A place to stay.

Salut tout le monde,

About the place I live in, what...?
Last May I moved to a 'colocation.' This means rentsharing, so yeah I live together with a bunch of Frenchies. It's terrific, fantastic and fun. But let's start with where it began.

I'm living in Lyon, since I moved there for a job, a year and a half ago. Housing always poses some problems. Either to small or to big, too expensive, not in the right place and in some cases not the right people. The trick is to find the right balance. I started of in a empty campus, during the summer it was inhabited by co-workers and me. But as campusses go, they are empty during holidays, but inhabited by students during the rest of the year. So I had to move at the end of August 2008. At the time I wasn't on a permanent contract so the employer still took care of where to live. They chose a hotel where you could rent little appartments. I moved in there with two other collegues and we had a blast, unfortunately it was not near town, nor work. For some reason they figured I had a driver's license and a car. I don't have either of them, so public transport became a big part of my daily occupations. Time to look for something else. Nearing the end of a two month period I wasn't getting along with the other two inhabitants anymore, so I should move on.
Through freshly made friends I got in touch with a landlord who had a room for rent right in the centre of town. We met and visited the appartment and it was great. 30m² Bathroom including bath, mezzanine, a little storage space, fridge. Downsides: no natural light as it was on the interieur of the building and frankly I need people around. Not even talking about the price. Me being a Dutch citizen, and French law demanding that you have somebody to back-up payment in case you can't manage yourself proved a problem for the landlord, He didn't accept m parents, my parents didn't accept his demands, meaning he wanted to know about their payslips and taxes. Fin bref... We decided I could rent the appartment on a fixed contract for 6 months, 2 months payed in advance as a garantuee. I happily accepted and moved in. These 6 months I build up friendships, getting to know town and basically get sorted and settled in France. One of the best things I started was to get into Couchsurfing (more of that later.)
6 months passed quickly, but I was aware of this, so I started looking for a new place in time. Set my goals low. Cheaper, together with somebody or more, good connection to work, possibility to go out into town. and so the search began. Plenty of options available in March, because the students use to start their internships during that period so place opening up in plenty colocs. I think I have never moved around town more, visited more appartments/people then before. I usually take the first thing I like. But this time it didn't come as easy. The don't call us, we'll call principle applied quite a lot. More often this meant they didn't call me anymore, but I wasn't sitting around waiting. Finally... A positive reply, or rather an invitation to come to the party they were throwing later that week. Never turn down a party offer from a possible future roommate. Wow, it seemed like such a nice small appartment, but it was crowded and if I was any indication these people could all be there to be the one to live there. No worries, here comes the host and she starts talking to me. Try juggling alcohol, foreign languages, girls and house searches at the same time and you know what I want through. But somehow I managed, because she actually told me that she was interested in having me as her future roommate. They were living with 5 of them at the time and 1 would move out a month before the others. To keep the balance they'd take a girl first, but 1 of May would perfect if I still wanted the room. Location: check, Price: check, People: check and the date: Double CHECK!!
That was however not where I'm living now. And in retrospect, thank them ever so much for their late cancelation of the spoken agreement. Halfway through April I dropped by to ask when I could start moving my stuff in. When the so delicately notified me they had no place for me anymore. Shit... I had stopped searching and now time wasn't on my side anymore. Time = relative, or at least some famous scientist suposedly proved this. Luck was on my side.
I checked out the usual sites for possibilities and send a few requests. Next morning I get a phonecall. How would I like to come and dine with the coloc? That's funny, usually you sit down for half an hour, they fire some questions at you, show you around the appartment and then the door. The place is situated on one of the buslines from work, so I go right there after. First impression, the iron gates open to a beautiful garden. My old dutch reflexes kicked in for a second, and I offer a hand to the girl welcoming me, instead of the more usual cheek. Why...? No matter though there's plenty of more people to meet and I adapt quickly. I meet 7 out of 9 people living there that night, plus a few people just hanging around. We have dinner with 13 people in total. Sit down for a drink afterwards and I go home totally overwhelmed and with the knowledge you don't come across places like this often.
Two days later a text message, asking if I would like to come by again, the other 2 people would be at home that evening. When I meet the first of the 2, he greets me and mentions that it's just a formality, because basically the decision was taken the day before. What did you just say...? Oh if you want to you can start moving your stuff in this weekend and will you be sleeping here or at your old place tonight? All this before I even meet the last of 9 people.

Eat your heart out, relative or not, time is no issue.
Jol Rael / Lyon / Distracted