Initial Impressions

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We arrived on Weds 9/3 and have now 5 days of experience. The apt is a little less than we hoped but OK--high ceilings, clean, just old and not a lot of comfortable places to sit. It has lots of room. It did not come with a coffee pot. We bought one right away!
So far, the weather has been either hot and humid and they don't air condition anything here, not even banks, stores, etc. or hot but breezy so much more comfortable. It cools off nicely at night.
The neighborhood area seems a little scary and there a lots of beggars on the streets. The owners say there is no major crime, only pickpockets. We did notice this apt. had an attempted break-in. It happened this time last year. They did not get in the apt but the door has broken areas of wood where they tried.

We kinda stand out here. No one looks like us and few speak much English. Garry is getting better with his French each day. Kathy knows 3 words, "please, thank you and pardon", as she runs into people a lot and does not know where she is going.
Yesterday we walked out of our neighborhood and over to a nicer area where we had a glass of wine at a outside cafe and watched the boats in the harbor, then got lunch somewhere else so 2 successful ordering experiences. Garry speaks some French but the people help out by guessing.
Its expensive here, a coke (1 can) is 3.00 euros (4.5 in US) same as the wine. We plan to drink the wine! A nice French feature is a small carafe of tap water comes with any order. They don't use much ice in drinks here but since they know we are Americans and they bring us extra cups of ice. So far, so good!

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