TO NICE AND BACK- GETTING SET UP FOR SUCCESS 

Yes, Janice you WERE very lucky. Your apartment is nicely furnished. I won't lie. We were very disappointed with the furniture our landlord chose to provide. When I spoke with the management company about having the landlord remove those things we aren't going to use, they told us that the owner feels that if she takes the furniture in the living room and dining room away (at her expense) then she is no longer providing a "furnished apartment". I said "even if we TELL her it's ok?" They said yes. There's another bookcase, I didn't mention that we don't want to use. The owner told the management company that it MUST stay in the apartment. MUST! So Jeff slid it in the back of a closet. And yes, the apartment was extremely dusty. The kitchen and bathroom looked clean, and furniture wasn't dusty, but closets were very dusty, everywhere and everything in the kitchen cabinets and drawers was dusty and had to be put in the dishwasher before using. Our agent told us she often sees this, not always, but often. We didn't want to make too many waves because we really do love the apartment. So we're picking our battles. Hoping maybe the owner will reconsider removing the furniture at her expense or at least consider paying for the storage of it off-site. If not, we'll just deal with it. Welcome to France.

@@postcardsfromourgoldenyears well speaking of furniture my living room furniture is all gone right now I’m going to be getting new furniture but it might expense but they’re storing it here in my storage room so that if and when I leave they can have it back

@@JaniceInFrance You're lucky there is a storage room to store it in. Our building doesn't have any storage and the only place to store the stuff IN the apartment would be in the guestroom and I don't want to junk it up with a lot of stacks of furniture.

Thank you for sharing. You finally have your apartment!🎉 slowly but surely it’ll be fantastic!

No, it said it was a bedsheet on the package.

No, it definitely said it was a bedsheet on the outside package wrapping and we bought it off of a display of bed sheets at the Monoprix. I guess you could use it as a duvet cover, but I doubt it. I think it was too thin.

Yes. put comforter inside

LOL. Yes, we know what a duvet cover is. This was definitely NOT a duvet cover. It said it was a bed sheet on the package. Technically I guess a comforter could have fit in it. The material would have been thin for a duvet cover. And we trusted the sign at the store that said "draps de lit" and the words on the package (translation: bed sheets). It was rather funny!

Yes, we know duvet covers. We've used them for many years. In the US they don't have long bottle neck shape at the open end, which is what threw us off. In the US, the open end is straight across. Here they have a long bottleneck shaped flap around 2ft long that extends out from the upen end of the sheet. Technically I think you can tuck it under the bottom of your mattress.

Thank you so much for saying that. That is exactly how we want our viewers to feel. Enjoy your trip to France!

Jeff feels much better, thanks. There is no need for you to apologize about the closet size in France or the fact that we aren't pleased with some of the furniture. It's not that important to us because we always planned to buy new furniture anyway. We were expecting the closets to be even smaller. They are actually bigger than we expected! And yes, we already plan to put some things in storage if we can't find space in the closets to store the boxes. This is not my first rodeo on keeping alternate season's clothes in boxes. I did that for most of my life. We are great pros on finding ways to store things. When people move to Florida from the northern part of the US, we all usually start with storage units. It's just a part of life. But thanks for your concern. 😊

I am glad. Keep smiling and being positive. I love to see how much your dream is coming true. :) @@postcardsfromourgoldenyears

Just do it! For us, it was worth all of the time and effort it took to plan. 😍

We didn't take more photos of the apartment than we needed to communicate with the management company and so the photos are limited. At some point after we get our new furniture for the living room dining room and master bedroom, we'll do a before and after video showing where we started. We had great success working with Adrian and her staff. Adrian is an expert on so many facets of becoming an expat in France, from the US. She gave us lots of advice and tips. They were very firm about the qualifications we needed to provide in order for them to present us to landlords (ie the guarantor/Garantme and our dossier) but she deals with a lot of people who work with her because they know she only presents very qualitied people. So even though we quietly balked at having to go to the added expense of using Garantme, thinking our financial info should speak for itself, we suspected that if we didn't get the garantor, she probably wouldn't have represented us in the search for the rental. We're hoping maybe our landlord will let us drop Garantme after the first year of the lease, but who knows. Adrian's staff is very responsive and very knowledgeable. Once we told them that we had made the application for our long stay visas and had the in person appt scheduled, her colleague, Kathy, started working on the search. It was about 2 weeks time from her first zoom call with us to get more info on what we're looking for to signing the lease. I will suggest that when you get to the apartment searching time, keep in mind that there's a shortage of rentals in Nice and probably many people chasing the same available rentals. If you see something you like, grab it. Don't wait to see more. We were afraid to say "show us more". We literally loved the first place we saw (even though we didn't like a lot of the furniture) so we made application for it immediately. We were afraid if we said "show us more" and then came back to that 1st apt it would be gone, to one of the other people seeing it, that fast.

