The moving starts today.
Well, sort of. We pick up the signed lease and keys today, and the apartment is officially OURS!
My oldest step-son (who hasn't seen the apartment yet) will come with me to meet Georges at the apartment, and we'll bring a folding table and a couple of folding chairs, as well as a cart full of cleaning stuff, toilet paper (V. IMPORTANT!), and some juice and plastic cups. Nearly every day between now and our ACTUAL moving date (May 4th), I will be making trips up the hill (thank you, Montmartrobus!) with the wheelie cart and anything else I can tote to get things ready in advance.
After today, the race begins. First thing tomorrow, I will take the lease to the EDF to get an official letter stating our new official address (a utility bill is THE sacrosanct "proof of legal address" document in France). After that, we have a list of others to contact: utility companies, banks, La Poste, tax office, friends and family -- and last, but not least, the Préfecture de Police where I will have 30 days in which to change the address on my Carte de Séjour.
The new apartment must be cleaned; enter our wonderful femme de ménage who will come next week and help me out with that. We need to get things set up for a self-storage box; we go tonight at 6pm to take care of that. Georges has to confirm the move date with the moving company (to be done today) and double check that their super-low price is indeed correct -- or not.
The Little Guy got a last-minute invite to go with our lovely neighbors to the Ardeche for the rest of this week, which is great for him since the move prevents us from getting away on his school holiday, and also unexpectedly frees us up to do more house-moving stuff. He has already told me what he wants to take or wants to leave behind (toys and books that are too young or no longer interesting will be donated) so I can get a jump-start on packing up his room tomorrow.
One day next week, our new sleeper-sofa and microwave will be delivered to the new place. The new stove and coffee table follow the day after we actually move in (the store just couldn't get them there any sooner, but one day late is no big deal).
So, things are moving along. We have dates scheduled. We can make plans. We are sorting or packing or tossing stuff nearly every day; even 15 minutes of work is better than nothing, although the last week will be the real "crunch" time. Oh, and looks like Georges may have to go to Tunisia next week for just a couple of days (assuming the flipping volcanic ash allows the airports to reopen and the flight backlog to be cleared, of course). You know how it is when you move; there are just some things you can't pack until the very last minute. But we got so much accomplished this past weekend that both Georges and I really feel we can see the light at the end of the tunnel now, and all will be well, and all will be well, and all manner of things will be well.
All we have left to do, then, is pack up our troubles in our old kit-bag, and SMILE, SMILE, SMILE.
