Escape to the Cape

After 20+ hours of travel, we've finally arrived in South Africa. The long journey was well worth it! We will be spending the next couple of months housesitting on the West Coast, about an hour north of Cape Town.

Here's a picture of our new neighborhood:

Who knew the Atlantic Ocean had beaches like this?!

I'm eager to get out and start exploring! This is my first trip to Africa, and I still can't believe I'm here. I think I'm going to really like this place... beautiful scenery, Mediterranean climate, and a much more favorable exchange rate than London!

Why I Wasn't Blogging in France

I feel the need to explain why we weren't blogging very often during our time in France.

Part of the reason is that we were busy. We spent 20+ hours per week caring for the house, dog, property, and guests. We also took on extra consulting work in an effort to develop our skills. But the main reason that I wasn't blogging was simple: I wasn't happy.

We were faced with new challenges each week and, along with the general stress of language barriers, feeling isolated, and trying to juggle our newfound responsibilities, life wasn't exactly a vacation. It would have been easy to use this blog as an outlet to vent my frustrations, but that's not the tone that I wanted to establish here.

Now that we've had a chance to step away for a few days, we're starting to unwind. It's a relief to let go of the negative feelings associated with our summer in France. It feels like we're turning a corner and, instead of holding on to our gripes, we're starting to appreciate the many ways that we've grown as a result of this experience.

Who knew that housesitting a Provencal mansion would be such an illuminating experience?

The Expense of Travel: August

We've made it through August for the whopping sum of $708 and still have a little money left in the kitty (I'm not using the British-English term; we actually keep our money in a dead cat. Nobody looks there.) Here's the breakdown for the past 4 months:

For an explanation of the categories, check out our earlier post.

Nothing too exciting to report in August...except for another month of free lodging! With another frugal month under our belts, the current monthly average from May through August dropped to around $1,000/month! Now, before you put your house up for sale and start packing your bags to start a new life of vagabonding, realize it isn't always this cheap. September is quickly becoming an expensive month. We've moved on to England for a couple of weeks where we're renting a flat and have already spent more in the past 5 days than we spent for the whole month of August. Ouch. We've also bought our tickets for leaving South Africa at the end of the year and we're all out of frequent flyer miles. Stay tuned for the September report to find out if we're left with anything more than fur balls!

Amidst the Paralympic Action

It was great to see London all done up for the Paralympic festivities. Add a little sunshine and record-breaking heat (80 degrees!), and you've got some of the biggest crowds I've ever seen! This city rat couldn't be happier amidst all of the action.

Here are a few more pics from our awesome weekend in London. Enjoy!

The main Paralympic viewing area in Trafalgar Square. Can you see Big Ben in the distance?

The National Gallery

Sunbathers!

Even the phone booths joined in the festivities!

Giant Olympic medals in Leicester Square

The Thames Festival in Potters Fields

Au revoir, France. Hello England!

We have bid "adieu" to France and the maison in the country. The last guests came and went and, after worrying they would be a handful, turned out to be the easiest all summer. The owners' family returned from Thailand just hours after the guests departed. Our final week was uneventful aside from the car breaking down, injuring the family dog with a bicycle, and the kids bringing back a communicable skin infection complete with oozing sores. It was time to hit the road.

We couldn't go straight to South Africa, or stay in the Schengen region, to keep the visa police happy on both ends, so here we sit in jolly Olde England with surprisingly warm and sunny weather. We're renting a flat on the outskirts of London for a couple of weeks before we make our way south. The original plan was to meet up with family here, but it just didn't work out in the end. The Paralympics are in their final days and we've already made it into downtown London to catch the festivities.

Paralympics big screen in Trafalgar Square.

It's a bit surprising what a relief it is to be able to communicate with people. After 4 months in countries where we don't speak the language, we've just become accustomed to muddled communication. Even Blogger is speaking English to us again!

We'll be laying low for the next few days as we decompress from our summer experience and catching up on blog posts that have yet to see the light of day!

Merde!

We were hoping to have a blissful, guest-free week to ourselves starting on Sunday. But, unfortunately, that's not going to happen. We've just received a last-minute booking from an American family who'll be flying to Provence on their private jet this weekend. Merde!

Even less joyful is the fact that these final guests will be leaving on the same day that the family returns home. Double merde!

