Another 10th year milestone

Who knows where the time goes? Et où sont les canicules d'antan ? Today marks the tenth anniversary of the first night we ever spent in this house outside Saint-Aignan-sur-Cher. It was June 12, 2003. We had slept for the first five nights in a gîte rural over in the village of Thésée, and we'd been busy for five days cleaning our new house so that we could move in.

At this point, we've lived here longer than we had ever lived in any other house or apartment before. Dix ans ! Qui l'eût cru ?

Looks like there will be a lot of fruit in 2013.

We didn't have any furniture. We went out and bought two air mattresses to sleep on. We also bought a vinyl table and chairs that we could use use inside the house until we got other furniture — then we would put that set out on the terrace. Most importantly, we went to the Darty électroménager store up near Blois and sprang for a refrigerator, a kitchen stove, a washing machine, a dryer, a coffee maker, a telephone, a television, a VCR, and a vacuum cleaner. We had brought a laptop computer with us from the U.S.

By that Thursday night, 6/12/03, we were ready to start living here, even though we still had a couple of nights left on our rental place — and no refrigerator or stove yet. A friend had loaned us some sheets and towels, and a little counter-top oven. We had electricity and hot water. Our appliances soon were delivered. We camped in the house for nearly a month, when our container-load of furniture, clothes, and other belongings arrived from California. The weather was hot and sunny. Those are good memories.