ASPIRABILUM MEUM (et tuum)

Who says bikers can’t speak Latin (badly). Everything around Aspiran used to be Roman, so it seemed appropriate.

The deposit is down. In three months or so the house should be ours.

My report is long overdue, I know, but there were nine days of travel, and then there was jet lag. Doesn’t always hit me, but this time it did. I flew to Paris from San Francisco, seven days after the massacre (their massacre, not ours). The plane was half empty but Paris, thank heavens, seemed unchanged. It was cold, and wet, but I had to spend a day there and I treated myself to a hotel just opposite the Gare de Lyon where I was going to take a train the next day. The Hotel Terminus was a bit pricy for me (170 euros) but really nice – quite luxurious. They treated me very well. I went for a long walk along the Seine, and nobody looked at me in case I was a Muslim.

The train to Montpellier next day was my first experience of a TGV, and it was amazing. I used once to drive that 600 mile stretch from Montpellier to Paris and it took all day. To arrive in under four hours, in total comfort, was phenomenal – and because I’d booked ahead it cost me only $50. Just imagine, San Francisco to Los Angeles in an armchair in 3 hours, for $40!

The owners of the house I’m buying came to meet me at the station and carry me back to Aspiran. Patrick and Aileen Naylor are both British. From the day I stumbled upon their house back in September I felt their warmth and friendliness immediately, and that as much as anything made the house attractive to me. When I decided to buy the place, we fixed a date to begin the process, and they invited me to come back and stay there for two nights. They also invited Angel and Teresa so that they could get to know the house they are planning to share with me. So we were all there together, including the dog, Betti. Teresa has a Labrador with a diploma. They are both super qualified to make children feel  secure and happy, and they have the same effect on grown-ups.

In France house sales are handled by a Notaire, a combination lawyer/notary, and we spent an hour next morning in the office of Maitre Julien Ducarne, a very grave young man, who determinedly went through the whole ceremony in English. I signed what I had to sign, and put down the 5% that commits me to buy. Then we went off to celebrate at a nearby vineyard, the Coté Mas, which I must say is a pretty nice place, to put it mildly. The food was delicious. Some Americans might find the servings a little skimpy, but if that’s life in France I think I will benefit from eating less.

Anyway, I got back to California (on another half-empty plane) last Tuesday but had people to see before I could get home again. So we’re now well over the deadline I set for the Aspiran fund, but no matter. We didn’t quite make the 40,000 but I scraped some more money from the bottom of the barrel, and there’s enough to buy the house and pay the notaire.

Sixty-one contributions have come in – some high, some low, mostly in the 100 euro range. The total is 30,972. There’s about 350 in Paypal fees to come off that, but it’s a wonderful achievement and I hope those of you that helped will feel very happy about it and part of the enterprise. The house will be up and running in the Spring of next year. It’ll be bare-bones to start with, but as soon as I can get beds and a kitchen table with chairs, we’ll be in business. I hope some great work will be done there during the coming years, and of course I  hope I will have some part in making that happen. Thank you all, very, very much.

If there’s anyone still desperate to get their name on the brass plaque you can squeeze in now, but I shall declare it all officially done and dusted by the end of this coming weekend.

Please don’t bombard me yet with your travel plans. I need to figure out the rules of engagement and there’s still quite a lot to think about, but the main thing is – It’s done. Mission really accomplished.