It’s been 2 months already…

McKenna moving

A grey and rainy autumn Monday. It doesn’t happen very often, opportunity to update the Casa Lunas blog. It’s been a while! Time flies when you have a good time…

On oct the 8^th we finally put Domaine Gouts de Provence officially behind us, signing off the house to the new owners. It was a never ending story (read horror story..), adding tons of stress on body, mind and soul for a good year and a half. I cannot express in words the feeling of enormous relief, closing the door to the notary’s office behind me, driving off to our new home. I will not go into any details, but our family and close friends know all about the rollercoaster nightmare we had to go through, until literally the very last minute. I’ve not looked back ever since, no regrets, just so happy to move on.

We feel so at home here in Olivetta. Like it’s been waiting for us all these years. The picture feels complete. Destiny. It’s kind of magic… Anyone who’s visited Casa Lunas and the Olivetta valley, knows what a special place it is. Our ancestors must have come here praying for sun, rain and good hunting. It does something to your soul and we hope to share this magic with you. But when???? That is the million dollar question. 

Casa Lunas and morning snow!

We have still not signed the final deed and officially become the new owners of Casa Lunas… We’re still waiting for a decision for unauthorized construction work on the house, done by the owners. Before you can sell a house in Italy, the place goes through a check up. If they discover any irregularities, this has to be settled with the authorities first. A recommendation decision is taken by the building committee at the local mayor’s office, then it’s sent to the authorities in Genoa, who will approve or disapprove. With the official decision in hand, you can terminate the sale of your house. The procedure normally takes 2-3 months… in this case it’s been already 2 years!! It took the building committee in Olivetta 1 ½ year to come to their decision and post it to Genoa.  Then Genoa had 60 days to respond. Which they did in the first week of September. Only to ask for more information… which Olivetta sent them in only 2 days (wow!!) Then another 60 days for Genoa to respond.
 It’s been 75 days now. We were “promised”  to have the decision by Friday last week. Norma, who still owns the house, is a lady of considerable age, slowly running out of energy and is not coping well with the situation. Of course, there was still no decision. It is so frustrating. Without the decision we can officially not become owners, Norma cannot move on (she desperately needs her money!) and we cannot apply for the building permits. Not our cup of tea, this “wait and see” attitude. So we hope the coming days will cast some positive light on the situation!!! Then we”ll have to go through it all over again, getting our own permits… If we’ll get them… haha!!

Alex in his new room

Besides this mess, ALL is good. Gabriella and Benjamin have settled in to their new school and they start to really appreciate their new environment. They’re adapting well with many new friends, new habits, new activities. We’ve got TV and internet (reasonable speed) installed, so not so cut off any longer from the modern world. With a teenage daughter, “back to basics” life, wasn’t exactly popular. Alex, whom we’ve left behind,  has also adapted well with his new “weekend family life”, school, girlfriend, social life and activities. He’s doing  really well at the hotel & restaurant school, getting top scores in all subjects. Can’t wait to have our “chef” at home during the vacations and let him loose in the kitchen! Maybe the dream will come true one day, starting a “family restaurant” !

Gaby and Nuts

Benjamin has started a new sport activity every Wednesday afternoon: Mountain bike! He loves it! Very cool activity with cool guys, ideal sport when you live in the mountains. His birthday is coming up in a few days, but he’s got an advance on the gift: A new bike plus outfit! Gabriella rides every Wednesday and Saturday. I give her lessons on my horse, Nuts, and they’re doing very well together. She does the jumping, I stick to dressage. Perfect match!

Simple Nov lunch in Menton

The Olivetta climate is fantastic! Autumn brings sunny days with afternoon temperatures close to 20° and crispy nights, sometimes with morning dew frozen over. The sun hours are getting to its shortest period of the year, between 10 am to 2 pm. The mountains keep the sun away from the valley in the late afternoon. But then we’re only 15 minutes away from the sea, where we often go for a cappuccino and gain a few extra hours! From the photos I’ve posted, it must look like we drool over a cappuccinos all the time and never work… It is NOT so. We’re actually literally moving mountains in and around the house. It’s amazing how much stuff one can collect in a lifetime… we’re cleaning out after Norma and Rob and I cannot count how many rounds of throw away goods we’ve sorted and driven off to the recycling station. Bram’s done fantastic work on the house… it’s so cozy and comfy! We have installed our Scandinavian fireplace, in stone, which burns and produces enough heat, to warm the whole house. With 3 good logs in the evening, we have t-shirt temperature around 23° in the living and it’ll not dip under 20° until we relight it the next evening. Superefficient!

