- Sell my car
- Eat at Le Burger à 6 Pâtes once more
- Close my bank account
- Cancel car insurance
- Sample the local nightlife properly
- Leave
Here's how it went:
1. Sell the car
When I bought the car back in November, the seller assured me that if I brought it back in a fair condition, he'd buy it back off me, on the premise that as a Renault Clio, it would sell on easily. Inevitably, when I showed up, he reeled off the spiel about how much the market has deteriorated in the last 6 months and explained how he couldn't possibly buy the car. Hmm. So I was left with the task of selling a 19 year-old petrol car by myself, in a rural part of a foreign country. Not a problem. I realised that Fumel as a town was not an ideal place to be selling a car, so I set off for nearby Villeneuve-sur-Lot, hoping to find a second hand dealer to take it off my hands. The reaction I got was the same in every place I visited, and that was a lot. The impression was that, the car was too old, and as a petrol, not worth the price I was asking, which was very low. So I headed back across to Fumel, and then further towards Cahors, all to no avail. Then a friend alerted me to leboncoin.fr, a sort of Craigslist in France. Apprently it's the go-to site in France whenever you're looking for anything. So I placed an ad for the car for free without much hope, as I was meant to be leaving a week later. So with 'for sale' signs in the window of the car and around town, I entered the final week expecting to bring the car back to England with me, which I quite liked the sound of. Then out of the blue, I get a call from someone who'd seen the ad online and was interested. A day later and I'd sold the car and was able to cancel my insurance in 5 minutes. Very happy. The process of selling a car is fairly simple, but as everyone knows is standard in France, there is a lot of paperwork. Thankfully as the seller, my part was fairly minimal, but for the buyer, it's a bit of a nightmare. But I won't bore you with all that. The end result is that I had to part with my beloved Clio, which had completely changed my time in France.
2. Eat at Le Burger à 6 Pâtes
I mentioned a while ago that I was laying off the delicious burgers but decided to head back there during my last week to sample their newest addition to the menu, Le Duck. I was cautious at first, unsure as to whether duck belonged in a bun with chips or not. It does. Le Duck is a triumph, as are all the burgers on the menu. If you're in Lot-et-Garonne, venture out to Fumel and visit this place.
3. Close my bank account
A tricky situation for me, in that I am expecting a payment later in the summer, once appropriate paperwork is processed. I explained that I would not be using the account again, but money would be coming in later on so would want to cancel it then. Usually it's an absolute certainty to be present in the original branch of the bank when you want to close it, but I think they've allowed me to email them when I'm done using it so fingers crossed. One thing that they said was impossible, was to cancel my statements being posted to my old address. In the UK, paper statements are increasingly rare and so I assumed that this wouldn't be a problem, but I was told that a new address had to be given. In the end, we agreed that the statements, even though they would show zero activity, would be sent to the branch, who would destroy them. Fair enough.
4. Cancel car insurance: taken care of.
5. Sample local nightlife
Le Burger à 6 Pâtes offers the only real 'night' in Fumel, every Friday with its cocktail parties. I never made it to one, but did have a few of the cocktails, which were tasty. I'm told that the only real night out in this part of Lot-et-Garonne is London's Discotheque, just outside Villeneuve-sur-Lot. I finally got to experience this thanks to a local school tradition, the Percent. The Percent celebrates 100 days before the first exam of the Baccalaureate for students in their final year of Lycee, and during the day, those students come to school in fancy dress to lark around, throwing flour, eggs and anything else on the other students. In the evening, they all descend upon the local discotheque and invite their teachers to join them, so we did. The location of London's is rather bizarre, out of town on the road to Bordeaux surrounded by car dealerships, and so without the large group of students, I struggle to see who would be there, but anyway, it was good to see some life in the area past 10pm.
6. Leave
I have become very attached to Fumel, after a difficult start in the town, and so finally leaving it was somewhat saddening. The fact that when bathed in sunshine the town looks infinitely better than usual made it even more difficult. Anyway, after some emotional goodbyes, I hopped on the bus from Monsempron-Libos station, headed to Agen for a few days. SOmething that made leaving a little more difficult, was the fact that I genuinely have no idea if i'll ever be back to the town. Seeing as it's not that easily accesible, returning from further afield in France for a quick visit wouldn't be that easy, but I do hope at some stage I can return. Farewell Fumel, it's been emotional.
All that's left for me is a brief stay in Agen, en profitant of my final days in France, before heading back to the UK from Toulouse with Easyjet.
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| Cheerio Clio |
3. Close my bank account
A tricky situation for me, in that I am expecting a payment later in the summer, once appropriate paperwork is processed. I explained that I would not be using the account again, but money would be coming in later on so would want to cancel it then. Usually it's an absolute certainty to be present in the original branch of the bank when you want to close it, but I think they've allowed me to email them when I'm done using it so fingers crossed. One thing that they said was impossible, was to cancel my statements being posted to my old address. In the UK, paper statements are increasingly rare and so I assumed that this wouldn't be a problem, but I was told that a new address had to be given. In the end, we agreed that the statements, even though they would show zero activity, would be sent to the branch, who would destroy them. Fair enough.
4. Cancel car insurance: taken care of.
5. Sample local nightlife
Le Burger à 6 Pâtes offers the only real 'night' in Fumel, every Friday with its cocktail parties. I never made it to one, but did have a few of the cocktails, which were tasty. I'm told that the only real night out in this part of Lot-et-Garonne is London's Discotheque, just outside Villeneuve-sur-Lot. I finally got to experience this thanks to a local school tradition, the Percent. The Percent celebrates 100 days before the first exam of the Baccalaureate for students in their final year of Lycee, and during the day, those students come to school in fancy dress to lark around, throwing flour, eggs and anything else on the other students. In the evening, they all descend upon the local discotheque and invite their teachers to join them, so we did. The location of London's is rather bizarre, out of town on the road to Bordeaux surrounded by car dealerships, and so without the large group of students, I struggle to see who would be there, but anyway, it was good to see some life in the area past 10pm.
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| Fumel in April sunshine |
6. Leave
I have become very attached to Fumel, after a difficult start in the town, and so finally leaving it was somewhat saddening. The fact that when bathed in sunshine the town looks infinitely better than usual made it even more difficult. Anyway, after some emotional goodbyes, I hopped on the bus from Monsempron-Libos station, headed to Agen for a few days. SOmething that made leaving a little more difficult, was the fact that I genuinely have no idea if i'll ever be back to the town. Seeing as it's not that easily accesible, returning from further afield in France for a quick visit wouldn't be that easy, but I do hope at some stage I can return. Farewell Fumel, it's been emotional.
All that's left for me is a brief stay in Agen, en profitant of my final days in France, before heading back to the UK from Toulouse with Easyjet.
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