This is Beynes.

After three weeks without internet we feel rich with all this luxury of being able to phone, seeing what friends were up to via facebook, sharing, reading emails… We waited patiently for two weeks and then contacted Free who only then sent a technician. We shouldn’t have been so patient, because he then discovered that France Telecom never connected our line. Then we waited another five days for their technician to come and as it always works: It took him just two minutes to connect the line.
We just can’t live without this technology anymore. We had more than just a few coffees at McDonalds with their free Wifi. That was not even to make contact with the outside world. Everything is done via the internet. Organize electricity, water, gas, change addresses and so much more.

So now I can give an update of what we were up to in this last month.

SOLD… 53 Rue de Maule

On the 10th of July we signed the contract at the notaire to have the house officially on our name. After two hours in the office of Maitre le Grand, we had the keys. We were well informed of how everything works, because by law we had to have an interpreter, who asked 600 euros for his services. : ) Now we know all the detail of the insurance for the house, as that Danie is not allowed to do parachuting, skydiving or motor racing. : ) We also learned that our house is under ‘historical protection’. We are not allowed to change anything on the outside without their permission. This is because Beynes has a castle and all buildings in a five kilometer radius from it, is part of the historical heritage.

le château de Beynes …

Then we could walk into our ‘new’ house and saw how much cleaning needed to be done. There are windows that hasn’t been opened for years, shutters that hasn’t been closed for years and spiderwebs that took some skilled spiders years to form. That is why it actually didn’t matter that we were without internet, we worked non-stop for a month. But by now, all the spiders have been chased away, most walls were painted and almost all the boxes have been unpacked.

Let me start by showing you the pretty village Beynes… and you don’t say baynes (2 syllables, as we thought) It is Ben with a long e sound as in West. The people are friendly. One neighbour brought us all info from the municipality. Another friendly lady surprised me with two pumpkins from their vegetable garden. The friendly Roger shakes his head every time as he greets me and see me walking with bare feet… but I’m from Africa, I tell him. : )

The church behind the castle…