On Mondays and Fridays I take time off in the afternoon for my horse and riding. I love these afternoons on my own and moments of complicity with my horse. He’s sooo happy in his new environment and it really shows. We’re making great progress!

Me and Nuts - best friends!

We’ve started to make new friends. We have added 3 swedish and 3 dutch couples on our list. Then of course we have Alain, the French guy who lives in Breil, has bio olive trees plantation in Piene Haute, but his vegetable garden and chicken in Olivetta. He’s fantastic. Knows about everything you need to know in the region! And then I have Pascale, the French/Belgian owner of the stables and Bed & Breakfast in Sospel, where I have my horse. She’s GREAT!

So, as you see, where not doing too bad!! Coming weekend, trip to Grillon to see and enjoy Alex. Then it’s up to xmas and family get together in Chamonix. Then we move towards spring, Bram accompanying his mum to Australia for 2 weeks. And there might be a new adventure trip with Tim coming up. Nothing decided yet. In between, hard labour! Love the combination. To be continued… Love, The Mul Olivetta Mob

Settled in!!

Gab in Menton

Next chapter… Olivetta San Michele !

It’s been already 4 days, since I arrived in Olivetta with Bram’s good old Citroen C15 (its a french statement..) with trailer, fully loaded with our last stuff. The trailer was so loaded, that some stuff actually fell off after 15 kilometers.. a moment of stress, to tie everything up again along the road, turning the word “stress” into an understatement. With 30°C, two dogs and one cat (of which you’re desperately trying to avoid that he escapes), cars passing by full speed, my knees started to feel wobbly and I would have preferred to throw up under a tree. So I'd better dig deep into myself and find good old zen-jen… and tie everything up again and travel down the remaining 350 kms to Italy. Like a pro gypsie queen!! Pro or pure luck, who can tell, but I arrived safe and sound 5 hours later. What a relief… and so happy to reunite with Bram, Gabriella and Benjamin after two long weeks apart. They were happy too… not so easy to start a new life and school, far away from old friends and habits and even if Bram did a great job on his own, I think they missed their mummy in all that.

Well, next morning my turn to take the kids to school and get used to the 12 kms mountain road to their school in Breil sur Roya. It’s a winding beautiful road with stunning views.. but you better stay focused. A few hairpin turns you don’t want to take too fast… But it’s pure pleasure driving, a motorbiker's paradise!! It takes 20 minutes one-way, not too bad at all. And there’s a great bakery in Breil, so opportunity to pick up a tasty full grain baguette for lunch.

Beach Menton

Chill chairs Menton

Menton

View of Ventimiglia from Menton

Me Menton..

View from our Olivetta internet café.

Nice Old Town

Nice Old townI

Tuesday was also a return trip to Nice. Bram had an appointment with a doctor to check on his bloodpressure, that’s been slightly up lately. Probably stress related, cause it was down to normal again.. Enough time for a stroll in the old town, which is SO cute and full of people, boutiques, restaurants, beautiful buildings in pastelle colours and market squares. Love it!! A quick lunch on the market and off home again by the inland mountain road (instead of the highway). A winding (read hairpin turns…) road leading up over a mountain pass at 1200m. Fantastic. Slightly scary though. But if you have the time, it’s worth every minute. We were overtaken a few times by a few sports cars, some Monaco registered… I can see this is their local playground.

The kids are doing alright, under the circumstances. Especially Benjamin, he’s feeling right at home, at school too! For Gabriella it’s not so easy. She’s been holding up pretty well in the weeks she was here alone with Bram, but the day before yesterday the volcano burst… Not going into any details, but it was a major. Boiling down to that Olivetta is literally a shit-hole and moving here was the most terrible thing we could have done to her, etc etc… calling me all sorts of names… I suppose she had to boil over at some point. It was bad while it lasted (Bram was in a state of shock!), but it cooled down and yesterday, since she had no classes on Thursday afternoon, we had a girls afternoon out in Menton. Strange what shopping can do to a girl.. hmmm… but it did a lot of good being the two of us, having an icecream (I found THE place for Italian gelati!!) and just enjoying this awesome small town. I just love Menton…

TV and Internet, well we don’t have it. Yet. I’m using a wireless connection at the neighbours place (Börje and Gudrun), a very nice retired Swedish couple. Great to have some Swedish connections next door, they’ve been through all the red tape so I’ll profit from it a bit ;-) In October we’re invited to a crab party organized by them, apparantely an autumn tradition that Börje keeps up. Will meet other Swedish couples living in Olivetta! There seem to be a few. Isn’t that amazing… of all the places in the world, little Olivetta with its 250 inhabitants cater several swedish and dutch families. However, most of them use it as a second house. Only us, plus Peder and his wife, are the ones living all year around. Peder is THE person to approach for help, he’s lived in Olivetta for many years and speaks fluent Italian.

