on the outside of the windows that close down into complete darkness...I love that. We went to sleep at around 9pm. We woke a couple of times in the night until we both woke up to seeing daylight coming from the other room. I turned on the lights and we both looked at our watches and both said "Oh my God" at the same time. Our watches said 2:20. Could that be right? Yes...it can only be light out when it's 2:20...in the afternoon. So we had slept for something like 17 hours! Holy crap!! By the time we showered and made it to a spot for breakfast, people were saying "bonsoir".

A Good Year

Been trying to just come up with a title to start this blog. Randi and I are hoping to document our experiences and make that available to millions of people across the world...and especially a few special people that may actually read it.

At times we feel as though we are terribly unprepared for the one year assignment in Toulouse, like with our lack of knowledge for the French language and culture but at the same time, we've thought about all the different aspects of the move there for 5 months now.

Also, I was given a couple of Peter Mayle's books from a very smart man at work, who said we would love them and he was correct. Both Randi and I have read "French Lessons" and then "A Year in Provence". They are both quick but excellent reads, that give you a sense of the French culture.

We had seen the movie "A Good Year" starring Russell Crowe, where his character inherits a vineyard in southern France. We loved it and had no idea, when we saw it, that it was based on Peter Mayle's book by the same name.

So even though we'll be living in an apartment in the city centre of Toulouse, we will still be imagining that we are living in a chateau out in the country at times. We definitely plan to visit Provence...and of course taste the harmony that exists there, between nature and their devotion to wine.