Settling in In St Rémy

We arrived at our new home at 7:03 PM on the 1st of September. Delphine and Théo met us and escorted us into the apartment, where they had loaded the table with gifts from local producers – wine, olive oil, a huge bar of olive oil soap, mineral water, cookies (Théo’s favorites),and fleur de sel. Such a sweet and generous gesture! Within a few minutes, their two children arrived – Gianni, nearly 6, and Gloria, 2. Curious, but shy, they orbited their parents and gave us skeptical looks. LuLu was taking the whole thing in stride, but was little hesitant herself!

Our little abode is one of two rental units in the main house. Our apartment is on the ground floor (rez de chausée) at the back of Théo and Delphine’s house. And there is a smaller unit on the other end of the house. The house itself sits on a rather large property which includes a smaller house where Delphine’s parents live – with a glorious garden and piscine (swimming pool–it’s the Number 1 French word subject to joking by international punsters), and a large barn which houses Théo’s plumbing business and Delphine’s father’s mechanics shop. He is retired, but previously was a mechanic for farm vehicles. He continues to putter! We enter through a gate from the large parking area to a lovely, tranquil patio with a table and chairs, a spa and 2 lounge chairs. At one end of the patio is a huge wisteria with a trunk about 15 inches in diameter! We are already sad that we won’t be here to see it bloom next spring! The other thing we have on the patio is a wood fired oven (four à bois). We haven’t tried that out as yet. But watch this space, as plans are afoot for the Bernardonis and the Harrisons to have a pizza bake off! Théo apparently is quite the master pizzaiolo! Our patio overlooks an empty field, which I erroneously thought was a lavender field. Tant pis! The field is surrounded by mostly evergreen trees and we can watch the sun rise, or more commonly the moon rise, over them.

We have a kitchen/living/dining room combo. An open floor plan, as they say! There is a bathroom with a shower and a washing machine and a separate WC. There are two generous sized bedrooms. Ours is in the front of the apartment, just off the living room. The other one, at the back of the house has no window. Kinda weird, but very cosy and sleeping late is no problem! Everything is quite modern, new appliances, fresh stone tile, new beds. Delphine and Théo installed an oven after I expressed that I really liked to cook and bake. They also changed the windows in our bedroom from two small ones to one larger one. The kitchen is pretty well equipped, except there’s no cast iron skillet! I have my eye out for one of those. Delphine has loaned Sam a Le Creuset casserole for his bread – thereby earning herself half a loaf of bread every time he bakes!

We are about 2 kilometers from centre ville and two kilometers from a little shopping area with an Intermarché supermarket with a gas station & car wash, Cerise & Abricot organic green grocer, Aldi’s, and Bio, which is apparently a French chain of organic grocers. It has EVERYTHING, take-out prepared food, a cheese counter, butcher, wine, bread counter, cleaning supplies, everything organic, humane and sustainable! Around the corner there’s an organic bakery with fabulous bread (not as good as Sam’s of course). There are a couple of patisseries in the neighborhood (which Donna has not explored. Her self control only works if she doesn’t go in at all! Once inside, all bets are off!). Also, we even have a Mr. Bricolage which is like a small Home Depot. So, really, whatever we need is easily accessible.

Delphine, Théo, Gianni and Gloria are delightful neighbors! Delphine has her own business grooming dogs. LuLu got to be a client a couple of weeks after we arrived and looks just gorgeous after Delphine’s ministrations! She also keeps chickens, so every day we take out our little pile of vegetables, from salad trimmings to leftovers, and give them to the girls. They oblige by providing eggs! Fresh and delicious! Her parents Jany and Joël are warm and friendly. We are really enjoying getting to know the family. We’ve also met Theo’s parents who drop by occasionally.

We are just loving St. Rémy! It is a gorgeous little town. Our next post will be all about our new neighborhood!

Love to you all,

Sam, Donna & LuLu

September 2019