Dollars & Euro

This is another installment in a series of answers to FAQ. Unfortunately, many of the questions I'm asked via social media have somewhat complicated answers, and this is my attempt at answering them completely yet simply.

The question: How much is a Euro in USD?

Well, right now, the simple answer is about $1.30. However, our situation is a bit more complicated in that we are paid in USD via a monthly direct deposit to our US checking account and have to transfer that money to our Euro account here in France.




How do we do that? Well, we've been here a month, and we're just starting to get it all straight. We brought about $2,000 USD in cash with us to help get us started. We changed this money to Euro at the airport in Lyon, lost it, found it, spent it quickly on rent and other things we needed. It went fast!

Since then, we've been setting up an account with XE Trade, which I found out about through Design Mom, a fabulous blogger who lived in Normandy for a while. Since they are meticulous about verifying your identity and credit worthiness, it takes quite some time. We really should have started this before we moved, honestly. Ah well...too late now. The good news is that we finally have it all set up, and now we are able to directly transfer money from our checking account to XE, who converts it to Euro and transfers it into our French bank account. Clear as mud?

In addition to having to wait for the verification process, it takes about a week to receive the funds in our French account once we initiate a transfer. We requested our first transfer last week, and we are expecting our funds any day. Unfortunately, we've been here one month today (yay!), and our rent is due, so we've been pulling money out of the ATM using our US debit cards each day for a few days to make sure we have enough. It does cost a bit more to use the ATM, but it's not outrageous, so it's great in a pinch. It saved our rear ends just after we arrived and lost our money. We are also able to use our US credit cards at many places (IKEA, Carrefour) for major purchases, though there is a 3% foreign transaction fee. Not ideal, but until we are able to access our money more easily, it helps to have the option.

Fortunately, Ben's grant pays us enough to actually live here quite comfortably. That being said, Europe is expensive, and we are trying to be very conservative until we can gauge just how much we need to live here. Obviously, it costs more at the start because we're eating out a good bit and having to buy supplies to get set up. We're hoping to have a budget set soon that will allow us to travel during school breaks and see Europe while we're here. We may never get this chance again, so we're going to make the most of it.

Where in France?

One of the questions I am asked most often, "Where are you in France?" Most people assume we are in Paris, since that is what most Americans think of when someone mentions France.

Actually, we aren't anywhere near Paris. We're in Grenoble. No, not Chernobyl, site of the nuclear disaster. Grenoble. Site of the 1968 Winter Olympics. Heart of the French Alps.

See...

We're the little red "A" south of Switzerland, nearly in Italy. Geneva (Switzerland) is about an hour and a half away by car. Turin, Italy (also a Winter Olympic site) is farther but only because of the mountains you must drive around to get there.

If you've kept up with me via social media, you've likely seen pictures of snow capped mountains. That's because we're literally surrounded by them.

Pretty, ain't it? Truly, it is. I will never, ever tire of seeing those beautiful peaks as I make my way around the city.

One of the coolest things (IMHO) about this city, is "the bubbles".

These fantastic cable cars are located just a 5 minute walk from our apartment, and they rise from the Isere River to the bastille, a series of ancient fortifications on a nearby mountain. We hope to go up in them if we can ever get a clear day. The weather has been very dreary lately with many days of rain. We are told that this is very unusual, as the weather is usually colder and much more clear. Given the kind of winter they're having in Illinois, I'll gladly take the rain and mild temperatures.

Hopefully that clears things up for everyone. I apologize for neglecting my blog lately. It's extremely hard to find motivation to write when there's so much else to be done, but things are finally starting to settle down a bit. I have a whole host of topics I'd like to write about (eventually), but I'm happy to answer any specific questions you have in the meantime.

Getting to Grenoble

I typed up this long, detailed post about our journey here, but I just don't think I want to go into all of that...at least not right now. Suffice to say that it was less than magical. The important part is that we arrived safely and with most of our things.

I'll start with our arrival in Grenoble...

