housing

City of Bayonne

Where to live?

Hi! Summer went by quickly, didn’t it? Here we are in September already. Hard to believe. Liberty and Van have begun their respective school years. This time they are different schools. We were all a little apprehensive about this sort of change, but there was no room for Van at the school where Liberty is attending; we had looked forward to them going to the same school. Fortunately, just across the street, was another school which had room for Van (in fact, students who get waitlisted for the school Liberty is at often attend this neighbouring school until the following year and they are assured a spot then). So, it is fine, we can walk with them both to their schools since they are close together.

Below is a map of our region. There are a few names for this place, and we aren’t sure why. Colloquially it is called BAB – Biarritz, Anglet, Bayonne. I think we shared that we’d be moving to Biarritz/Bayonne when we were first looking into the area. We have since discovered that Biarritz is a much ritzier and expensive town compared to Bayonne. Anglet is in the middle. Not specifically for this reason, but we have moved to Bayonne. This is mostly because it is the most central of the towns in the area. Before we truly knew too, the school that caught our eye online for Liberty and Van ended up being here, so it has all worked out.

However, the place that God opened up for us is only available until next April. We are going to have to move again. But this is an important question! The region shown on the map above is not too large, but it is the area for which we feel burdened. Since we don’t have a vehicle we will need to find a place that lets us get around by bus or bike. See the map below?

The neighbourhoods we are considering are Arènes, Saint-Léon, Marracq, and Petit Bayonne. If we have to we could consider some of the areas outside the ones I just wrote about. If we were to live further abroad than these areas then Liberty and Van would probably have to change schools, and honestly, we are hoping to avoid that.

So, even though we just moved, we are already keeping an eye out for the next place. Typically places are rented out for 3 years at a time, so we anticipate the next place becoming more homey than the current one.

But! The one we are in now has a wonderful advantage – a ready-to-use chicken coop! 2 weeks after we moved in, we cleaned up the coop and decided to buy two chickens! The red one is called Popcorn, as chosen by Liberty, and the black one is named Charlie, by Van. They’ve begun laying eggs too!

So please pray with us already, giving thanks to God to where he has led us, as well as about where to move to next. Thanks! Merci!

Another delay

Well, this seems familiar. Once more we are facing a delay of our original departure date! We had naively thought we would depart Canada for France in late June. Well, to apply for a long-term visa for France one has to actually fill out an application form online which results in you being assigned a date on which an interview for the visa takes place. The form to fill out is multi-page, and each page would stall for us as there was some detail being asked fo that we didn’t have, or know if it applied to us. We would write to a few places to try to get answers and most time the replies were not that helpful. So back to form online and voila, suddenly we could go to teh next page even htough the missing info wasn’t supplied. So, is it needed? Or no? Will we find out at the interview?

Anyway, at the end of this online application form the final pop up window tells me that there is a 30 day wait between the completion of this form and the actual interview. WHAT?? If this had been the first pop-up or shared bit of info we would have gone through it much more speedily.

As it is, our visa interviews take place July 18. Each of us gets 30 minutes. Even Liberty and Van. There is a lengthy list of things we need to bring, but the details missing from the online form worry me. Please pray about this.

Hamilton Harbour

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we have been able to visit Hamilton harbour, and take lovely bike rides here and there. Each time we stay here as the kids grow older they discover more things about Canada. For example, we have usually had a car when we are home, but not this time. This has meant taking the bus… just like in China! But we’ve never taken the bus here and at first it seemed trickier than China. In China you just sort of barge onto the bus and toss money at the driver. Here, people are in lines, they move slowly onto the bus, and the bus drivers are friendly. Wow, what a change.

Our bus stop

We all miss the lively street activity you can find in China, but here we’ve enjoyed the odd fun thing, like face painting at a restaurant! There was a lady giving free face paintings to any kid who wanted it. Of course our kids did!

Liberty the Leopard

Van, the more traditional leopard

Tests!

Dear friends!

Finally, warmer weather is here. I hope you are as glad about it as my family and I are. It was a long cold winter.

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Much has happened, so here is a brief synopsis: We have narrowed down our initial location in France to be… Caen, in Normandy. We will be studying French at the university there, and the kids will be attending local school. We are in the stage of needing to pay tuition, after which the university can send us papers which we use to then apply for a long-term French visa. We are excited, and nervous.

Please pray as we try to find an apartment or house online. We may need to go through a housing agency to do this. We are hoping to find something near both the university and the school Liberty and Van will attend.

More to come!