adventures of an american housewife in the south of france

My Greatest Invention to Date

Today has been a relatively uneventful day, but I do have 2 exciting things to share with you.  The first is that we met with Aneta, our relocation agent, to discuss a plan for finding our new home.  She did not seem super optimistic about the amount of options we'll have, but we're aiming for a house with a yard (or garden as it's referred to here) that is on the tram line.  We really want to make sure we have some sort of outdoor space for Figgy, but we also want the city to be easily accessible so that I'm not stuck alone in a house all day.  Aneta seems to think that our best bet is to search in the north and northeast part of the city, which luckily happens to be very close to The Hub's office.  If we can't find what we're looking for, then we'll start looking at apartments inside the main area of the city that have a terrace.  Aneta is going to do some research over the course of the next day or so and we'll hopefully have some places lined up to look at next week.  I can't wait!

a picture from my walk today

In the meantime, we're doing the best we can to make the most of our crappy hotel room.  Which brings me to my second exciting point to share with you.  The bed continued to be a problem for me and, I know this is going to sound really prissy and bratty - and maybe only my equally snobby interior design friends will understand this, but the way the bed is situated really throws off the whole feng shui of the room.  You have to sleep up against a wall lying horizontally across the room like this:

all wrong.

It's hard to capture it in a picture, but it just felt all wrong to me and I think it was a huge part of the reason why I was having trouble falling asleep and waking up every hour even though I was exhausted.  On the first few nights I actually ended up going into the "bedroom" part of our hotel room (through the doorway on the right in the above picture) where there was another single bed so that I could sleep in that little bed all by myself like I was 12 years old again.  Not ideal, as I prefer to sleep in the same bed as my husband.  Then on the third night, I had an epiphany. A Super Bed. I thought, what if we drag this little single bed out into the main room with the trundle beds, line them up, and then sleep on them crosswise (the right way) to make one big Super Bed?  It was genius.  Genius.  I was so excited.  I told The Hub about it the next morning and he said, "this just might work!"  And now, ladies and gentleman, I give you - Super Bed.

super bed je t'aime!

It's huge!  Probably the biggest bed in all of France.  And since we created Super Bed, I've been sleeping just fine.  The only problem is it basically takes up the entire room, so we have to fold the trundle bed underneath the two in the morning, but that is something I can live with.

3 beds are better than 1

When you are thousands and thousands of miles away from home, it's the little things in life that can truly make your day. Be sure to check back tomorrow for the the first French Bed Beard post and an update on how Figgy is adjusting to life in Monpellier. À bientôt!  

4 Responses to “My Greatest Invention to Date”

  1. Andy says:

    Endiable! Now if you can just invent something for the shower and paint some clouds on the walls, it’ll feel just like your place in SF! :)

  2. Ryan says:

    Nice. The Mee-show-leek Super Bed…ranks right up there with the Murphy Bed. A+ pour ingéniosité, Natalie!

  3. Pete says:

    -beds in france are smaller ……but so are the dogs. For realz the meat n cheese looks legit! i mean dank cheese in France…with the meats and wine. now thats Haute Yo;) Is there good Swiss in France? Do they even carry American? i wouldnt thnk so…

  4. Jillian says:

    nice one nats! glad you’re getting some sleep now. can’t wait to hear about the house search. figgy is just so cute posing in those photos on the bed. can’t wait for his update. love and miss you!!

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