New Home in Chartrons

We moved to a new home yesterday amidst the French national protest chaos.  We've been looking forward to the move since the day we lost Evania and Noah temporarily.  Our new home is much closer to kids' school, about 15 min walk through a residential street, very quiet and straightforward.  No need for buses or trams.  It is located in the Chartrons district of Bordeaux, just North of the city centre, known as a trendy, posh neighbourhood.  If we use Victoria as a reference, I'd say Chartrons is a bit like Oak Bay or Fairfield neighourhood of Victoria.

As early as the 18th century, the whole district became a busy hub for wine cellars and merchants due to its proximity to Garonne River for wine exports.  However, in the post war years, it was abandoned by business owners.  In early 2000s, the government decided to revamp the entire area. If you take a stroll through the Chartrons neighbourhood, you'll notice the typical old architecture facade on most buildings, which are now occupied by restaurants, offices, schools, and even private homes.  Now, it's highly desired area to live.  It's quite nice.  It's like walking through a time machine into the past.

This is the residential street that our kids take to and from school daily from now on, one way traffic, not very busy.  We're planning on getting Evania and Noah to walk Levina to school next week.  

Our new home is only slightly bigger than the previous one but it feels like a home.  It's a two bedroom, one bath house.  Yes, we'll have to get creative with 1 bath for 5 people.  😂

Here's our living room with a pullout couch.  Kids will take turns to get the couch.  Noah started this time.  He said he had a great sleep last night.  

 Notice the coffee table?  It's made from an old barn door.

A solid dining set.  The dining chairs in our previous Airbnb were falling apart in the end.  I'm sure these solid wood ones will last our entire stay.

I'm enjoying the hot chocolate kids made me.

I love the big window in the kitchen, let in so much light throughout the day.

We actually have a dishwasher this time 😁 and a gas stove.  It doesn't cook as fast as the induction technology, but it's still faster than what we have back in Victoria.  It's great for stir fries, which I do on a regular basis.  The landlord was very considerate.  She bought a brand new set of pots and pans for us.  

Here's me happily cooking away.

The hallway leading to the master bedroom and bathroom.

This is the kids bedroom.

The master bedroom.  The bedding is so comfortable.

I hope I'll find myself in that chair with a book in the coming days.

Bathroom/laundry room.  We noticed something missing in the bathroom.  There's no fan or vent.  The previous Airbnb didn't have one either.  This is something I've noticed in a lot of buildings.  When you walk into a shop or a mall, you would feel the air so stale to a point that it's hard to breathe.  It's quite noticeable, at least to me.  I wonder if this is something that cannot be retro fitted in the older buildings?

Anyway, this is our new home.  We are super happy here.  The location is perfect.  The surroundings are beautiful and pleasant.  Kids say this actually feels like a home.