Renting an appartment... and looking for tenants

We are excited because next week we will be looking at several places to live for next winter. It's a hard choice on paper, between Val d'Isere (bigger town, great services, but $$$) and the Trois Vallees area (limited services, less expensive, more authentic). I'm hoping that one of the places we look at will just "click" and the decision will be easy. We have been getting better at our French telephone skills, though it is still a bit scary to call people. (I'm in the habit of writing a script ahead of time, which actually gets me in trouble because the person on the other end then often overestimates my language skills!) And certain people have a tendancy to scream into the phone with absolutely no enunciation. Which would be kind of humerous if we weren't trying to get some information from them! The conversation goes something like this:

Man on phone: C'est Gegor de (unintelligible) Belleville! (Unintelligible) studio a louer (unintelligible) annee (unintelligible) Belleville!

Craig: Bien, nous voudrions le voir, est-ce que lundi marche pour vous?

Man on phone: C'est GEGOR! G-E-G-O-R!

...and so on.


...And on the home front, we are looking for new tenants for our apartment. The photo of our view is above. Here is the "ad":

Queen Anne View condo for rent $1650/month.

Your chance to live with the "Fraiser" view! 1000 square feet, 2 bedroom, 1 bath, gas fireplace, balcony, washer/dryer, dishwasher. Easy access to downtown Seattle, UW, SPU. Walking distance to restaurants, theater/ballet/opera, major sporting events, and all services. One secure parking spot and storage unit. Your rent includes basic cable TV, gas, water/sewer/garbage and hot water. No smoking. Cats OK. 1 year lease.

Let us know if you know anyone interested.

Finally, right now we're back in Chamonix (free Wi-Fi at l'Office du Tourisme), and will see our friend Marge Wheeler, who is here on her way to guiding an Haute Route trip!

-SK
a Chamonix