Sunday, March 22, 2026
Many things have happened since the last posting of
S & J's Big Adventures
 |
| Welcome to Residence le France |
We've now been in Pau for 2 1/2 months.
Since the last blog here is what has happened:
- We settled in on the 2nd floor of Residence le France and fell into our routine of Pau
- We started the process of registering our long term visa
- I started a watercolor (zoom) class
- Robin and Scott came for a week's visit, living 2 blocks away from us
 |
- Registered for residency, successfully, so we can yearly renew the visa for the next five (5) years
- Started looking for a more permanent residence
- As luck would have it, we heard about another apartment on the 1st floor (twice the size of the one we were in.) With references from our landlords, we were able to secure the apartment.
- It's been about two weeks of waiting for the place to be cleared and cleaned; we signed a lease agreement on March 11 and moved stuff, bought a new bed and rearranged furniture before actually sleeping in the new/old apartment.
____________
Before...
After...
__________
Living space...
 |
| Living room & Dining room |
 |
| Painting on hallway wall... La Jolla Cove by Christie Dimon (Housewarming gift) |
We've been in this new/old apartment for a week now.
Every day brings new things to do and buy to make it our own.
We feel so lucky to be able to live in this spacious apartment that was once part of the Hotel de France, Pau, France, where royalty, government officials, celebrities and the wealthy resided in the 1800's. In the 1970's, the Hotel was converted into apartments and public office space. We are in the south wing of the hotel building.
The 95 year old woman who lived in this apartment has been the original occupant/owner since 1975 (or so.) We "inherited" much of her furniture and kitchen with all it's acrutriments; we only had to purchase a bed. There is one WC, 2 bathrooms (showers, one with a washer/dryer), a bedroom, living room and another large room that I am using as a studio/office space with space enough to put a futon couch (or "hide-a-bed") and chairs as another sitting room and/or guest bedroom. Lots of closet space and cupboards for our clothes and storage are in the entryway and hallways.
There still is a lot of cleaning and repairing to do to make it clean and presentable enough for John A. Berteaux, PhD and myself, but it is a beautiful apartment and I think we will enjoy it for as long as we can.
 |
| First Floor View on a cloudy day in the Pyrenees |