We took a bus from Lyon-Saint Exupery Airport to the Grenoble train station. We were unclear as to how we should proceed from there. In normal circumstances, it is a 10 minute walk; however, it was raining, cold, and we had a ridiculous amount of luggage. Simply getting a taxi was a harrowing ordeal, seeing as we had to haul ourselves and our luggage through the (uncovered) parking lot to get to the taxi stand. The cars were tiny, and once they saw us and our baggage, many drivers just ignored us. But there was one guy determined to help us. He left his meter running while he did so, of course, but he was more than willing to assist. He flagged down another driver and managed to cram us into two cabs. I have no idea what all of that cost, but I can say that it was worth every penny. (Ben said it was $25 Euro.)

Our landlord, Silva, greeted us and helped us move all of our things into the apartment and began showing us around immediately. She said she would return the next day to help us further, as she knew we must be tired. Ben asked her where we could get something to eat, and she agreed to show him where the market was.

Now, this is where things get interesting. Ben began searching for the Euro we had changed at the airport, but Silva said she would pay and we could pay her back later. So, they went to the market and got bread, cheese, and bananas. I fed the girls and put them to bed.

Meanwhile, Ben couldn't find the money. If you know Ben, you know that he is constantly misplacing things. He left our keys on top of our car at Walt Disney World once. It's a real problem. However, this was money we planned to pay the rent with, as we knew there would be no quick way to get enough Euro until we got a bank account here in France. This was a major problem. We searched, retraced our steps, but it was just gone. He insisted that he had just misplaced it, but I was convinced he'd laid it down in the foyer and the cabbies had stolen it.

At any rate, it was gone. We both felt sick. As if the jet lag was not bad enough, we had just lost a major (to us) amount of money. After a fitful night, we finally got ourselves dressed and headed out to find an ATM when we ran into Silva. She only speaks French and Italian, so when Ben asked her where to find an ATM, she simply took us to a bank...her bank, Monte Paschi. Through some misunderstanding, Ben ended up opening an account. Opening a bank account in France is hard, seriously hard. Silva and our banker, Johan went to great lengths to help us.

Johan showed us the way to an ATM, and Silva (through translation from her daughter in Italy) agreed to give us another week to transfer the rent money to her account. If anyone ever says the French are not nice people, they're lying. We were still pretty sick about the money, but we decided to move on and try to enjoy our day.

We set out to explore our new neighborhood, and I must say, getting out of the apartment did us quite a lot of good. We found our way to Place Victor Hugo, a major shopping area filled with brasseries, shops, and cafes. It cheered us up to know that all of this was so close to our apartment...literally at the end of our street. It's kind of amazing.

On our second night in France, I managed to get the children into bed around 11pm, and they both stayed in their own bed all night. It was a fitful night of sleep for me, but I had to be at the bank this morning to show my passport and sign some paperwork, so I began getting myself ready. I reached into my suitcase to find some clothing and pulled out a little plastic bag containing approximately $1300 Euro.

I was speechless. I took a deep breath, made very sure I was not dreaming, and calmly informed Ben that I'd found something. As you can imagine, we were both extremely happy and relieved. I had not wanted Ben to feel any worse than he already did during the whole ordeal, but I took this opportunity to scold him a bit and threaten his life if he ever did such a thing again.

A happy ending, for sure.

Tomorrow!

I've spent approximately 10 minutes just staring at the word "tomorrow" typed on my screen. Ya know how sometimes when you write or type a common word and stop to think, and it doesn't look quite right? I have that feeling.

Tomorrow.

I have no idea how this came upon me so quickly. Ben applied for this fellowship in September of 2011, but I have had it in my mind ever since he mentioned the possibility long (a year? two?) before that. Now it's here.

Tomorrow.

There is still so very much left to do. We haven't packed a single suitcase...which sounds bad, but I assure you it won't take me long to do the actual packing. I'm a Tetris master, so I've got that down. I'm more concerned with laundry and making sure the girls have adequate clothing. Also, plug adapters are giving me fits.

Tomorrow we fly from New Orleans to Dallas. We have a 3 hour layover there before flying on to London. When we arrive, it will be 11:30 a.m. local time on Monday, but it will feel like 5:30 a.m. to us. At 1:30 p.m., we board a flight to Lyon, France that will arrive at 4:30 local time. Then, we must take a bus for the 1 hour trip to Grenoble. The station is approximately 5 minutes walking distance from our apartment. Only God knows how we're going to get three kids and a ridiculous amount of luggage from the station to our apartment, but I'm sure we'll figure it out.

----------

Did you know that you can subscribe to this blog and receive emails when it gets updated? Well, now you do.