Whoa, steady on!

It looks as though perseverance and determination might be paying off. Wait for it… just before lunch I received a telephone call from a nice lady at Enedis. She explained that if I sent her a copy of my permis de construire by return, in the next few days she’d be able to arrange an appointment for an engineer to come on site and see what’s involved in getting me connected. Then they’ll be able to send me a ‘devis’ after which, if I accept and pay half in advance, they’ll be able to go ahead with the necessary work.

So that’s Enedis on the move as well as Véolia and the tree man. I’ve not yet heard from the latter and I do hope that he comes up with the goods as he made a very good impression on Saturday.

But that’s not all! This morning I received a short USB printer cable that I ordered over the week-end from Amazon. It only cost 0.99€ delivered which was probably cheaper than my driving to pick up one I already have that’s in storage with the rest of my main computer stuff. This cable together with a lead from my Fimi drone charger allowed me to connect up my Canon printer to my laptop and print off the label that will enable me to send off my Freebox.

Until this is done and been received by Free I’ll still be paying for the fixed telephone line in my old house, which is annoying to say the least. The process to cancel the contract is ultra-complicated and bureaucratic as befits France and seems to be designed to ensure that as well as paying a 49€ disconnection fee, the subscriber also gets to continue paying for the line for at least a month after they’ve moved house. I think it’s yet another example of something which is unfair and should be stopped, but the French seem to tolerate such abuses.

I’ve been living in my caravan for nearly three weeks now and what are my conclusions so far? The main problems are not having water and electricity and whereas I originally thought that my outgoings would be quite modest, the reverse is actually the case as I’m spending at the rate of 500€ a month just for fuel to power my generator.

Another downside is the number of flies and other nuisance and/or biting insects. The problem is well-known, at this time of the year especially, but it’s being exacerbated by living on the open grass where they attack you anyway if you’re just out walking. Now they can come in through the open caravan door, the more so as it’s very hot right now, and plague me as I’m sat as now at my computer. There are always quite a few horse flies around that can give you a nasty bite that itches and irritates for days if you don’t spot them landing on you but even some very small flies can give you a painful nip before you know it.

We’re also into the ‘aoûtat’ season now. These are microscopic mites (the larvae of a tiny spider actually) that live in grass and foliage and multiply at this time of the year (hence their being named after août, the month of August). Once they get on you they migrate, usually upwards, to find any warm moist folds of flesh. That’s why ladies find them in places like under bra straps and men (like me) in the creases of their moobs! The trouble is that once they’re on you they puncture your skin and inject a substance that liquifies your flesh at that point, which they then consume.

As far as I’m aware there’s no really effective way of dealing with them and people are often plagued by them non-stop until they eventually die out as the autumn approaches, the weather gets cooler and they presumably morph into tiny spiders that don’t bite. Because I’m wearing shorts the whole time, I initially picked up a good crop of them when I mowed my grass the first time and even though I covered up over the week-end with jeans tucked into socks when I did so again, I’ve got them all around my ankles and further up my legs on my shins and calves. The itching has kept me awake some nights.

Another down-side of my land here is that it’s a very poor place from which to fly my drones. The reason is the number of trees in all directions that end up blocking the signal between the controller and the drone. Luckily when this happens, the drone automatically returns to the take off point but whereas I could do some long and very picturesque flights from the garden of my old house in Plazac, that won’t be the case here. I’ll keep trying but I don’t hold out much hope, which is a shame.