@@postcardsfromourgoldenyears Thank you so much! Good luck with your move. We’ll probably see you walking around in Nice someday.

@@jeffinabnit9819 Without a doubt!

Hi, Perhaps you confused me with Janice. She is on a different channel. And yes, most movers will not move alcohol. If people DO sneak some bottles of wine in their boxes, I've heard they labelled their boxes "kitchenwares" or something like that. The customs people do not open every box when the shipments come into the EU. But the mover was more concerned about shipping liquids in general. In fact they don't want to move anything that has chemicals in it, like household cleaners, toiletries, etc. They didn't even want to move a box of soaps I had. Thanks for your good wishes. An and Jeff

Sounds great! PM us when you're settled. We do have company coming in mid to late July, but always up for a coffee or glass of wine, with new friends.

Thank you for your message. No, unfortunately, no vacuum cleaner. We'll need to buy one. There is a sweeper and I bought lots of paper towels and cleaners. 😊

Oh boy! Sorry! It will all be ok .

Yes, apparently there are lots of people dealing with Covid. Just like people who suffer from the flu, covid has become one of those illnesses that seems to become frequent during this time of the year...and we've both been vaccinated and boostered, a few times. Fortunately, Jeff's covid didn't last long and I never got it. We saw a number of people wearing masks in France.

I've had duvet covers for many years, probably most of my adult life, here in the US. The "sheet" we purchased was not shaped like a typical duvet cover. Typically duvet covers are straight across one side where you insert the converter and then button or snap it closed. This particular item had an elongated bottle neck shape, on the open end. The center of the one side of the sheet was narrower in the middle and extended out beyond the rest of the sheet, like a long narrow flap and there were no buttons or snaps. THAT is why we didn't think it was a duvet cover. We know what a duvet cover is. This was not a typical duvet cover, if in fact that's what it is.

I stand corrected. Never seen anything you've described. Hopefully you can still use it? Maybe ask next time you visit the store - I'm sure a lot of us viewers would be interested in its purpose. Good luck with your move ( we lived in Paris and Menton for 5 years - great memories).

@@7314jazzy Yes, we simply tucked all the sides under the mattress and slept on top of it like a regular sheet. I've packed some king sized sheets that we can use for a little while until we find "real" bedsheets (and get our new bed). Thanks for your kind words.

He IS finally feeling better today (Sunday morning) Thanks!

Yes, Didi. Send me a PM and we'll make a date for coffee sometime next month 😊

We are using International Movers Network. I had simply googled "International movers from Florida to France" and found several. They all quoted around the same range of pricing. In the end we chose the one we did because the sales representative was so good at follow up and offered lots of advice to us. Here's their website. www.internationalmoversnetwork.com Our representative is Jonathan. Here's his email address _ jonathan@internationalmoversnetwork.com Be sure to mention that you got his information from An Scott. Good luck to you!

@@postcardsfromourgoldenyears Thank you very much for shearing, An ! It is very helpful. We will have to use it in the near future. You waked by our apartment on Gambetta on your video. 😃 It was very nice to see a little glimpse of it. We absolutely will mention your name to an agent. Thank you again! Enjoy your new beginning in the most beautiful place on earth. 🌸

Yes, thank you! Jeff tested negative for covid today and is feeling much better! Look forward to running into you on the streets or in the cafes of Nice. Good luck with your journey. Hope it all goes smoothly and uneventful.

Yes, we know exactly what a duvet cover is. We've had duvet covers forever here in the US. This was not shaped like a duvet cover at the one open end. The repair of my dental crown was 40 Euros. The dentist told me if I had been on the French health system it would have been a mere fraction of that. It was significantly less. I have had crown repairs here in the US. I once had a temporary fix that was over $100 US, a few years back. For sure dental costs in France are a lot less. I think my crown repair would have cost around 11 euros, had I been on the health system. I did a video a few months back on the low costs of dental care in France. Check it out! Here's a link to that video -- ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-9aM0aHeZ_Bk.html

Yes, I did mention it in the video. The crown repair was 40 Euros. The dentist told me it probably would have been significantly less if we had been on the French health system, maybe 11-12 euros?. I've paid over $100 for the same repair here in the US. We don't have temporary health insurance. When this happened we were just in France to check out our new apartment and bring the first load of a bunch of our clothes and things. Our Visa had not begun yet. So we are still on Medicare here in the US and our US dental coverage, which doesn't cover anything outside the US or our supplemental insurance network. The International Health insurance we had to purchase for our Visa application doesn't start until our Visas are effective next month and doesn't cover dental or doctor's visits. It is for emergency hospitalizations and related expenses. We chose not to buy a policy that covers doctor's office visits and prescriptions because it was thousands of dollars more and costs in France are so low. Plus, we can save our receipts (for expenses incurred after our Visa is in effect) and get reimbursed by the France health plan once we're on it. So with this expense a few weeks ago, it was out of pocket and we can't get any reimbursement on it from anyone.

