On Tuesday Jeremy had to go meet his future team while I remained asleep for quite a while. When Jeremy got back he looked through his se-mails to find one from the relocation company. Someone finally contacted us after almost 2 months of practically no communication! It turns out the woman we’ve been e-mailing who is in charge of our account, who we were told speaks English, does not, in fact, speak any English so would we please start e-mailing not only her (let’s call her T) but two other women as well (V and S)? So we e-mail them yet again reconfirming that we will be here from the 3rd to the 8th and we would like to see many apartments as that was our main goal for this week, and now it is already Tuesday with no apartments seen.
We then took to city, center city to be exact. The center of Besançon is centered around the loop of the river Doubs. Most of center city is in the loop, but some is around it as well, and there are multiple bridges to cross. There was also a tramway built within the last year that takes you around center city and some of the outskirts. It is what Jeremy will be taking to work every day and it is very affordable. Center city is so adorable, and so clean! I have never seen such a clean city. They do have a bit of a graffiti problem and you have to dodge doggie-doo land mines here and there but the sidewalks practically glisten otherwise, and I saw no litter. The main square of center city is beginning to be set up for Christmas time.
After some sight-seeing we decided to attack our money problem and went to a bank to see if they could help us out. They sent us to a post office, who sent us to the regional post office, and it was there that we found an ATM that took cards with magstrips. We got 200€ for $250 (much better than the airport!) and were charged a measly $3 transaction fee, same as if you were to withdrawal from an ATM in the States.
At this point it was about 6:30 so we stopped at a sandwich store and pathetically tried to order in French. We could speak it, but we couldn’t understand it well. Luckily, the cashier’s friend spoke fluent English and helped us out. The cashier (who was possibly the owner, we couldn’t tell) was very friendly the whole time. I got the vegetarian sandwich which turned out to be basically coleslaw, cheese, honey, and mustard on a baguette and Jeremy got a burger with something called samurai sauce which he described as cheesy and mildly spicy. When we went to pay we chatted a bit and upon learning we were to be moving here, the cashier/owner got very excited for us, introduced himself as Vincent, and told us if we ever had any questions to stop by and he would do his best to help.
And that was day 2! Everyone was very friendly and tried their best to help us even when they didn’t speak English and we didn’t speak French and left us feeling very happy and secure. I apologize for the fuzzy pictures, it was raining almost the whole week and my camera was having trouble focusing.
We then took to city, center city to be exact. The center of Besançon is centered around the loop of the river Doubs. Most of center city is in the loop, but some is around it as well, and there are multiple bridges to cross. There was also a tramway built within the last year that takes you around center city and some of the outskirts. It is what Jeremy will be taking to work every day and it is very affordable. Center city is so adorable, and so clean! I have never seen such a clean city. They do have a bit of a graffiti problem and you have to dodge doggie-doo land mines here and there but the sidewalks practically glisten otherwise, and I saw no litter. The main square of center city is beginning to be set up for Christmas time.
After some sight-seeing we decided to attack our money problem and went to a bank to see if they could help us out. They sent us to a post office, who sent us to the regional post office, and it was there that we found an ATM that took cards with magstrips. We got 200€ for $250 (much better than the airport!) and were charged a measly $3 transaction fee, same as if you were to withdrawal from an ATM in the States.
At this point it was about 6:30 so we stopped at a sandwich store and pathetically tried to order in French. We could speak it, but we couldn’t understand it well. Luckily, the cashier’s friend spoke fluent English and helped us out. The cashier (who was possibly the owner, we couldn’t tell) was very friendly the whole time. I got the vegetarian sandwich which turned out to be basically coleslaw, cheese, honey, and mustard on a baguette and Jeremy got a burger with something called samurai sauce which he described as cheesy and mildly spicy. When we went to pay we chatted a bit and upon learning we were to be moving here, the cashier/owner got very excited for us, introduced himself as Vincent, and told us if we ever had any questions to stop by and he would do his best to help.
And that was day 2! Everyone was very friendly and tried their best to help us even when they didn’t speak English and we didn’t speak French and left us feeling very happy and secure. I apologize for the fuzzy pictures, it was raining almost the whole week and my camera was having trouble focusing.