Our first day in Nantes

Although we arrived late last night, I’m considering this day one in Nantes…
We slept, and woke up, and slept again. Finally got up around 1:30pm. But before you laugh, I was up from 3:00am to 6:30 emailing frantically regarding our shipped items, communicating with our friends back on Whidbey who are holding them, and the company, who for some reason didn’t pick it up today. Plus I was awake for a total of about 30 hours on travel day. So my brain is somewhat fried.
We arrived to our very French apartment to no hot water, no shampoo or soap. One frantic cold shower later, and setting up a litter box for the kitties, we crashed. The best thing is that the mattress is huge and it is fucking awesome. No wonder we slept so long!
Today we went and picked up the fabulous Miss M, and set off to IKEA, and the hugest supermarket ever. We got almost everything we needed (ie a litter box and rugs) and then went to the super market.
Unfortunately for Miss M, who has the patience of a saint, we were like kids in candy land. Coming from a virtual vegan food dessert on Whidbey, this place was like Willy Wonkas factory! So many options! And a big cat tower scratcher thing to put together for the kitties. The vegetables here are just beyond amazing, and a whole huge section for vegan prepared foods; cordon blue, crocque monseur, shrimpette thingies, cheeses… I can’t even remember all the things we threw into our cart. Plus lots of beer to try and wines. Trash bags, laundry soap, shampoo, body wash, dish soap, cat food and litter… just everything you need to set up house… and it all came to about €300, which would be at least double that in the states. I can’t get how equitable the grocery prices are in the EU and UK.
So that was our day. We wanted to take advantage of having a car while we do.
Tomorrow we return the car and will finally have a chance to get out in the neighborhood to explore on foot.
Our boxes arrive on Friday and we’ll have bicycles.
I feel almost dizzy, whether it’s from travel or just the sudden upheaval… or maybe just from the fact that we have arrrived.
One other bit.. we have zero French vocabulary. We tried to do some study before we left the States, but honestly, my brain couldn’t cope with one more thing. So now we have to ask… everyone. But everyone goes absolutely out of their way to be kind and helpful. It’s really wonderful.
So tonight I cooked our first meal, and wow, just so good. It turns out that we are super close to the biggest open market in the city, so that will be our go-to for fresh ingredients in the future.
Starting over from scratch… it’s stressful, bewildering, overwhelming and lots of hard work… but worth it! I feel like tomorrow is really the beginning of getting to know our new home.