@@postcardsfromourgoldenyears Thanks for your reply. Your story is fascinating. We are following your foot steps. Our condo is on the market in the US, we are moving to Nice as soon as it sells. We hope to be your neighbors soon!

I'm not sure. I really don't think it's a duvet cover because the open end is not flat. It is shaped like a bottle neck, sort of narrow in the middle and long, like a long flap. However, I've never seen a Japanese mattress. I just can't imagine why Monoprix was selling these sheets on a display that said bed sheets and the packages all said they were bed "sheets". Oh well....

Yes, many have said this. I'm still baffled because the package wrapper said it was a sheet. For the time being we'll use it as a sheet until I can find a good place to buy the "real" bedsheets at a reasonable price 😊

As I recall, the crown repair was 32 or 34 Euros, so maybe around $35 US. Very cheap! My husband had a filling replaced last week for $24! It's a pleasure to go to the dentist here, as far as costs! 😊

We would have no way of knowing that the landlord wouldn't want to remove the furniture we didn't want to use, at her expense, until AFTER we signed the lease. And a dusty apartment seems to be typical in France. We mentioned to our agent, from Adrian Leed's company, privately, that we didn't like the furniture when we did the first video walk-thru with her. She told us to wait until after we sign the lease and do the walk-through in person, and get the keys, to notify the management company that we would like to have those specific pieces removed. That's what we did. The management company contacted the landlord who told us it was ok to remove the table and chairs as long as there was another table and chairs there if and when we leave and suggested we donate the table and chairs to Salvation Army or something and just leave the set we purchase (or any table and 4 chairs) when we leave. Since there's a big disparity between brand new furniture and what was there, we didn't see that as a fair solution. So we have 2 choices. Dump the furniture and look for thrift store replacements if and when we leave years from now, or put them in a storage unit we'll probably have to get anyway. We actually met the landlord in a zoom meeting before she selected us to rent her apartment. She's a very nice lady. And we believe she owns the apartment next door to us so when she is there in person, she is coming to pick up another piece we aren't going to use. So, maybe we'll get to address the other stuff with her personally. We don't see the furniture issue or burned convection oven as a huge thing. I only mentioned it as an observation of what we experienced with our first France apartment rental. We already planned to buy our own living room and dining room furniture anyway (we had originally hoped to find an unfurnished apartment). And we already told the owner before we signed the lease that we wanted permission to purchase and install a regular oven in place of the convection oven and microwave, so why should she care what the 2 pieces she put there looked like. Her expectation is that when we leave, we will leave the apartment as we found it. And we will. As far as being advised to look at other apartments... please understand, there is a huge shortage of rental apartments in Nice. For every available 2 bedroom apartment there may be 4-5-6-10 people who see it and make application. The landlord picks the people she feels are the most qualified. So, with that in mind, in this market, it's tough to be very picky about things. There was only 1 other apartment available that came close to meeting our qualifications but it wasn't as close to the center of Nice as we wanted and the bedrooms had only skylights, no windows and there was no terrace. This apartment has 3. If we had said "show us more" before deciding on this one, by the time we saw more and maybe decided to come back to this one, chances are it would have been gone. There were several showings on it after we saw it. If we didn't jump on it in that instant, I am sure one of the others who saw it would have. One of our subscribers, coincidentally, told us they too were interested in this same apartment and when they went back to follow up on it it was gone (to us) There's no telling how long we could have waited to find more equally nice apartments. It is far easier to look beyond the unsatisfactory furniture, at "the bones" of the apartment and just look at the things we're not particularly happy with as little speed bumps along the way. Other than the furniture and convection oven we have no plan to use anyway, we like this apartment a lot. We would probably stay here forever if we can. If we had no plan to buy new furniture I'm sure we would have approached it differently.

Perhaps at some point in the future. We are still waiting for all of our boxes (60!) of "stuff" from the USA and furniture that we ordered, to arrive. They are still on a ship, coming across the ocean. At some point after the rest of our stuff arrives, is unpacked, and we're able to finish making our apartment look like home, we will do a little tour.

