The beginning

I'm not into blogs and blogging but I have decided to create this blog so that people can stay in touch and follow our "adventure". 


So this is where our new life begins. As you know, Indiana and I joined Jérémie out in Canada exactly three weeks after he left France. I won't bore you with the details, but after an 8 hour flight with AirCanada - who I can highly recommend should you wish to pop over for a visit - we arrived in Montreal.


Jérémie was waiting for us and Indiana, who had been really good throughout the duration of the flight, simply couldn't believe her eyes when she saw her Daddy! 
Family reunited!


Jetlag is horrible, but we have got over it now. 
On the first day (i.e. the Saturday we went to Les Spécialistes de l'Électroménager to purchase kitchen appliances. (Bearing in mind that although we are renting our appartment and it has a fitted kitchen it has no appliances).
We bought a Fridge/freezer, a cooker - over here it's called a "range" in English. If you fancy coming over for Christmas dinner then let me know because I could probably roast about 3 turkeys in it at once...! The downside is that the oven does take a while to heat up, but don't forget we're on 110 volts here... ;-)
We also bought a tumble dryer and a washing machine. In Canada they are sold as a pair. The are HUGE machines and practically as big as what you would expect to find in a European launderette. In fact, they are so big that I shall have to save up the washing which will probably mean that I end up doing about 3 to 4 loads per week. Today I washed our kingsize bedding and the machine was only half full....
Here's the most impressive bit: we chose our fridge-freezer (again about the smallest one in the shop yet you could probably fit a European one inside!) and they didn't have any in stock. They had sold the last one that morning and weren't going to be delivered for 15 days. 
Up until then we had been keeping fresh stuff (Indiana's milk and some butter) outside in our shed (as you do in Canada  ) and were wondering if we could realistically keep this up for the next two weeks. No need to. The shop has lent us a brand new Fridge-freezer free of charge!
We were really impressed!


We've been to Walmart - interesting experience!! You can buy just about anything there. That said, we're on a bit of a budget until I get a job so it's more than adequate for what we need at the moment. One can food shop there too but it's a bit limited in products and choice.

There is a supermarket called "Metro". It's not THAT big (although big enough!), but...... You should check out the cookie aisle  
I'm gonna have to go shopping with my camera. It's amazing the things you can buy. I even saw packets of French toast  
There is another store called Canadian Tire where one can buy anything from popcorn to car tyres and from cotton buds to impressive snow-hiking equipment.

When we got the internet installed yesterday the guy asked me whether this would be our first Canadian winter. When I said yes, he laughed and said "good luck"! I was telling him that we had no idea really what equipment to buy and that we'd probably end up getting snowed in by the first blizzard!!! 

Some people can't understand why we left France. "Why would you want to leave such a beautiful country?"
I feel like answering "How long have you got"  

People here are very friendly on the whole. No one is in a hurry be it on foot, on the road, but things like building houses and getting the electrician round are done with impressive speed!
I went to get my national insurance number (or it's equivalent, rather) and it took about 20 minutes. 
When we go food shopping there is someone at the end of the till who packs your bags for you. Just like you see in films!!
Except this time, as Jérémie says, we're IN the film now!!!!    

I can't wait for the first snowfall. But at the same time I am absolutely dreading it.


Next installment coming soon...!