Lunch with Elisabeth

29-9-2010
Originally uploaded by cspatrick

Friday, October 15, 2010 Day 107
We walked the Peyrou, again, this time adding some running up some of the steps. Good workout. Our house has been on the market for six months now, and our Realtor needed us to sign an addendum to the listing agreement extending it for six months, so we got that printed and mailed it back to her. Unfortunately, the prospects look pretty grim – not much is selling and those house which are selling are greatly reduced. Sigh.
At noon we had lunch with Elisabeth, who gave us lots of ideas about what to see within one day’s driving distance from Montpellier. Elisabeth is a French lady who used to work in Paris, then in Montpellier in advertising and marketing. The lunch ran on until about 4:45, at which time we were booted out by the staff, who were closing up shop for a break before the evening meal. The time was very instructive and very enlightening, although I don’t think we expected it to take all afternoon.
The mail brought us our letters from the OFII – French immigration service. We have been assigned a doctor’s appointment at 2:00 and an interview at 3:00 on Friday, October 29, and are to bring our passports and 340€ each. Assuming we pass the exam and interview, I think our carte de séjour will be issued. It is the document which makes our stay here in France totally legitimate. We have a little anxiety about it as we did not arrive in France with one of the documents that the consulate issued us in Houston. We know exactly where it is – in storage in LaPlace, presumably in a particular drawer, but we are not certain. Its absence does not seem to be an issue with the OFII here, or at least they did not so indicate in the letter they sent us. We will feel much better about things when we leave the OFII in two weeks.
While lunching with Elisabeth, we received a phone call from the computer guys. Sigh. They have not determined that the motherboard will have to be replaced, and they suggest that this is more expensive than buying a new computer. I don’t know whether they are just trying to get us to buy a new computer or what is going on, but when we were in there authorizing the ordering of the second part – the circuit board to which the defective switch attaches – we were told that the motherboard is fine. Sigh. We told them we would be in later this evening to discuss.
The photo is from September - a wonderful close-up of a bumblebee working over flowers at a folie.