To finish today’s post, let me give you our new address details:

Jenny & Bram MUL

Casa Lunas – Localita Faiscia

51, Viale Degli Ulivi

18030 Olivetta San Michele (IM)

Italy

Tel fixe: +39-0184222359 (you need to incl the “0” !)

Mobile Jenny: +33-(0)621742767 (French operator)

Mobile Bram: +33-(0)686944799 (French operator)

Email: jennymulforsberg@gmail.com

Web: www.casalunas.com
Hasta la pasta, with lot's of love from the Muls in Olivetta!

New milestone set!

Collège Eau Vive, Breil

What a hazzle it has been... for a year and a half I've been busy finding and registering the kids into their new schools as of Sept 2012. Ending up in a completely different direction than what we originally had in mind!! Time has actually been in our favour and we've learned from our mistakes and picked up on new regulations. The fact that the kids actually doesn't have the right to remain in the french public school system, if we move right across the border, came as a bad bad surprise only 2 months ago. You think you have everything under control and lined up, only to find out; NOT... The law says that the kids have the right to remain in the french education system, but if we officially live in Italy, we have to enroll them into a french school IN Italy. There is of course no french school on the horizon, best case you might find one 100 kms down south in Imperia. Or Genua. There are two excellent french schools right across the border at 7, resp 10 kms distance. Not possible. Hip hip hurrah for Europe. Very efficient.

View from school

So, we have to keep an address in France, it is "as simple as that". At least to start off with. Luckily I have a new wonderful friend in Sospel, running a B&B and a vacation house rental. She's leased us her rental house for the next year, so that we have our administration still registered in France until we've finished the work in Olivetta and officially can register as Italians and start our new business. Enough time to get the school regististrations in order, our social security intact and not moving into unknown territory too fast. Plenty of time "to do things right". However, we will physically be staying at all times in Olivetta, the house rental in Sospel only covers for our address on paper.

Breil s/Roya

So last week we deposited the enrollement - registrations documents at Gabriella and Benjamin's new school "Collège Eau Vive" in Breil s/Roya, where they were officially accepted! Gabriella starts her last year in Collège (3eme) and Benjamin in his first (6eme). A great school! Only one class of each school year with a max amount of 20-23 pupils/class. The school has been completely redone and modernized, a "Rolls Royce" compared to other schools, those were the Principal's own words.. Benjamin's dyslexie gets special attention and is registered at the the School Academy, granting him certain favours and more official time for interrogations, exams and other school activities. Super!!! Plenty of outdoor activities in this school. The whole wednesday afternoon is dedicated to sports, all "mountain related". Depending on season, a variety of climbing, kayak, downhill ski etc. Awesome. We feel so good about this school, the kids are happy too and it is a HUGE relief to finally have confirmation that the education/school part has been settled. When your kids are happy, your happy too. I'll leave you on this happy note. One less hurdle on our exciting path towards our new life in Olivetta. Counting down.... - 2 months, 1 week and 1 day and off we go. La dolce vita. Eventually ;))) Amore, Jen

Springtime in Olivetta brought new visitors to our property.. Winter has been very dry, so this lovely Swiss couple of sheep herders, brought their flock of more than 150 animals down to the Bevra river once every two three days for drinking. Bram invited them, incl the sheep, for aperitief! A rich and interesting encounter in many ways. It became so popular, that after a week, the sheep decided that the grass in indeed greener on the other side, and came down the mountain without their herders for a snack. Bram, who supposedly was returning home to Grillon that morning, had to stay behind an extra day, before the herders manage to talk some sense into the flock and take them back up the mountain. A milllion flowers poorer and a zillion sheep-shits richer, it was a unique event. 

Done Deal!

Domaine Gouts de Provence

It's officially official... yesterday March 19, 2012 all papers had been signed by all parties and we've officially sold our home for the last 15 years - Domaine Gouts de Provence in Grillon! We're turning a page in our life and start a new chapter in the lovely village Olivetta st Michele in north Liguria, Italy, as of end september this year. A couple of exciting, but VERY busy months ahead, caring for our summer guests and at the same time moving out of the houses. I don't even want to think about the amount of time and work it's going to take sorting out, packing and moving all the stuff we have. Need to sell at least half of it!! Sweet sweet Grillon, thank you for caring for us so well for the last 15 yrs, it's been awesome. I'm going to miss you. Leaving a footprint here and there, so will come back once in a while, catching up with best friends etc! Olivetta, here we come. Follow our journey, I'm sure it's not going to be boring ;) xx Jenny