Foreign Perspectives

Archive for the ‘Mas Camps News’ Category

Bonjour!

Yesterday (Friday) was total chaos.

We started getting up around 8.30 as usual and planned our day out: French in the morning for me, then off to the Mairie to see about getting ourselves registered and finishing with a trip to the accountant.

The door bell rang about 5 mins after we decided to do all that.

Five Belgians had arrived for our gite, a day early. It’s really a gite for at most three so we started organising extra beds in a big hurry. Wendy managed to persuade them to go off and take a drive to collect supplies while we got organised.

We got one extra bed in and realised that no way could we fit five in so I called Alistair (the adventure tours guy) to see how his gite was fixed up. His is for nine and fortunately was free so we offered them that when they got back. Had to drive them up to his place as it’s a bit hard to find and impossible to describe how to find in English, never mind French. We set off for his place just after noon (yup, three hours to sort out the gite!).

On the way back we spotted a big bin by the roadside so I dropped Wendy off at Champion to get supplies for the next couple of days (`tis May Day on Saturday and everywhere is shut) whilst I headed off to pick up the trailer and fill it with rubbish. As we’ve not got to the Mairie we’re still running with domestic size bins a) have more waste due to the hotel b) have heaps of junk from the move and c) have heaps of junk left over from the previous owner to get rid of. One trailer is about two big (ie 2 wheelie bin size bins) bins full. Fortunately we spotted a couple more big bins on the way back to collect Wendy.

Thought we’d pick up some outdoor furniture for the gite too but they’d went and sold the table we were looking for.

By them Alistair had arrived. I stayed with him while Wendy went off to get some more shopping done.

I mentioned that our main toilet wasn’t working which ended up in a race to the DIY store to collect a new one plus more tools to finish off fitting the lock on the front door.

We didn’t know how to turn off the water so had to wait `til our neighbour arrived at 9pm before completing the fitting of the toilet which by 11.30pm was operational.

In the meantime we have also sorted out the Sky satellite which is now in a position which should let it work in the gite. Which means another trip to Castorama on Monday to get another satellite tuner for the gite (assuming it works with our box).

We are all totally knackered!!

Oh, and it was James’ birthday on Thursday so in the midst of the above he was pedalling round the courtyard in his little car and pushing his bike around and generally wanting to be involved in all the action. He’d his eye on the bag of toys that the little Belgian boy had brought along and was getting set to mug him for them.

And early on my French mobile arrived. I’m on 00 33 6 981 420 65.

Bonsoir:

We saw a satellite system for sale for ‚€35 last week so thought it was high time we did something about the TV situation. Up to now we’ve had nothing but had brought the two TVs and Sky box from Holywood.

“Satellite kit” means something completely different in French than you & I think. In France a satellite kit gives you the dish and decoder (digital one for ‚€85, analogue for ‚€35) but no means of attaching the thing to the wall. Next day it was off to Castorama yet again to get the attachment kit. Unfortunately, my trusty rechargeable drill wasn’t up to going through a stone & concrete wall so the next day it was off yet again to get a more grown up drill, serious drill bit and really serious bolts to attach the thing to the wall (nope, the attachment kit doesn’t include the bolts). I figured that wireless was the way to go so today, just before attaching the final bit to the wall it was off to buy one of those little wireless gadgets to save a heap of cabling and finally we have our Sky TV back again.

However, we haven’t forgotten about the decoder box that came with the dish. Of course the remote control doesn’t come with batteries… yup, off to the shops again tomorrow to see if we can set the thing up or if we’ll need another LNB to pick up another satellite.

Would you believe that we still haven’t got our drinks license transferred over? Nobody knows where the document needed to do the transfer is so we’re flogging the boose anyway. We also STILL aren’t registered as a French company which is getting to be a bit of a problem as I need to employ Wendy so she can claim the maternity expenses from the social security people.

Ah, the maternity thing. Wendy’s first appointment was this morning so we took along the really big dictionary (commonly referred to as the breeze block). As it turned out, we needn’t have bothered as the doctor speaks pretty good English. Wendy’s to get a heap of blood tests (French doctors are really into tests) in the next day or two and the scan in about two weeks.

