Well, I survived 7 months of working in a French high school and three visits--my dad, my brother, and a college buddy--and was ready to settle down into a nice routine of doing absolutely nothing when on Monday morning I awoke to the sound of jackhammers outside my window. I'm not sure exactly what the construction workers are doing out there, but they arrive at 8:30 in the morning and don't stop till noon. Then they (and I) get a break until 14:00 when they start again. As far as I can tell, they are digging up rectangular sections of the road, doing something, and then filling them up again. During their off-duty hours, the holes are covered up by metal plates that make a very loud *BOOM* noise when someone drives over them. I hope it's over soon.

The only good thing about it is that I couldn't oversleep on Wednesday, when prospective renters came to look at the apartment. Jube and I hadn't cleaned since my last houseguest left, which meant that we needed all the time between 8:30 and 12 to tidy up. I just finished mopping when the sonnette rang and we ushered in the Fernandez women. They didn't seem too happy with the apartment (whaaaaaaa??), but no big deal, the next two visitors were both ready to sign a lease on the spot. The propriétaire also came by and seemed pleased with the paint job Jube and his parents had completed back in August. Immediately afterwards, we went online to check out apartment prices in Nice, and were very disappointed to find that they are much more expensive than Montpellier. As we Americans say, "C'est la vie!"