The first seven days
So Kirstin feels like it has been just a split second since we arrived - I feel like it's been ages! Somewhere inbetween is the truth perhaps. It's been a busy week. Kirstin has looked at tons of houses on the internet, poring over maps, and making lists of possibles. In the evenings we've made several pleasant trips - out to Sappey (lovely, but dark by the time we finished dinner) which is close but apparently expensive (and close doesn't mean I could actually cycle - it's quite a long way up! Another night we went north and out of the valley at Voreppe (gorgeous houses in the upper part) then over to Pommiers la Placette, up to St Nicholas de Macherin (and Hautefort, where Wolfgang had seen a house. It looked nice enough from the outside, but the village was very quiet, and I felt too much like a city boy to be at ease). Then on to Voirons, and back down the valley to Grenoble.
Another evening we went up to the Vercors, the mountain range to the west of town. Our friends have a place in Lans-en-Vercors, so we went there for dinner (very nice) but the town felt like it was built around (winter) sports and was full of people like us - just visiting. Plus it really is a long drive down mountain roads. The view from the restaurant was stunning though.
For Kirstin's birthday we went back to St Georges de Commiers (we passed through with Alex on the first day here) and took the "Petit train de la Mure". Originally a miners train, it takes a stunning route high above the Drac river, then across several viaducts and through 16 tunnels to end up about 30km east, in la Mure. We had about 15 minutes there before we had to leave again but had a nice time all the same.
We've spent all of today looking at more houses on the web, with a slightly better idea of where we wanted to live than before. We selected about 30, then ranked them and have contacted the top 8 or so. It is so difficult to decide what aspects of our future home should be priorities: distance to work, size of community, altitude, proximity to a train station, size of garden, age of house, etc etc. At least we have very similar aesthetic tastes which makes things much easier than they could be.
Who knows what we'll find this next week? Perhaps we'll have bought a house by the next time I write!
Another evening we went up to the Vercors, the mountain range to the west of town. Our friends have a place in Lans-en-Vercors, so we went there for dinner (very nice) but the town felt like it was built around (winter) sports and was full of people like us - just visiting. Plus it really is a long drive down mountain roads. The view from the restaurant was stunning though.
For Kirstin's birthday we went back to St Georges de Commiers (we passed through with Alex on the first day here) and took the "Petit train de la Mure". Originally a miners train, it takes a stunning route high above the Drac river, then across several viaducts and through 16 tunnels to end up about 30km east, in la Mure. We had about 15 minutes there before we had to leave again but had a nice time all the same.
We've spent all of today looking at more houses on the web, with a slightly better idea of where we wanted to live than before. We selected about 30, then ranked them and have contacted the top 8 or so. It is so difficult to decide what aspects of our future home should be priorities: distance to work, size of community, altitude, proximity to a train station, size of garden, age of house, etc etc. At least we have very similar aesthetic tastes which makes things much easier than they could be.
Who knows what we'll find this next week? Perhaps we'll have bought a house by the next time I write!
posted by Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson at 7:13 pm
1 Comments:
Good luck to you both searching for a house.
Take care
Tim
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