What does this mean for us? There ain't no rest for the wicked. No peace and quiet will be had until we leave France on September 7th. *Sigh*

Please send us any patience that you can spare. We're going to need it for these last two weeks!

The Expense of Travel: Our First 3 Months

Hello, Jim here (so please read in a deep masculine voice). 

When we tell people that we're traveling around the world as house sitters, the first question is usually, "Where are you going?," but a very close second is, "How can you afford that?" Honestly, we didn't know how much it was going to cost, but based on other travelers' accounts, we estimated a monthly budget of $2,000 for the both of us. 

Now, there were a few major expenses we had to cough up before we even left the couch. The first was our international health insurance coverage, which, by American standards, was actually quite cheap. For me, it was a mere $500 for the entire year! Natalie, being a woman of child-bearing age, was considerably more expensive at $3,000 for the year. The next big expense was airfare. The sum total to get ourselves from the U.S. to Croatia, Croatia to France, France to England, and England to Cape Town was $2,500 for both of us. We used a lot of frequent flyer miles to keep that total down. We also spent over $1,200 on clothing, bags, laptops, and other things to take on the road. So all told, we were already $7,200 in the hole before we finished our final Circle K Thirstbusters!

Since we started traveling, I've been doing my best to meticulously track every expense in a spreadsheet, and my intention was to post a monthly expense report. However, I've had a couple of setbacks. The first was that my computer suffered an early demise back in June when it drank a full cup of coffee and, as a result, I was without my spreadsheet for several weeks. The second setback, and undeniably the greatest contributing factor, was that I'm easily distracted and somewhat lazy. Alas, I have recently found the motivation to get back at it and deliver the information that everyone really wants to know, so here are our expenses for the first 3 months of our adventure! 

Scroll down to see the pretty graph if looking at numbers gives you a headache!

Here's a little explanation of the categories:

• Dining - Grabbing a bite to eat on-the-go and dining at a restaurant, cafe, or fast food joint.
• Transportation - All the money that we've spent on moving around. This includes rental cars, bus fare, tolls, parking, gas, and anything else associated with motorized locomotion (except flights).
• Lodging - Hotels, hostels, apartments, or anywhere else that we lay our heads at night.
• Groceries - Food that we buy at the grocery store or market to prepare at home.
• Entertainment - Going on tours, admission to parks, monuments, or museums, and anything else that we do to keep ourselves from chase-the-tail boredom.
• Misc - This is a catch-all category for everything that doesn't fit somewhere else. This might include clothing, electronics, toiletries, internet services, etc.
• Medical - Going to the doctor or buying something at the pharmacy to cure an ill.
• Gift - Money spent on gifts, postcards, and things we give to other people.

I don't know about you, but I prefer a chart over a table:

Yikes! What's with those spikes? I'll explain that along with everything else:

• Dining - While eating out is more expensive here in France, we go out less since we're living in the countryside. Occasionally we have a meal in Aix, but most of our eating-out money is spent at the local pizza drive-thru (it's the best pizza I've ever had!)
• Transportation - The spike in June was from renting a car in Croatia and driving all about for two days. Also, in France we have use of a car (free!), but we're buying the fuel. I thought we were going to break the bank in fuel costs once we got here, but so far it hasn't happened. (Thank you, Renault Clio, for your pathetic excuse for a power plant that gets amazing gas mileage!)
• Lodging - Don't worry, July is missing for a reason. In May, we spent a couple of nights in a hostel and then rented an apartment until the middle of June. Since that time, we've been living rent-free as housesitters in France, hence, no lodging expenses for July.
• Groceries - Groceries are generally more expensive in France than in Croatia, and that shows in our initial grocery shopping trip when we arrived in France in June.
• Entertainment - This one has been decreasing steadily. In May, we treated our time in Croatia like a vacation, so took several tours and visited many tourists sites. Here in France, we go out less and the places we have visited were either free or inexpensive.
• Misc - The spike in June was due to the aforementioned computer debacle, and did I mention that I managed to break our GPS around the same time by leaving it in the sun? (Apparently you're not supposed to use the GPS outside. Who knew?) In July, we spent a bit more on clothing since some of our things are already starting to wear out. Please pretend you don't notice us wearing the same clothes in all of our pictures.
• Medical - Luckily no doctor bills, just some trips to the pharmacy for snake oil.
• Gifts - Mainly postcards and postage so far.

