Well finally some progress. After six months the Mayor’s office finally came back with the Certificate D’Urbanism which unfortunately came back negative on the application for the extension and the permission to run the place as a business. As you can imagine Alex and I were slightly concerned about this and were seriously on the verge of calling it a day. Thankfully the Estate Agent face with the possibility of not getting their 14 grand commission finally started to do some work and organised a meeting with the Mayor. In this meeting he apologised about the delay in the applications and put them down to some serious squabbling between departments, which resulted in the one dealing with out case pretty much turning down every application it received without even looking at them. Very professional. The upshot of it all was that he explained that since we were only catering for four rooms in out Chalet that we didn’t need a business licence and could run it as a private enterprise. It might have been nice for someone to tell us that earlier. As for the extension, it’s not so drastic as we can almost certainly build a garage in its place and convert the stable area on the ground floor to our apartment. Similarly it’s good news on the bank loan since we applied for a private loan. It seems the banks are happier to offer a loan guaranteed solely by Alex’s salary than with one guaranteed by Alex’s salary and the income for the Chalet. Go figure.

The upshot of all this is that we have finally managed to get the keys and move in despite not signing the final papers for a week or so. It seems like most of the bureaucratic nightmares are behind us now and we now face the new challenges of getting the place renovated. On arriving we found that two of the radiators have cracked with the cold, the bathroom sink leaks and the toilet doesn’t flush. Thankfully the current owner is responsible for leaving us with all these problems solved so is fixing and replacing as I write. Hopefully tonight we will be able to crank up the central heating and will be living like Kings.

We have already checked out the local pub and a restaurant. The owners of our local which is in walking distance are Dutch and seem very nice, although are not going to help my chances of improving my French. The local Village of Venosc is about five kilometres away and is much more French, so should help. Basil the dog absolutely loves it here as we can open the back door and he is off into the woods and the river. Hardly any need to walk him unlike our flat in Chamonix.

All in all Alex and I very happy and settling in well. Yesterday I got my first hint of cabin fever, so we may take the lift up to Les Deux Alpes for lunch and to check it out to remind ourselves that we are not far from civilisation.