Yesterday, I dutifully and cheerfully phoned Mom to wish her a Happy Easter (had already called Sis the day before to catch up with her and her family). Mom asked what special thing WE had done that day for Easter, and I think I surprised her by saying: "Packing boxes!"
We have a 3-day weekend, and yes, have spent nearly ALL of it making and packing boxes for Georges' super-giant library full of books. I packed my own books starting on Friday afternoon, and finished Saturday, and it took 8 small cartons -- more than I even thought I had here. Georges' library, by comparison is going to take more than 100 cartons, most of which will end up in storage for the next couple of years. The house here has a giant library space up on the mezzanine, and every square centimeter is filled with bookshelves overflowing with books Georges has collected during his lifetime. A true lover of books, he finds it very difficult to part with a book once he's bought it.
Which is why I am totally impressed with my husband, who has in fact set aside a decent-sized pile of books to give away, and who has, in the past 2 1/2 days, cleared 85% of these library shelves already. He may even finish the job, if there are enough boxes, though I suspect we will need to order more. Bravo, my darling.
We have also cleared out our under-the-salon storage space downstairs, and he has sorted and organized all of THAT as well. It is now all stacked up against the back living room wall, and the sofa is in front of it. (Thank goodness it's a big open space or I don't know where we'd put it all!) We have created two stacks of things both upstairs and down: one for the apartment, labeled "M" for "maison", and the other of things that we know will go into storage, labeled "S". Our spare room upstairs is quickly becoming the staging area for all the "S" things, which also includes some off-season clothing, family photos and things he wants to save for the kids when they eventually move out to their own places some day, and a set of golf clubs that he INSISTS he will one day use. Even though in the 2 1/2 years I have known him, he has never once gone out to play golf.
My part of all this is packing up all the household stuff like dishes and kitchen things. There, too, I am sorting out some things to set aside for the oldest, who we think will be going into a co-loc (roommate) arrangement as soon as he and his architect buddy from school can get around to finding the right place.
So when is the move, and where? As to the "where", we found a lovely apartment up on the very top of the Butte Montmartre, where THIS will be our next-door neighbor:
We'll be living off to the right, on the NON-touristy side of this beautiful wedding-cake of a church, away from the Place du Tertre and the roving band of sketch artists who plague passers-by with offers to draw portraits. I realized on our recent visite to the apartment just HOW close we are to Sacre Coeur, when I heard the VERY LOUD church bells ringing. And I wondered how often that happens. Georges says every 15 minutes, and I pray that was just an April Fool's joke on his part. I once lived in a house that was across the street from some railroad tracks, and I thought THAT was annoying.
Not only will we have the Sacre Coeur as our neighbor, but we have a nice wide view to the northeast, and if our current house was taller, we could even see it from the new place (it would be just down and to the left of that boxy white apartment building you see roughly front/center of the photo):
It doesn't show in this photo but we can also see the top of the Stade de France from here. Otherwise, that's it for famous buildings in our view, but while we can't see the Eiffel Tower, an open view like this is divine. I picture myself sitting out on our loggia (we have a loggia!) with a cup of coffee and my laptop, writing away with that view before me.
As to the "when" of moving... we are going to sign the lease tomorrow, and then when Georges comes back from Haiti (he leaves Wednesday and will be gone for 9 days) we'll go out and order our new stove/oven, sleeper sofa, microwave, coffee table and a few more essentials. We'll book the movers for some time around end of April or first week in May, so we still have to fix a specific date. But no later than May 8th, we figure. Then the sale of the house will be finalized and that will be that! Nothing left to do but start unpacking, before we take our trip to Montreal (him) and New Jersey (me + him) at the end of May.
No wonder I'm tired already. I've moved a lot in my life, and always by my own choice, but this is the first time I've been involved in packing and moving such a large house with so much stuff. Moving "single" was nothing compared to this. However, after seeing the library shelves grow more and more empty, we both feel that there IS a light at the end of this tunnel.
Now, time to go out to lunch. Our kitchen has been invaded by two THREE architecture students who have seized control of every available flat surface, and they will be working through the day and into the night.