Quite unintentionally, July ended up being a very frugal month. We weren't paying for housing and, most importantly, I didn't break anything! So far, the $2,000/month guesstimate has been conservative since we've averaged less than $1,200/month over the past 3 months. That's not bad when you consider that we were spending more than that on housing alone when we were living the "conventional" life.   

I'll provide an update for the month of August in a few weeks...and if I don't, please send us some comments to help me find my motivation again.

Oh No, It's Saturday Again!

Most people look forward to the weekend with gleeful anticipation. But Saturdays are our least favorite day at the maison. It's the changeover day, meaning that we need to gently kick the old guests out, change the linens on 9 beds, clean 6 bathrooms, wash all of the sheets and towels, empty the fridge, and get everything ready to go for the next round of guests at 4 PM. It's too big of a job for one person, so I usually help the housekeeper for 3-4 hours on Saturday, then run some more loads of laundry over the next few days to catch up. Meanwhile, it's Jim's big day to mow all 4 lawns, treat and clean the pool, water all of the landscaping, and drain/refill the fountains. Needless to say, by the time the new guests arrive, we're dead on our feet.

Jim's Quality Landscaping, excellent work at a phenomenal price. Did I mention that he isn't even getting paid for this?!?

Last night, we caught a streak of good fortune... The rental agency informed us that our next round of guests have cancelled their holiday! But, before I got too excited about it, the agency reassured me that they'd be in touch with any last minute bookings. At the very least, we're off the hook for any arrivals this evening. A night off with no guests? It feels like we've died and gone to heaven! Maybe we'll have a BBQ and relax by the pool. And I can't wait to tell Hermes (the dog) that he can run wild and free all day! The poor thing has been cooped up in our cottage for weeks.

TTFN, we're going to enjoy our day off!

The pool is calling us and we must answer!

Getting Sick Abroad

Nothing makes you want your mommy more than being sick. This is especially true in a foreign country, a la France, as the language barrier seems 10 times higher when you're not feeling well. (Did I mention that my wonderful mommy is also fluent in French?)

For the past few weeks, I've been sick. Really sick. I think it was an all-too-common case of traveler's intestinal distress. After several days of misery, it was time to seek out some medical advice.

I called my international insurance company and they didn't have any specialists within 100 miles of Aix-en-Provence. This meant that I was on my own for finding a doctor, but they reassured me that I'd be reimbursed just the same.

We went to the local hospital in Aix, but I couldn't bear waiting for hours in the emergency room to see a doctor. Instead, we got the names of a few private physicians who'd be able to see me on another day.

Avenue Victor Hugo, a.k.a. "doctor's alley" in Aix-en-Provence.

We headed off to the first doctor on the list, as her address was the only street name that we recognized. We stumbled into her office just before closing and I desperately pleaded for a rendezvous (in French, a rendezvous is simply an appointment, nothing scandalous!) The doctor gave me a deer-in-the-headlights look and sighed, "Oh, l'anglais." Despite her unenthusiastic response to my native tongue, she still made me an appointment!

So how the heck do you have a medical consultation when you can't communicate with your doctor? More importantly, how can this doctor not speak English when the gas station attendants and the cashiers at Quick Burger can speak it fluently?

I decided to type up a basic description of my personal information (name, DOB, address) and my symptoms. Perhaps the doc would feel more comfortable reading English than speaking it? Jim also had the brilliant idea of using Google Translate to get a rough French translation. Lastly, if we got really stuck, we had the backup plan of calling my dear mom in the middle of the night to act as a translator!

On the day of the appointment, we somehow managed to communicate through a combination of Franglish, gesturing, and guessing. It's truly amazing how much you can pick up just from the context of a situation. The doctor was very patient and spoke very slowly and simply to us. I had brought along a French-English dictionary, but it was pretty much useless when it came to medical terminology.

We left the office with a sense of relief. Thankfully, communicating with the doctor wasn't nearly as difficult as we had anticipated. Also, the total cost of my visit was only 36 Euros ($45 USD) -- remember, that's the cash price without any insurance!

Now, it's been about a week since my doctor's appointment and I'm happy to say that I'm feeling much better. I have no idea what got me (perhaps I should have properly washed our produce?), but I'm sticking to a plain and simple diet for a few more weeks, just to be safe. We have just under a month to go here in France, and there's still plenty of stories to tell about our lovely house guests...

Fancy a Housesit in the Luberon?

