Renovation Project - Ooh la la, I am becoming French!!!!!!!
We have good news on the suites, also quite scary and nerve-wracking!!
I received a call from a French woman, I do my normal, I’m sorry but I only
speak a little bit of French blurb, when I catch the word canapés, this is the French
word for sofa, she has rang me, oh fantastic, oh bugger, she doesn’t speak
English (yes I know I have been here for over a year, but somehow I still
assume that everyone will speak English).
I am speaking to her on the phone and I understand most of
what is being said, but better still I am actually replying and she understands
me!!!!!!!
OMG I am having my first French phone call, there are bits
that are very difficult and I have to ask her to wait a minute while I busily
type in to Google translate, but these are only little bits, I manage to
arrange a time and date to view them but then disaster strikes, no matter how
she says the name of her road, I cannot get it, I am also not able to spell it
as I have not fully got my head around the French alphabet. Eventually I give
up and ask if I can call her back when I have a friend who can speak more
fluently than I can; luckily this is not a problem.
I pop to Sheila’s and of course I interrupt them just as
they are putting dinner on the table, maybe I should’ve called first but I was
so excited!
Sheila is as helpful as ever and makes the call, I am in
between being excited about my new suite and cringing as I am stopping somebody
from having dinner, I do make the offer of calling back, but I think it may not
of seemed a genuine offer, can’t think why, maybe it had something to do with
the fact that I was hopping around like a demented toddler with excitement?
My call had been successful and I had arranged everything
correctly other than the name of the road, so we now have this and we are going
to visit on Friday.
I am buoyed on by the success of my phone call and get very
brave and decide to visit the Mairie with all of our completed planning
permission documents (yes I even completed them myself!).
At the Mairie the receptionist speaks no English either
(again why am I shocked, I don’t live in England!!!!!!!) and she says I can
have an appointment next week, I try to say that it is urgent and I will be
very quick, luckily the door opens and the planning officer finishes a meeting
and agrees to see me once she realises I am only dropping documents off.
We go through them and the only mistake I have made is by
missing one signature, I am so impressed, I am becoming French (OK I still
sound like a sat nav, but at least now it is a sat nav that can be
understood!).
I think after the upset of the travel fiasco, I now feel
really good again, I am becoming French!!!!!!
Congratulations!
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