Thanks, Jeff is finally feeling much better today (Sunday)

@@postcardsfromourgoldenyears Yay!

I agree it "might" have worked as a duvet cover, however the package definitely said it was a bed sheet. The store display said they were packages of sheets. And the entire area in Monoprix where we bought it was having a sale on bed linens. We KNOW what a duvet cover looks like. This was not straight across the open side like a duvet cover. The open side went up like a wide "bottle neck". Imagine a hot water bottle shape. Typically a duvet cover has buttons or snaps on the one side and is straight across like the other 3 sides. I doubt that a comforter (unless also very thin) would have fit inside. The open end was a strange shape.

Why do you say that? We were very pleased with Adrian Leeds' and her staff.

@@postcardsfromourgoldenyears I had the impression that you were not thrilled with the apartment.

@@brianlooksaround6125 Actually, we love the apartment, the building, the location. We were just not pleased with the furniture the landlord provided or the dust in the apartment. But that has nothing to do with Adrian Leeds or her colleagues. There's a serious shortage of 2 bedroom apartments (maybe all size apts) in Nice, right now. So, when looking at the apartment you have to look beyond the furniture and if you see something even remotely satisfactory, jump on it or it will be gone really fast. Because our preference was an unfurnished apartment, since our plan was always to buy new living room and dining room furniture, we really didn't care what the furniture that came with the apartment looked like. We had no plan to use it. And the dust, well, I've spoken to others who have rented in France, in general, Paris, Nice and other places, one person told me her apartment was immaculate when she rented it, but she rented it from Americans. Everyone who told me they rented from French owners or management companies told me they had to have their apartments cleaned when they arrived. They were either dirty, dusty or needed a refresh. I don't hold that against Adrian Leed's company. We contracted with them to find us an apartment that met our needs, within our budget, in a very competitive market and within 2 weeks, not clean for us, and we saw a couple of apartments, picked one and signed the lease. They made it extremely easy for us. They sourced the apartments, read the lease before we signed, reviewed any issues, were there for the walk-thru. I can only rave about the assistance and advice we received for the money with Adrian Leeds'.

As I've told many people, the package said this was a bed "sheet". It was not shaped like a typical duvet cover. We know exactly what a duvet cover is. We've had them here in the US for years! And we did buy an actual duvet cover when we were in France, as well as a comforter. However, the open end on this "sheet" we purchased, was narrower than the opening on a duvet cover and elongated like a bottleneck shaped flap, not straight across like the opening of a duvet cover and there were no buttons or snaps. The open end did not look like the open side of a duvet cover.

Yes, almost. We have TD Ameritrade accounts that are converting to Charles Schwab over the next few months. We don't have debit cards on that account though. We have to see if they will allow us to remain clients. I thought I read somewhere that if you switch to a foreign address they will allow the account to stay open but won't allow you to add any money. It's on my list to research. I only have stock through there. If I can get my Tesla stock to break even on what I paid for it, I may just sell it and close the account and move the money to my France bank account or even Wise.

@@postcardsfromourgoldenyears With Charles Schwab, I have a brokerage account (for trading on stocks) and it is linked to my checking account (which comes with the debit card). I have used my debit card to cash the local currency in many countries, and they don't charge me any fee. If you have a U.S. address, they will let your account stay open. I need to check this out next week with my Charles Schwab branch about adding money to it if you have a foreign address. I will keep you posted ... when I find out.

@skygblue6250 Our accounts are very secure and insured by the FDIC. Just mentioning we have accounts in one bank or another is not a security issue. But thanks for your concern.

This is not an issue for us. We switched our phone service to Mint Mobile from Verizon and will keep our US number so they won't have to put in any international codes to send us codes. I have an e-sim card that allows me to switch between my US number and my France telephone number easily.

Hey, I moved to FL from Tom's River (Green Island!) Exit 88! LOL I think "jimmies" is a "regional thing".

Can I get the name of the dentist

I don't remember his name. I may have his card back in France. I don't remember if I got his card, actually. It was dental clinic in Nice Centre. There were numerous dentists at the office. I'm sure it will be easy to find on doctolib.

Yes, of course we should have worn masks, IF we knew he had covid, except that we have been vaccinated and many times boosted and we had no idea that Jeff had covid. He thought it was a sinus headache coming on just before we got on the plane, and we haven't traveled with masks in a very long time. Until that moment, he had been feeling fine. We had no masks and no chance of getting one in the middle of a flight. It is unfortunate that it turned out to be covid. Jeff felt very bad about anyone who was sitting around him on the plane. However, I was also sitting right next to him and never got covid. The timing and the flight were terrible. Fortunately, he's all better and we simply have to keep looking forward...