France: Our New Home

We have arrived safely in our new home for the next ten months: Albertville, France, tucked down on the edge of the French alps.  Travel went well, and our whole team got all our luggage at the airport.  Thank goodness we didn't fly through Paris, as everyone seems to think this is a surefire way to loose a bag.  The town is great, and the biggest surprise so far is the heat.  I mean, you move to the Alps, you pack heavy clothing, right?  Well, the first couple days were downright sweltering, and our apartment is the top floor with no A/C.  But it's cooling down a bit, and is quite nice now.

In response to several inquiries, we have here some pictures of our lodging.  Everyone asked about this before we left, and we had no significant info, so this was all a surprise for us, as well.  Without further ado.

A view of our building.  The classrooms and non-family apartments are on the left.  Note the mountain backdrop.  We are the topmost right two windows.  The parking lot area has a lot of kids' stuff, and the language school families have almost forty small kids this term!

A view out our window.

Our living room this morning.

A view from the living room into our dining/kitchen area.  Little fridge, but new.  Small sink, but good supply of hot water.

Ben and Maggie's room.  Someone left a 2011 Mickey Mouse calendar on our wall, so I chopped it up and decorated their walls.  They seem to love it.  All our windows are these funky bivalve ones where you can open it sideways like a cupboard, or from the top like an oven.

The distinctly Euro habit of having a separate toilet room.  There are advantages to this, but it does not seem to encourage handwashing.

Another view of the living room, with the kitchen off to the left.