Our home until the next home...

Here are some pictures of our vacation rental we've come to call home. We've been here for three weeks and will be living here for the next three weeks. The house is great, and is it's in a perfect location. We can walk to the grocery store, to the market, and to the old medieval part of the city.

So from the street, you have to enter through the gate. You can't really see any part of the house from the road. And from inside the yard, you can't see anything but the tall shrubbery acting as a hedge. A very French thing. But from my American perspective, sometimes it feels a little claustrophobic.

Then you walk into a little yard, with a beautiful arbor. We're here during "winter" and a lot of the flowers planted in the yard aren't in bloom. But everything is still green and very nice. I imagine in June this place is exploding with colors from the garden. I've taken a siesta or two in the chaise lounge chairs on the terrace. In the warm sun of the afternoon, it's just about perfect!

When you open the door, you walk into a living room/dining room open space. It's great. The couch is more cool than comfortable, but I'm not complaining (as I have flashbacks to the tiny hotel room in Paris!). The huge dining room table serves as our table for meals and our office for sending emails to every French real estate agency within twenty miles!

Ok, and here's a couple of pictures of the bathroom. We don't exactly know what to call this...part shower, part bath. The tub itself is huge, but there is no way to stand up and take a shower in it. Phil is NOT a fan. He's a shower guy, and pretty much he's having to become more of a bath man. Also annoying...there is no hot water to be had from 5pm until morning. We tried explaining the situation to the owners of the house (who live right next door) but with the language issue, we're not getting our point across.
Also in the bathroom, is the bidet. No respectable French house is complete without one! Now the actual toilet is in a separate room with just a tiny sink. So we don't get it. And we've never used the bidet. It is clean enough that I'm comfortable resting my hair dryer on it. However, when I saw Zachary putting the drain stopper in his mouth, I had to choke back the throw up in my mouth...and I didn't kiss him for a couple of days. We now keep the door closed to prevent Zack from future bidet investigations.

The house also has two bedrooms and a small, but functional kitchen. Lily and Zack are sharing a room, and it's working out surprisingly well. All in all this house has been a great place to hang out as we get our bearings on the area.

This is the fourth house we've lived in for over six weeks in just over a year. (Two houses in Jacksonville to Pacific Grove to Hyeres). I think that's why I feel the stakes are so high as we look for our more permanent place. I DO NOT want to move again for three years!!! But in the meantime, I'll try to enjoy the sunshine on the terrace while napping on the chaise lounge at our temporary home.