The First Sketch of Our New Home

Sketch of Front of House
Originally uploaded by Famille Zuyderhoff.

We met with our architect on Tuesday night and he presented us with the first drawings. Prior to this we spent about 2 hours with him a couple of weeks ago where he essentially interviewed us on our likes, dislikes, needs, etc. It was an interesting process as he really challenged us to think about what we wanted in an ideal home. Luckily Helene and I have very similar tastes. He is very easy going which makes things a lot easier. No criticism of our ideas, just suggestions on the positives and negatives of our thoughts. Needless to say, we were happy with the first drawings. I will post some of the other drawings soon including the interior floor plans. The next step now is for Helene and I to provide feedback and suggestions which we're in the process of doing. We will meet him again for another review next week.

France - Over Medicated?!



I have a bit of an interesting comparison between the US and France and it has to do with medicine. You're likely aware that the French system is a Socialist one where the government ensures a universal healthcare system. This causes most care to be for all practical purposes, free. This includes medication as well. One marked difference is that almost all medication is not sold "over the counter". In many cases you need a prescription for basic things like cough medicine and in all cases you need to buy all medicine at a pharmacy. I think I would like to be reincarnated as a pharmacist in France because they have some monopoly going! You rarely see one without a line running out the door. They even often have a little play area for kids inside the pharmacy due to the length of time it takes to be served. This for the privilege of telling the pharmacist that you have a headache and would he/she be kind enough to bequeath upon you a bottle of aspirin...s'il vous plait. All you children out there...forget about wanting to become an astronaut or fireman...pharmacy owner is the new 'plastics' made famous by Dustin Hoffman in the Graduate.
Anyway, my story has to do with Helene who has a fairly annoying cold that she has had a hard time shaking. I told her this morning to go and see her Doctor which already is new because I doubt she would have bothered in the US or Canada but most people here visit their Doctors for n'importe quoi (almost anything). Therefore, when in France...do like the French, non? Well, Helene (whom I remind you is originally from this fine country) called me at work laughing (so I knew she had nothing serious) to tell me she had a "likely" "sinusite" which is roughly equivalent to a sinus infection. I don't want to belittle the diagnosis but my dear God, she was prescribed no less than FIVE medications!! In case you do not believe me, I have taken a photograph of this because I could hardly believe it myself. Remember, she essentially has a cold but here is the list:

1) Nasal Spray
2) Anti-inflammatory medicine...I think like an anithistamine
3) A mucus inhibitor (I'm not making this up!)
4) Antibiotics
5) Likely the best of all...medicine to insure that the antibiotics do no damage the intestinal lining!!!

Sacre Bleu!

Tour de France
...don't blink!




I saw my first live Tour de France today as they passed through the town where we live. I was alone as the family is with my inlaws in Brittany enjoying the scorching weather we have been having. Given this was my first time, I decided to get there early to stake out a good viewing spot. I also read that they were due to pass through town at about 1:30 PM. Well I miscalculated just a bit...I wound up waiting about 3 hours for a total of (and I kid you not) 30 seconds of seeing the cyclists pass! Given today is the last day, all the riders were grouped pretty much together. Well, they pass super fast and between trying to snap a few pictures and taking a short video with my cell phone, I hardly saw anything!
That being said, it was an interesting experience. There were tons of people many who arrived well before me and sort of camped out bringing picnics and yes, lots of baguette, pate and wine! It was a glorious day and some of the best action was a couple of hours before the riders arrived when all of the sponsors zoom by throwing various goodies to the crowds. We're not talking diamonds here people but my God...it was a frenzy! Throwing themselves on these things like it was priceless gold bullion! I managed to grab a couple of things as people zoomed by in makeshift floats almost like a parade but one that goes like 90km an hour! All in all, a good day made all the better by Floyd Landis winning the tour. I've included a few pictures to commemorate the day.

Finding a Property

To build a house you obviously need to start with a piece of land! This was not an easy proposition in the town where we decided to live as there is little to no available property for sale. Not ones to be easily daunted or wanting to pick another area, our solution consisted of buying a piece of property with an existing house on it. This propery is within walking distance from our current rental home and on a corner lot. There is a story here in and of itself which I will reserve for later. Above are a few pictures of the existing property which we're now in the process of robbing several local banks in order to afford!

Hello!


This represents my first post on my first blog! I've decided to create one for a couple of reasons but not necessarily because I have anything particularly insightful to tell the world! Primarily, this is a chance for friends and family to keep tabs on us and an opportunity to communicate and share through this relatively new medium. The other event that has prompted this is that our family is beginning to fulfill a lifelong dream of building our own home. I wanted a relatively easy and straightforward way to document this process. Therefore, this is as a sort of living diary of the trials and tribulations of building a new home and not just in any place...but in France which as the title suggests, is not my native country. Yes, I believe I'm a glutton for punishment!

Let me start with a little background:

Helene and I moved to France from Canada (Montreal) about 6 months ago as I accepted a job transfer with Motorola, my company. We were not originally from Canada either, having also been transferred there from the United States a little over 5 years ago. We tend to move around a lot but France and Europe have always been a draw for me as my family is originally from Belgium and Holland. These are small countries and growing up in New York and saying I was from Belgium, well, I might as well have been from Zimbabwe as most people had no clue where Belgium was! I still have many relatives there including my Grandmother who just turned 92 this year. Helene, my wife of close to 10 years is from France originally as well so you can begin to understand why this move was important for us. Helene has quite an extensive family that lives in Brittany where in her Grandparents generation, having 6, 7, 9 kids was not uncommon! One could say that was religion or perhaps boredom but whatever the reason, my wife has more cousins than most families in Alabama! I know that she patiently longed to be closer to home. Unfortunately, my parents still live in the United States (California) so whereas Montreal represented a certain amount of middle ground literally and figuratively, France is now a long distance away. One cannot have everything I guess and I'm fortunate that they're both very healthy and mobile!

I should also mention that we have two wonderful boys ages 7 and 3. They're the light of our lives and on ocassion, the cause of our premature grey but they have thoroughly enjoyed this new adventure of moving to a new country. Perhaps I will expand upon on this a bit more in a future post but they will likely color the text of this blog many, many times!

As mentioned, we have recently decided that we will be building our own home. This is an exciting event for us and we're literally at the very beginning of what will be at least a 15 month process. You would think we were building a skyscraper but 12 months for a new house in France is the norm and often, it takes longer. Of course, when the whole country takes most of July and all of August off...you start to understand! Just kidding of course...I don't want any angry posts from the French out there! That being said, I think it would be interesting to point out the differences between our cultures. At a time when the US-French relations are strained it still doesn't hurt to poke a little fun at ourselves and the French!

Well, I think this hopefully is a good start. I will update when possible and although I can't imagine why anyone outside of our circle of family or friends would want to comment or post, if the fancy strikes you, go for it!