moving
06.28.2010 
19h09Damien found out a few weeks ago that he'll be teaching in a middle school in Thiers (pronounced "tee air") in September 2010. He's not being sent to the middle of nowhere, and he's not a replacement teacher, so we're pretty happy. It's about 40 minutes east of Clermont, but based on my position next year (which is still not sure, more on that in the next few days as decisions are made), we're thinking of moving to Vichy.
I've always loved Vichy. It's a very small city of about 20,000 people, and it's well-known as the capital of the French government during World War II. Damien grew up in a suburb of Vichy and his parents still live there, so we'd be moving pretty close to the in-laws, but I'm ok with that. I enjoy visiting his parents! They have a beautiful house in the hills, so it's always nice to go for a run when we stay with them.
We started our apartment search this past weekend, and let's just say that there's a reason that certain online ads don't post photos. One ad said that the apartment had been renovated "like new" (refait a neuf) and when we showed up, it was like walking into a time warp back to the 1980s. We both knew right away that it wasn't what we were looking for! We'll look more when we get back to Vichy next week. We've got a few different appointments with rental agencies.
This week is Damien's last week in Paris. He's already brought quite a lot of stuff back to his parents', but his dad is driving up on saturday to bring the rest of it back. Luckily his dad has a small moving van, so we don't have to rent one. Friday and Saturday will be dedicated to helping Marie-Laure and Damien move, and then we'll be in Vichy from Sunday to whenever we find an apartment! We hope to move in before we leave for the US at the end of July, but for the right apartment, we can wait to move until the end of August.