Have you been inspired by our travels in the south of France? Want to give housesitting try? If so, you're in luck! A new ad came online today that's looking for housesitters in the Luberon.

Trustworthy couple for seven months in the Luberon

This house is in: France, Gordes
Period available: 7 months
Starts: 24 September 2012
Ends: 29 April 2013

Reliable, trustworthy couple who will treat our beautiful home as if it were their own (or better!). Our objective is to keep the house secure, clean and "lived-in" and to ensure we return to what we left. We need a couple who can stay for the whole seven months.

Remember, my fellow Americans, that you're only allowed to stay in the Schengen area for 3 months as a tourist. But maybe the homeowners would be willing to sponsor you for a work visa? Logistical details aside, it's still fun to dream about sipping rose on that terrace!

Running on Fumes to Bonnieux

Our Sunday drive to Bonnieux began as a frantic search for a gas station. Most stations are credit card-only on Sundays, as the attendants (who also act as cashiers) have the day off.

Now of course we own credit cards, but our American cards don't have the special chip needed for certain European card readers, including gas pumps:

Not having a chip can render your card useless here in Europe. From edwardbauertravel.com

So we topped off our tank with some spare gas from the lawnmower, said a quick prayer, and off we went! I think we only had 1/8 tank, but Jim swears it was closer to 1/4 tank. Either way, it would've been a long walk home if we ran out of gas!

After a nail-biting drive through countryside, we eventually found a gas station with an attendant about 10 miles outside of Bonnieux. Crisis averted, and 60 Euros poorer, we set out to enjoy some sightseeing.

Bonnieux is a village perché (French for "perched village") set amongst the hills and valleys of the Luberon. You may have heard of this region thanks to British author Peter Mayle, who chronicled his life as an expat in the Luberon village of Ménerbes. One of his books was the basis for the 2006 movie "A Good Year," starring Russell Crowe.

The views from the village didn't disappoint! The town looks out over vineyards, fields and orchards.

We also enjoyed wandering through Bonnieux's maze of old stone streets.

The big attraction in town is the Musée de la Boulangerie, or Bakery Museum, which is devoted to the history of breadmaking. You can even take baking classes there! Personally, I'd rather leave the breadmaking to the experts... I'm much better at eating it than baking it!

Getting Medieval in Les Baux

We've started to get out and explore Provence over the past week. There's plenty of things to do, no matter which direction we go in! Provence is a very fertile, sun-filled, and hilly area of France. It also has a long history of human habitation -- even the Romans have left their mark here!

We recently took a trip to the hilltop village of Les Baux (baou is Provençal for "rocky spur.") It's the remains of a fortified city dating from the 10th century. Jim was looking forward to seeing the medieval weaponry and Hermes couldn't wait to pee on a historic ruin. I was just happy to get out and enjoy the beautiful day!

"Are you guys coming or what?"

The hilltop village of Les Baux, from  http://www.lesbauxdeprovence.com

Les Baux is located in the foothills of the Alpilles mountain range, nestled between scraggly limestone hills and endless olive groves. The fortress sits atop a 650-ft bluff, which made for a great natural defense against any invaders. There's also a spectacular view of the surrounding plains. On a clear day, you can see as far as the Mediterranean Sea (about 30 miles away.)

View of olive groves and hills south of Les Baux.

To the north, the white sandstone cliffs known as the Val d'Enfer ("Valley of Hell") were the inspiration for Dante's description of Hell in Divine Comedy.

Valley of Hell? I don't see it. Come to Phoenix in August!

A free audio guide was available with admission, but we found the descriptions to be a little long winded. Speaking of wind, it was also very difficult to hear anything atop the cliff, as the mistral wind was in full force on our visit!

Sporting our wind-blown hairdos.

Onto the part you've been waiting for: the weapons! We found a catapult, battering ram, and trebuchet (which looks like a catapult but it's not). Sadly, there weren't any mock battles during our visit, leaving Jim a bit disappointed.

Can you say trebuchet?

It was a lot of fun to wander around the ruins of the fortress. Most of the fortifications were carved directly into the rock.

It was also a great outing for Hermes, as he was able to explore the grounds with us. The French are very keen on bringing their dogs everywhere. There was even  a special "bar" for chiens et pigeons (dogs and pigeons!)

Note the Cesar Millan-style collar. Hermes is in walk training!