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Well, I'm sure some of you were thinking 'oh - classic Greg: an initial burst of enthusiasm and then the slow fade...' and you were probably not so far from the crux of it. But it has also been (honestly!) really busy around here, and finding some quiet time when I could sit and think and type has been tricky.
We have been looking at quite a few houses (never as many as you'd like) and are still having trouble finding anything to surpass the first one we saw. We went to the bank today and had a GREAT experience with Séverine, who spoke better English than either of us will speak French with several decades of effort. The establishment was, until the first of September, a French implant of Abbey-National, specifically catering to the ex-pat UK crowd, both in primary and secondary residences. They aren't a complete bank, only really doing mortgages, so their sign outside (designed to appeal to the local French crowd) says 'Abbey Nationale - Gentlemen pretteurs' (a pret is a loan). They have just been sold off recently to BNP Paribas, one of the large French banks, but from our point of view you could not see any chaos ensuing from the transition. We shall have a look at some other mortgage deals, but if this is even vaguely competitive, we shall go with them. All the legal paperwork is done in English, the underwriters for the mortgage are British, and they are quite happy (at least so far) to deal with unusual situations - of which we have many to offer!
But I shouldn't say too much about that - watch this space in the next 48 hours...
Work wise, I've been quite busy. There are tons of interesting things happening, and I think we've got a great mix of skills in the group. With 600 people at the ESRF, there are all sorts of characters, and every day you meet a couple more. I got hung out to dry on the first lunchtime cycle ride I was invited to. I had at least 5 excuses that I trotted out, but in reality the reason I took twice as long as anyone else to do the local loop (up through Proveysieux, Quaix-en-Chartreuse, round the back of the Neron, and down through St Martin de Vinoux, in case you're looking at Google Earth or Mappy.fr) was that I am horrendously unfit by comparison. I'm hoping a few more times (and a few fewer beers) will help me get round in slightly less embarassing times over the next few months.
Kirstin is off next week to Texas, to speak at Baylor. She'll be seeing some of you there, but it's a pretty brief trip - just long enough to get over the jet lag.
Must run - more anon...
We have been looking at quite a few houses (never as many as you'd like) and are still having trouble finding anything to surpass the first one we saw. We went to the bank today and had a GREAT experience with Séverine, who spoke better English than either of us will speak French with several decades of effort. The establishment was, until the first of September, a French implant of Abbey-National, specifically catering to the ex-pat UK crowd, both in primary and secondary residences. They aren't a complete bank, only really doing mortgages, so their sign outside (designed to appeal to the local French crowd) says 'Abbey Nationale - Gentlemen pretteurs' (a pret is a loan). They have just been sold off recently to BNP Paribas, one of the large French banks, but from our point of view you could not see any chaos ensuing from the transition. We shall have a look at some other mortgage deals, but if this is even vaguely competitive, we shall go with them. All the legal paperwork is done in English, the underwriters for the mortgage are British, and they are quite happy (at least so far) to deal with unusual situations - of which we have many to offer!
But I shouldn't say too much about that - watch this space in the next 48 hours...
Work wise, I've been quite busy. There are tons of interesting things happening, and I think we've got a great mix of skills in the group. With 600 people at the ESRF, there are all sorts of characters, and every day you meet a couple more. I got hung out to dry on the first lunchtime cycle ride I was invited to. I had at least 5 excuses that I trotted out, but in reality the reason I took twice as long as anyone else to do the local loop (up through Proveysieux, Quaix-en-Chartreuse, round the back of the Neron, and down through St Martin de Vinoux, in case you're looking at Google Earth or Mappy.fr) was that I am horrendously unfit by comparison. I'm hoping a few more times (and a few fewer beers) will help me get round in slightly less embarassing times over the next few months.
Kirstin is off next week to Texas, to speak at Baylor. She'll be seeing some of you there, but it's a pretty brief trip - just long enough to get over the jet lag.
Must run - more anon...
posted by Kirstin Jeffrey Johnson at 10:16 pm
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