This is just a first note to you all to give you an idea of where we are in this adventure. We say adventure because at times it does seem a little unreal and daunting. The way of life here is (as we expected) very much more laid back but I think this positive facet is being a little overshadowed by the amount of ‘sorting out’ we have to do before we even start thinking of enjoying the lifestyle. We know we’ve lived here before but the pressure was off a little then because we had just ourselves to think of – now there is ‘la petite’ to think of. We’ve now sorted her in a Nursery School and we're sure that this will help her make some longer term friendships. All in all she seems to be taking this in her stride and she continues to be her normal happy self.
We are currently renting a 2 bed apartment in a small town called Pezenas, it’s situated between Montpellier and Beziers with about 10,000 people and is lively although touristy. When we moved into the flat (our arms are still recovering from the 4 floors of moving our stuff in and we are just discovering that we have calf muscles again) we had a few days without electricity and phone but now we are more or less sorted with everything. We are going to find out about our resident papers and the registration of the car (more admin) so slowly but surely things will begin to fall into place.
Pezenas is probably about as small a town as we can put up with and the area seems to be good value for money as regards property so we will be looking initially around here. And if it's not round here it will be more towards Beziers than Montpellier we both got a nicer feel about Beziers.
The cost of living may not be that much cheaper in general (the Euro effect?) but food wise we would say it is better quality, and the wine is just as amazingly fantastic and cheap as ever – as a said life is very much slower (and louder because we live right in the centre) and there are a lot of festivals going on at the moment, although we are a bit more limited in how much of them we take in, being "with child" but we have had our nights of all 3 of us going to bed after midnight.
The region is looking good. The weather is hot & dry or hot & windy or hot & cloudy or hot & stormy - spot the common weather condition! It took us a few days to realise that we didn't have to go mad with the tanning cos we’re not going back to pose in the UK with it so - it's easy does it without the peeling!
Leah is starting her adventures with the language - usually asking for "l'addition" in a bar for us - and somehow she and other kids manage to find a way through the language barrier to play together. She does refer back to her friends in Bristol (she dreamed of Leah, Ella and Barnaby in Pokemonland not so long ago) and wants to know whether this is our house. However, she enjoys being in the water a lot more now (although not when it was blowing a force 10 gale on the beach at Sete and she was getting pebble-dashed with the sand!) and has had some lovely moments with the kids here.
