ARRGGHHH!!!!! Bankers!

I simply can't belileve how incompetent our banker is. Remember my last post - thas one from March 11, a full two weeks ago? The one wherein I reported that the banker had told us everything was fine, that there would be no problem about getting the money to the notaire by April 1? Hah! All of that has changed. Today he told us that it might be necessary to slip the date by a couple of weeks, but of course he wouldn't say for sure. Does this guy have a calendar? Does he know what day it is? According to him, we are supposed to receive some papers to sign and bring to the bank. We have not received them. Today is Friday. The bank is closed on Monday. If we get the papers on Monday - which seems unlikely - and return them on Tuesday, there is little chance the money will reach the notaire by Thursday. But has he told the notaire? Had he told us? Did he care in the least? The answer to all of these questions is no. Now, it is his job to make this work, or to notify the notaire if things are not going to work on time. Has he done this? No. Who will have to do this? I suspect that will be me, or more likely our charming and unbelievably helpful real estate agent, Mikaël.

So what's the fallout from all this? Well, it means that we have to cancel the rental on the gite we have arranged for the week starting Thursday. It means we have to cancel the meeting with the electrician scheduled for Friday, and meeting with the fellow from the gas company, scheduled for the following Monday. How convenient.

On the other hand, today was also the date of the sale of the Espéraza house. That went without a hitch, I am happy to say, and the money from that, unlike the money from the bank, will be entering the notaire's coffers on Monday or Tuesday.

In the meantime, here's an aerial photo of the house and grounds, from Google Earth. I've outlined the property in red, and the red arrow points to the house itself. To the left of the house, following the road, are some trees, then a slim rectangle of grey and tan which is the vegetable garden, then there's more trees, with a little white blob that's the green house. Continuing to the left is the driveway and garage, then a border of trees marking the end of the garden proper. To the left of all this is a small green field which may end up as the horse paddock.

So, what to do with all this uncertainty and confusion? Take a vacation! We're off to Perpignan tomorrow for an overnight away from it all. We'll walk on the beach, eat out, wander around in the sun. Most importantly we won't be packing boxes. We won't be talking to bankers.