Reset the Clock
A six day adjustment to closing
Hello dear readers! We are in the countdown stage to Château ownership, today should have been 10 days and counting, but, like everything else in this transaction, why should it go as planned? We received an email yesterday informing us that the signing date has been moved to September 6th at 11am… No explanation, no apologies, no thank you for your patience, just a statement of when. It also happens to be 6 days following the expiration of our initial contract, so if you were going to try to talk us out of this, now is your chance!
So let me reset the clock… 16 Days and counting until Château
Musée d’Orsay Paris
As the countdown decreases summer is lagging and fall is looming as the days grow shorter. The last month has been full of meeting new people, visitors from the States, local festivals, and a mad trip across the country to Provence and then north to Paris and back.
I have thrown ourselves out into the world of the Gers and we have been delighted at the response and outpouring of welcomes we have received. A post on a FaceBook page called “Gers English Speaking Community” caused a flood of responses from other transplants and French natives, and it has been absolutely wonderful! A big shoutout to all of our new friends and followers!
Bonnie Jean Shelton, and Blair Mitchell, both of Healdsburg California graced us with their presence in the Gers. We laughed and drank, and toured around the south of France until we could tread no more. Wine tasting and restaurant hopping, antique shopping and monument visits were on the agenda as well as a surprise visit to our future home (more on that later), wrapping up with us kissing Blair goodbye and we three remaining musketeers drove east to L’isle sur la Sorgue in Provence. L’isle sur la Sorgue is a fun little town that boasts over 300 antique dealers… my feet and legs are telling me we saw each and every one! The selection of possibilities is endless, but definitely geared to the best of the best, with prime examples of any given item, and prices to match. We did find a few items that came home with us including 7 matching light fixtures for our kitchen, a set of four wall sconces, a fabulous painting that Screams France, a reinvisioned French sofa, and a table from the butlers pantry of another Château that will become our kitchen worktable/island.
In the following gallery are more antiques that we saw that we loved… some are in the running for coming to the Château, but many are too precious for our financing. of course Sugar Daddies are always welcome! LOL
From Provence we took a train to Paris. We had a few days before Bonnie Jeans departure to roam the streets of the city. We made an attempt to visit antique shops but sadly discovered that August is a bad month for antiques… every one, and I mean every one of them was closed! Gone fishin! We made a day trip to Versailles with hopes that since August is the big vacation month that everyone would be somewhere exotic… Wrong again! Versailles was packed with tourists. All masked and vaccinated (proof of vaccination was required) which was good but it was still uncomfortably tight and too close after months and months of staying very distant from our fellow man. But wait, it got worse… Phillip had booked what we thought was a private tour… The looks on our faces when we discovered we were on an umbrella tour with listening devices! (“The Horror of it all!!!”)… Back to Paris! lots of walking, drinking and dining calmed our nerves. The Louvre was out of the question and we instead visited the Musée d’Orsay, much less crowded and with a world class impressionist gallery, the museum was a perfect match.
The last goal we had in Paris was to visit the Fabric district. Specifically upholstery fabric for drapery and walls. Fabric covered walls are a very lovely addition to French homes and there are what I will call the right ways and the not so right ways to do it. I have seen professional quality hanging of fabric on walls and had learned that there are special hardware and tools for doing so. We went on the hunt! We found most of the hardware and tools and purchased samples to play with. There is one more piece of hardware that I did not see but now that I know the names of the other items I am hoping to be able to proceed further in my search for the this somewhat secret knowledge. We spent time perusing fabrics, looking at styles, types, colors, prints, and the multitude of endless possibilities for finishings… so much so that my brain hurt terribly! I am going to have to put my blinders back on and take one step at a time.
Three mad days of traipsing around Paris and Bonnie Jean flew away as we trained our way back to Provence and then drove to the Gers.
We are back in the rental house, having reset the time countdown clock we await our closing date!