1 Août – Adieu 55 bis Ave. Georges Clemenceau,
Bonjour 123 Rue Alexandra David Neel
Et la vie en N° 506 Higher Roch !
Even though moving is one of life’s vicissitudes that, along with root canals and major surgeries, one seldom looks forward to with much enthusiasm, for this one we got up before dawn, eager to get the show on the road. After the petitest of petit dejeuners, and with two very large, very full suitcases we descended and called for an Uber to take us the eight-tenths of a mile to our soon-to-be new home to receive the keys from our new landlord at 8 a.m.
Bonny returned to 55 bis to meet two friends of ours, Sue and Dave Valez, fellow ex-pats from Chicago, who had volunteered to help us with our move. Once the landlord and I had switched the payment for electrical service from his bank account to ours; I raced back there on foot to join them. Because the elevator at 55 bis is roughly the size of a phone booth, the four of us began shuttling boxes and bags of our worldly possessions down to the ground floor lobby while waiting for our moving company to arrive between 9 and 10. They arrived at 10:30.
As I have mentioned before, the construction of Tram Line 5 was literally at our (55 bis) doorstep. The moving
company had to scout for the closest place available for their truck, which could not be as close to the entrance as they would have liked. Our moving company, DEMHERCOP, managed to find one close by (on the other side of the Pizza Hut next to us there) but between where they were parked and our entrance (about a 100 feet) was nothing but dust and gravel, so everything had to be hand carried by them. They were a great crew, and one of them, Matthieu, spoke English (turned out his girlfriend is from Ireland and she insisted he learn it. – no surprise there!) and by noon – and lunch time for them – their truck was fully loaded, and after Bonny returned our keys for 55 bis, the four of us took an Uber over to Higher Roch with the contents of our refrigerator and bags with our laptops and other things we could not risk getting damaged.
Moving into Higher Roch was (almost) a piece of cake in comparison with our moving out of 55 bis Avenue Georges Clemenceau. No steps, firm pavement, and two large elevators meant boxes and other things could be off loaded onto four-wheel pallets and swiftly moved from the truck and into N° 506. By 2 p.m. we were completely moved in and DEMHERCOP was riding off into the sunset. Actually, by that hour the sun was still high in the sky and the temperatures had dropped from 100° F. into the low 90°s.
We had rented 55 bis Ave. Georges Clemenceau from 15 June 2023 and moved in there 122 days later on 15 October then lived there another 291 days. It was all-in-all a good experience, but as temperatures began to climb into the 90°s almost daily it became increasingly difficult to cope with living there, even with the shutters closed and being almost 70 feet above the construction activity, the heat and the dust were starting to get to us. Once Ligne 5 is complete next year (I predict) 55 bis and it’s neighborhood will be undergoing a renaissance with properties rising in
value, but it’s not in our plans to get involved in that.
Now, at 2 p.m. on 1 August, we have finally arrived at our “home” in France – N° 506 Higher Roch – and the real fun begins. (The English word “home” translates in French as “maison” but “maison” in French translates in English as “house” and “house” and “home” in English mean two different things; there doesn’t seem to be a French word for what we mean by “home”, but then again “savoir faire” doesn’t simply mean “know how” in French.) We have not a single stick of furniture except for the two small IKEA cabinets we had purchased last year to supplement the furnishings at 55 bis and the queen-size bed that came with our N° 506 lease and all of the rest of our stuff. Fortunately we had already made some key purchases that would be starting to arrive the next day, so we went to bed and dreamed of deliveries in air-conditioned comfort.
Up and Ready for deliveries, 2 August and Beyond
Conveniently and by necessity since we had no furniture, around 7 a.m. we made the short walk (290 meters, about 320 yards) to the Paul café in Gare Saint-Roch for our petit dejeuner before returning to await our scheduled furniture deliveries. Dining room table and its six chairs, a table for the balcony with its four chairs; now we had places to sit and tables to sit at; essential components of a “home”, and then the first of many deliveries from IKEA arrived. With two large elevators and no construction to contend with, receiving deliveries was now relatively easy – and an excellent opportunity to practice my meager French – tout le monde ne parle pas anglaise en France, surtout
ceux qui font les livraisons – so we managed with a minimum of hilarity to acquire some meubleaire pour nos maison.
Apres le weekend more of the same until Thursday morning when Thomas, our IKEA assembler extraordinaire, arrived to begin converting the contents of the now accumulated plethora of cartons from IKEA into furniture (with a little help and a lot of interference from its owners) and another opportunity for our French lessons. Alas, the IKEA hieroglyphic method of assembly instructions proved to be a bit daunting and we encountered a bit of difficulty
when we encountered a practical demonstration of proof of the Pythagorean theorem. So Thomas had to
disassemble the final component of our four component bedroom armoire and find a Rosetta stone before he could arrange to return to complete that piece. Hilarious.
But work has been progressing well, and we are very happy with our efforts. And Thomas returned as promised and solved our daunting mathematical dilemma of our armoire on the penultimate Saturday.
Meet Our New Neighbor
Parking Gare Saint Roch is just across Rue Alexandra David Neel and the tracks for TaM lines 2 and 4 from us. Its eight levels provide parking for 800 cars and at the ground level a fitness center and facilities for bicycle and electric scooter storage. (No, the buildings aren’t actually leaning toward one another.) It is a good neighbor, providing us with ample ambient light when we walk about our place in the dark.
Adieu 23606 Thomas Paine Drive, Millsboro, Delaware
Another milestone in our lives was reached on 15 August when 23606 Thomas Paine Drive passed out of our hands into the hands of Leslie and William Leary of Pittsburgh, PA. We wish them the very best as they begin their lives in Indy. They will have the greatest neighbors.
But August Was Not All Work and No Play
Higher Roch proves to be the nexus of everything we love about and love to do in Montpellier. All four tramlines are virtually at our doorstep, not to mention Gare Saint Roch, and our furthest walk most of the time is twenty minutes on Sunday mornings to Cathedral Saint-Pierre. Another major milestone was our receiving emails from Le Ministère de l’Intérieur et des Outre-Mer that our applications to renew our visas have been accepted and we now have documents showing that the Ministry has not only made this decision in our favor, but has also extended the time
for us to receive our Cartes de Séjours as there appears to be something of a backup in the process. We repaired to celebrate our milestones at one of our favorite places, Hotel Pinard, where its proprietors, Benjamin, chef, and Szabi, sommelier, greet us in grand style.
La Rentrée
The first of September, La Rentrée marks the “official” end of Les vacances, an institution in France when people return to their “normal” lives and children return to their classrooms. Regardless of the weather, life changes a little, even for those of us who don’t have any work to return to. While there will still be those days that are incredibly hot, they will be increasingly preceded and followed by days that will become gradually cooler (and potentially rainier) – the beginning of the vendanges and the approach of our first anniversary of our vie en Montpellier.
À bientôt!
– John
La Vie de Montpellier 
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