Simon's Place

After leaving Avignon we headed for Simon's new place.  He'd only been there a few weeks so it was still new to him.  

 I think he enjoyed showing us what he'd discovered so far, which was a lot.  We got there just in time to see his belongings unloaded from the removal van, nearly two weeks later than scheduled.  

Love all those locks, particularly the heart shaped one!

The Englishmen had a sad tale about a broken wagon, no air conditioning, too narrow streets, carrying boxes for 'miles' because the the streets were too narrow to get closer.  



That wasn't the problem in this case, however it was 37 steps up to Simon's flat with no lift available.   



I've always thought the roads and houses in England would make moving furniture a tough job; French villages make most of Britain look like a dawdle.

Some neighbours have terraces.

Simon's furnished flat works great, but it does look to have been built in spurts with no long range plan.  

A large sitting room  is bisected by open stairs with a kitchen on the other side and the bathroom beyond.  Up the stairs are one large and two small bedrooms crammed up into the beams of the ceiling.  



Also a balcony with a fold out couch.  One has to remember when to step up/down or duck.  The entrance to our sleeping room was about 4' tall under a beam.

Loads of little niches around the village have statutes in them.

The views from his windows are fascinating. Said windows have electric shutters attached (less scenic, but v. effective) and we had fun playing with them.   There are lovely breezes streaming through them.  

The ubiquitous beams. 

Someone has put some strange mural things up: Mount Fuji and a Japanese character in the living room, a nice sprig of lavender flowers in the guest bedroom and some tall poppies in the bathroom.  I wasn't a fan of the Fuji, but the others were lovely.  

This balcony is a convenient, well ventilated place for drying laundry.

Simon's large room has only a skylight, ours has a very small window high up on the wall and the third bedroom (to be the 'music' room) has windows that look out onto the balcony.  A child's bed was built to fit just behind the beam that crossed the room.  



I guess Simon is supposed to live around it.  I've no idea how they got any of the other furniture in and the wardrobes provided are only about three feet tall, not the usual five, six or more.  The crazy thing is that building work is going on upstairs from Simon's flat.  Though there do appear to be some problems I've no doubt they'll manage a work-around that wouldn't meet building codes here in England.





All that said, it comes with all the mod cons in spite of looking as though the building and the walls could practically be Roman.  Even better, it's a 5-10 minute drive to Simon's office.  Best of all?  Simon pays no rent and no bills, his employer does.