How did we do?

Before we came to Manosque we had a list of goals. Now that we’re approaching the end of our adventure, I wanted to revisit the list and decide how much of it we’ve managed. For me, the biggest hurdle to getting anything done has been the childcare. Sharing the childcare doesn’t halve the burden, though it does reduce it. Although looking after three kids is a huge job, the obvious up-side for me is that I’ve had a chance to share six uninterrupted months with them.

Most of our list of aims are in the ‘What?’ page (link at the top and on the right).

1. Speaking French
   We’ve done plenty of this. Do you know that the French for a ladder is the same as the French for the scale of a map? I do.
2. Eat olives, drink wine and generally rest and recuperate
   Yes, yes and yes. Well, duh!
3. Teaching the kids to swim
   We’ve been taking the kids to bébés nageurs every Saturday morning and they love it. They can’t swim unaided, but love to kick about in the deep end with a float and a dozen bath toys each.
4. Writing a book
   I’ve been doing some writing. There’s the novel (of which I’ve written about 15,000 words, all of them crap), the screenplay (which I started this week) and a few short story ideas that I’ve jotted down. At this rate I predict that I’ll be bothering publishers in about 2010, which, co-incidentally, is when the screenplay is set.
   Meanwhile, Becky has written a couple of magazine articles and has started researching target publications for the latest one. It’s bound to sell, because it’s really good.
5. Learning about urban regeneration
   Becky has used some of her time off from the kids to research different approaches to urban regeneration in France. A slight disappointment is that she hasn’t managed to visit or volunteer with actual projects (time ran out) but she’s learnt a lot from the web.
6. Creative things
   We started well, making most of our Christmas presents out of papier maché. Of course, after the initial enthusiasm we fizzled out, so that now I’ve got a mannekin’s head and torso and some plastic legs to bring home next month. On the other hand, Cara and Theo are still going strong and have produced a dozen greetings cards each, an animal A-Z frieze, several letters, exercise books full of sketches and some collages.
7. Become a guitar maestro
   I’ve been working really hard at this. Only time will tell.
8. Earn some money
   On this front we’ve drawn zip. Unemployment in France is running at about 10%, and in Manosque it is even higher – about 13%. At the labour exchange they told us we should just turn up regularly and hassle them for work, but we didn’t think it fair. So, tomorrow, when we pick up Caroline, Mat and the kids from Aix-en-Provence, we’re going to try our hand at busking. With any luck we’ll make enough money to pay for the petrol to get us home again.

 

From Becky: Looking for Work: I’ve been promising for ages to do a post about looking for work. Jasper’s got here first, so I’ll fill in a bit. It’s been a revelation to me looking for work in a high-unemployment area. Being used to Alton and Oxford, where there was always a choice of casual work during student holidays, I said blithely ‘Oh, we’ll just do some olive picking, or maybe bar work’. When it became clear that olives are picked by farmers and drinks served by professional waiters, I resigned myself to signing up with a temping agency to work on production lines. It would be interesting – we’d meet some ‘real’ people. We filled in reams of paperwork, produced CVs in French, attached photos and supporting paperwork, asked neighbours to check our French, took advice on how best to present ourselves (‘Don’t mention your previous salaries, whatever you do. We don’t do that in France – you get the job, THEN negotiate the salary’). Ten days after submitting the paperwork I went into the temping agency and was told to put my name on that day’s list and they’d call if any work came in, but they warned that it wasn’t very likely. There were already about 15 names above mine on the list, all saying ‘will consider anything’. It was 9.30 a.m. We’ve also looked on every possible noticeboard and in the papers. The jobs page of the local paper consists of about 3 adverts for highly-skilled posts, and a couple of columns of people looking for work.

 

The noticeboards are full of people offering childcare, ironing and, yes, English lessons. My little ads joined them, but only once did I see one with a little phone-number strip torn off it. It was at the family centre. I told Jasper excitedly when I got home, and he admitted, shame-faced, that he’d torn it off himself to make it look as if there was some interest. I’ve only ever seen one poster offering work here (they’re in every shop window in Oxford). It was in a newspaper office, asking for delivery drivers. I asked at the counter, and was told huffily ‘It’s nothing to do with us - it’s an independent agency. Ring the number on the poster’. I took down the numbers and rang both, several times. One gave a fax tone; the other said it was unavailable. So we gave up. It’s been wonderful not having to work for six months, and I’ve certainly gained some respect for unemployed people in high-unemployment areas. We’re clearer than ever that we live in an extremely priviledged area of Britain, and if we ever want to go travelling again, we’ll think hard about arranging work before we set off.