From Normandie to...Germany?

Normandie is a beautiful region of France, or so everyone says. I guess I should consider myself pretty lucky that my family's history is rooted there...(although it should be noted that there are definite drawbacks to having "Normand" character traits in the family...stubbornness, thick-headedness, and hot-headedness just to name a few!)

From what I've seen, (and mind you - I've been there MANY a time now!) The countryside is somewhat varied with hay-bombarded/flattened fields, hilly forests (especially in Swiss-Normandy), lush farmlands, orchards, and my favorite: beautiful coastal cliffs and long, wide-sandy beaches.

Despite the fairly monotone grey-skies and often-rainy weather, the Normandie-cows and traditional "Chaume" roofed houses are worth seeing first-hand, as well as the quaint cities scattered throughout the region: Honfleur, Deauville, Caen, Cherbourg...(just to name a few).

For all the history-buffs out there, Normandie is also an extremely rich territory, considering the array of DDAY-beaches, forts, monuments, museums and cemetaries - all which are highly revered - and not to mention its ancient castles, fortresses and monestaries (most notably, Guillaume the Conqueror/"the Bastard's" remaining fort in Caen, and the mysterious Mont Saint Michel...)

But this time around, I wasn't in Normandie to be a tourist; I merely spent my days relaxing with family, playing boules (otherwise named Bocce, Boccia or Pétanque), and Belote (an excellent card game) and snapping pictures.

Otherwise, the majority of "exercise" and activity involved stuffing my face, throwing back wine, and bicycling around...

Nevertheless, I couldn't forget what was waiting for me in Alsace after "vacation:" A JOB - for which I had to prepare! And then, of course, I would have to find LODGING before making my way back...(DUH! No brainer!) So once again, THE CLOCK WAS TICKING. Timing is EVERYTHING...

VIVASTREET and Leboncoin proved to be really helpful websites...but even still, I didn't hear any positive responses before my vacation-time was up; indeed I scored not a single rendez-vous!

What I DID receive while I was in Normandie was ANOTHER job-offer with the "Ecole Internationale" in Strasbourg, which ended up distracting me, thus setting me back from finding a place to live...(after interviewing with them weeks later, I came to find out that their salary would not cover my living expenses anyways...so much for that.)

Biting my finger-nails, and embarrassed as hell, I had to suck in my pride, being forced to ask "C" if I could stay with him just 1 more week in Germany after my vacation in Normandie (after all, I was technically "homeless at this point.")

Luckily, "C" allowed for it & didn't give me any gripe; I suppose he must have understood that it was impossible to score a place to live "over the net." In addition, he knew that I'd HAVE to be in Strasbourg for my work-training no later than 1 week afterwards.

So, the pressure was on...again...to find a place to live.

The apartment-hunt -making phone calls, posting ads, writing emails -became my fulltime job. Yet, miraculously just 4 days after some SERIOUS searching, and apartment-visiting, I received a phone call from a very very very talkitive fellow, "Monsieur D."

Apparently, if I had not posted the name of my future place-of-work, (he confessed) that that no one would have taken me in without proof of 3 month's pay...so, it was sheer luck that his wife was a future-collegue of mine at the same school. Together, they thought it'd be nice to rent out their spare apartment to a fellow-coworker...but...this begins a different story altogether...

KEY WORDS: Normandie, Normandy, France, Living in France, Apartment-hunting in Strasbourg, Apartments in Strasbourg, Leboncoin, Vivastreet