We’ve acquired a weird French couple who are the first lot too stingy to pay ‚€6 for a breakfast. Must see if they’re related to the Shearers! They seem pretty addicted to TV and are glued to Sky at the moment so it may be a while before we get rid of them.

That’s one of the castles dotted around the mountainsides here…

More anon,

Arnold

Hi folks,

We picked up the truck Thursday two weeks back and spent the next two days packing up the house, right up to midnight on the Friday! A 0740 boat meant very little sleep that night and a hurried departure (just made the boat and no more).

Somehow we managed to get down to Dover by about 11pm that night (way further than planned but I wanted to get past Birmingham, then London and then there weren’t any hotels `til we reached Dover). Around then the police stopped us and were all set to arrest us for having an overweight lorry but it was only 4900 kg so that was OK but left us checking in around midnight.

We slept in and caught a ferry around noon and all was going swimmingly `til Wendy started flashing the lights etc. That’s when we discovered a shredded tyre. The towing guy pointed out that the other inside tyre was about to go too. French towing guys are generally useless. That’s all they do. Anyway, on Sunday we were stuck in northern France as nothing is open on Sundays here. The garage they sent us to on Monday didn’t do trucks and neither did anyone else in the area so we’d to call the rental place again (the out of hours guy on Sunday was totally useless: he said “just jack it up and change the tyre” which a) is dangerous on a truck and b) isn’t possible on a loaded truck with the gear they give you). Anyway, eventually they organised a guy to sort us out but that meant another night in Cambrai.

Tuesday and Wednesday went fine at least and we ended up here around 7pm on the Wednesday, with the whole truck unloaded by Thursday lunchtime. Too late to leave it back before the Easter break though so I didn’t get back to Belfast `til Wednesday afternoon (after three days of driving), just in time to catch the plane to here on Thursday morning.

Nearly forgot… got the truck virtually taken apart in Dover by customs. I don’t think they believed me when I said I’d not bought anything!

Anyway, I’m here now.

We got our very first customer on Sunday the 11th and, contrary to JS’s expectations, they paid EUR6 each for a continental breakfast. They even gave us a tip!

Can’t get rid of a French couple who turned up on Tuesday so I guess we’re doing something right and the people from our first travel agent booking are arriving this Sunday.

Everyone was off for Easter so I couldn’t get the wine shop stocked, hence lack of crates at the door of Rosepark, David. However, I should be back in October (possibly earlier too) so could probably fill the trailer. Incidently, David, could you recommend a wine magazine? We’re trying to stock up our lounge with magazines to cater for the various types of clients but didn’t see any wine mags when I looked the last few days (turned up here with a way, way overweight bag of mags!).

Sooo, when are y’all coming over to visit?

Arnold

Yes, I know it’s not March 23rd, but on 2pm local time (1pm for you guys) on Tuesday March 23rd I will be in the hotel trade.

I’m flying over for the week to get the initial admin sorted out (registration with the chamber of commerce, the business bank account and the drinks license for a start). Probably flying back at the end of the week with a view to picking up the truck very shortly after that and doing the move.

Outside possibility of us driving over in the car & leaving Wendy there with me flying back for the truck.

Anyway, in theory we open very, very early in April (definitely before Easter!).

Arnold

Bonsoir mes amis:

I’m still too stupid to call it a day with the French courses so I am, of course, a month or so into L310.

Also, had a severe rush of blood to the head months ago and am in the final stages of buying a small hotel in the south of France. Yup, you read that right! Completion date was originally January 30th but, of course, it’s France so the actual completion will be March 23rd. Lots more on the hotel at www.mascamps.com or, if you don’t mind rubbish French, at www.mascamps.com/fr .

It’s about 15 minutes west of Perpignan (about an hour and a half north of Barcelona). If nothing else, all those French courses have at least been put to serious use though, laughably, hardly any of the existing customer base is French!

Anyway, what’s new with you guys? Haven’t heard from y’all in ages.

Arnold