"The End of an Era"

Last week we ran into our friend Stan at the Espéraza Sunday market and of course we talked of our move. He wished us luck, and saud it was in a way the “end of an era”, since many of us moved to the Espéraza area at about the same time. Well, today was the end, I suppose, since although we’ll be going back over the next few weeks to pack up odds and ends, we today moved to the house in Ste. Colombe. I’ve brought my pillows – that must mean we’re living in Ste. Colombe now. After our daily visit to the bank we stopped at our favorite local café, the Relais Occitan, for a coffee and a break. Here's a photo of the café, with owner Alain behind the bar.

This past Sunday, our friend Joan, another Espéraza resident, hosted a going away party for us. It was good to see our friends all together, drink some of the local bubbly, Blanquette de Limoux and generally have fun. Now we have the fun of doing the final stage of packing, which means most of our possessions. Real fun!

It’s pleasant to be back in the Ste. Colombe house, though. Of the three houses we’ve owned in France it is definitely my favorite. There’s something about it that feels homey. It feels like a home, not just a box with a roof, not just a temporary place to hang out. Although I loved the garden in Espéraza, and will miss it greatly, the house always had the feel of an apartment, somehow.

The banking saga continues. Surely we must be dealing with the French version of the three Stooges. I had noticed on Sunday that the paper the bank had given us, supposedly a copy of the loan application, had an income listed only for me, and that income was incorrect. Well, the banker had asked us to please stop by some day this week and provide a document showing that we in fact owned the house we were providing as surety for the loan. (We had in fact brought such a thing during one of the visits, and it was waved away.) Anyway, I figured I would produce this paper and ask about this curious income. The answer? The banker had no idea where that incorrect figure came from. The reason it was just my income was that he decided to send in the application in my name only. He then - encouraged by us - thought it might be a good idea if he added our incomes together (!!!) and, looking at the Social Security statements we had brought, he did this and sent it on its way along the cyber link he has to who knows where. He is sublimely unconcerned that the loan approval will not be provided by the deadline on Friday, so I asked him if he thought there would be any problem with the bank actually coughing up the money on time, i.e. April 1. Oh no, no problem at all. Well we’ll see, won't we. My present scheme will be to go the bank again on Thursday and point out to the banker that it will be his job to call the notaire on Friday to explain why everything is so late.

We had a similar experience when we bought the Ste. Colombe house a few years ago, using another house for surety on a bridge loan. In that instance, we applied for the loan some time in June, for a proposed closing date early in September, and received the money in October. But August had intervened and of course everything, especially at the bank’s nerve center in Paris, was closed. And things tend to wind down very much in the last two weeks of July, because everyone is preparing for vacation, and then of course it takes the first week or two of September for people to get back up to speed again. Speed? Did I say SPEED????


UPDATE UPDATE

Our estate agent for the Nojals house sent email asking how the loan application was going and I sent him back my opinion of the bank. Not long after that he wrote again to say the notaire had called the bank, and apparently woke them up. All looks good, the necessary papers will be sent directly to the notaire next week, the notaire has booked an official appointment on April 1, at 4 in the afternoon.

I'm going to bed!