Marc was able to take leave of absence from teaching for the whole 13 years we were gone, and was still guaranteed a post this September ... but all we knew was that it would have to be in the Nancy-Metz administrative region, which is pretty big. I knew that what I wanted most was to be living back in the suburb of Villers-lès-Nancy where we lived 2015-16, where our church is, and where we had loved the primary school and still have some very good friends ... but I knew that my will was not necessarily God's will, and that Marc could be given a post in another town.
When Marc's post was announced we were rather taken aback, as we learned that he doesn't have a fixed post, he is a replacement teacher. This doesn't affect his salary at all, but it means that he may teach in several different places over the year ... and indeed probably over the next few years to come. He was told that he would be based in Meurthe-et-Moselle, and Nancy is the main city in Meurthe-et-Moselle, so actually it ended up seeming logical for our family to find a home in Nancy.
I found flat-hunting difficult, emotionally speaking. We'd had a difficult experience in 2015, where some estate agents treated flat-letting like job applications. And this year, as I phoned around about the flats I'd seen advertised, I mainly heard either that the flats had just been let, or else that they weren't available until the end of August/beginning of September. While this had the consequence of narrowing down the list considerably, at the time it felt quite discouraging. I finally managed to book viewings for two flats on our first day in Nancy, and a few more later in the week.
As it happened, the first flat we visited was in Villers-lès-Nancy, and corresponded to almost everything we were looking for (we would have liked a fourth bedroom, but anything that big was too expensive). The flat isn't far from the flat we had in 2015-16, is just across the park from the primary school (and just down the road from a secondary school), is a nice size with big balconies, and is a duplex, meaning that the kids' bedrooms and an extra shower room are up stairs under the roof. The estate agent seemed to like us, and told us two days later that all our papers were in order ... then made us wait another 5 days to sign, which I found a bit nail-biting! So we didn't even make the visits we had planned later in the week.
Funnily enough, the same day that the estate agent told us that we had the flat, Marc heard that he is administratively attached to a college within walking distance of this flat. While he may in fact not be in that college much, it made the choice of flat seem even more logical!
Once we had the keys, we started filling the flat with the essentials so that we could bring the kids back here. We bought a fridge and a washing machine from "Envie", a company which takes old appliances and gets them running again, and also trains up job-seekers. We decided to invest in new mattresses for us all, and a new double bed and sofa-bed. A friend passed on some furniture she was replacing, and we were able to borrow some chairs from church (they aren't being used at the moment!). We also bought some camping tables as a temporary solution to a kitchen table and desks. Now I'm starting to look at second-hand furniture to fill in the gaps!
The kids were really happy to get to their new home, and they love their upstairs kingdom! We are so grateful to God for His provision.
Our flat - the top pink balcony - seen from our parking space outside.
The view from the boys' room - spot the handy bus stop!
The view from Eve's room - the trees on the horizon are the park we will walk through to school.
It's all very different from Pèdè!
