Moving with the Polish

As mentioned in the previous blog the packing and moving to France was all a little stressful like any other house move.  However me being me had to do it slightly differently and go on a month’s holiday after packing 75% of the house and before the moving date.

I left it to hubby to sort out how we would get all our personal belongings to France and once again this was not quite straight forward as it may seem.  The house we are renting for a year is a holiday house normally, and so it’s furnished for holiday makers.  However we rented sight unseen so I was not sure exactly what we would want to add to the mix of furniture, all my kitchen equipment, our own linen, the kids entire bedrooms, pot plants (not just any old pot plants but the trees we planted in pots on the kids naming days) and the list continues. 

I had gone down the conventional route of finding household movers but the quotes they were coming back with was (so I am reliable told) the same price of moving to Australia with twice the amount of stuff. So I then opted for a bidding war on a local site and managed to get the lowest bid down significantly however once hubby read the fine print he was not that happy with the quality of service etc.  So it was left to him and also for him to decide do we store in England (very expensive) or do we store in France (cheaper but the cost of getting there, would it be worth it?).

While on my hols got a message from hubby saying Michael is coming around on Saturday to give us a quote and decide how many vans we need.  Ok, not really sure, vans, surely one big one would do it?  However this was not any regular movers these were the Polish boys and their vans.  The quote for three seemed excessive to me but I thought at least we won’t struggle.

So moving day arrives and I am not sure what to expect, however the vans arrive early, good start.  Start to chat to the driver, Damian, as I was later to discover, NO ENGLISH, ok this is going to be fun.  Marek arrived soon after and had a little English but not too much and yes I have been concentrating on French not Polish! As I pack the last of the precious kitchen things I look up the word for FRAGILE in Polish, as start scribbling KRUCHY all over my precious breakable things.

So we had two vans and were awaiting the third.  We began packing with vigour in a very sensible way I thought, one van to go to the house and one van for storage and the third would have the extra.  Packing started well until Marek said no more, too heavy, but there is half a van space left but we bowed to superior knowledge.  We continued to pack the second but it was clear we were very tight on space and hubby wanted them to see how much stuff we had left to fit in, this is where we ran into problems and I began supervising, much to the initial amusement of the men and then grudging respect. Those skills of packing cars and bags to the hilt for sailing have not been lost on me! The third van brings Miroslav and Gosha into the mix, Gosha doesn’t say much not just the language thing, she doesn’t interact at all, not tea, coffee, nothing. However she does become very concerned when they cannot find our street on Goggle maps but I show Miroslav and reassure both of them and me it does exist.

With cries of see you on Sunday we make our seperate ways to Dover. On Sunday morning we get a call from Micheal in the office to say the vans are an hour away. 

We make a plan to meet and as our road is small and decide how best to unload and probably best to go and see the storage place.

How did we find storage in St Paul?  Well thanks to a lot of friends and emails we managed to track down Madame Abizanda who is eighty-five and has a heart problem (likes to talk a lot) but more importantly to us has a warehouse where we can store our stuff conveniently in St Paul.  Through our lovely interpreter friend we understand that this is how she earns some income and her family have been abusing it and she throwing them out because the English are coming!  Great, we are upsetting the locals already and we haven’t even arrived.

However, when we turn up, the space is large enough for our stuff and more, so hopefully we haven’t upset too many people. We unload as fast as possible although with five of us and a lot of stuff it’s not that fast, all I am saying is ‘dom’ – house and ‘magazyn’ – storage as my crafty plan of packing the vans sensibly has not quite worked. The vans naturally take up space in the road and there are a lot of curious folk about. Gosha mean while is cleaning the cabin of the van. Meanwhile, Madam gets a chair and sits and watches the show with a constant commentary.

We get back to the house and it is definitely time for lunch the kids are starving.  I had confidently bought all the things I know Polish people love, I have it from on good authority from a friend of ours who is Polish, and all you need is sausage, cheese and bread. So I lay out a smorgasbord of such with a little salad and watermelon thrown in.  Nobody is eating, except the kids, its hot I know but these guys have been working like demons all morning they must be a little hungry.  I try and encourage them to have some more and a little is eaten, but now, back to work time, ok, who am I to argue?

The last of the vans gets unloaded the house it a complete tip with boxes, bags suitcases I don’t really know how to start, but at this stage I do not care, I have a bottle of rose with my name on it and I am going to look at the view and enjoy. They then come and say to me they will help me unpack the boxes, not part of the job description, I point to the wine and explain my priority.  I asked Marek whether they were leaving St Paul tonight and he said no they wait for the next job, so I asked where they were staying, in their vans, naturally! I was curious where in the vans and they showed me the sleeping quarters above the cabin which was the size of a small double bed. Then it dawned on me these are the modern travellers, they travel huge distances loading and unloading stuff, could go at a moment’s notice anywhere in Europe (except Ukraine and Russia, I was later to find out).

Obviously I couldn’t let them loose on the ‘wilds’ of St Paul, so I offered them use of our bathroom, pool and of course they must stay for a braai (bbq).  After the ‘success’ of lunch I was a little anxious that they would not eat and perhaps had over stepped the mark.  All was well, the beers were flowing everybody’s English/Polish got better, hubby did what he does best and cooked good meat and we had a truly special evening.  So the next stop was, shrugs, who knew? Wait for the call and that’s just what they did.  They popped back for breakfast the next morning and then later that day Damien took off to Montpellier and Marek, Miroslav and Gosha, waited for two days in the Carrefour car park.  They wouldn’t accept any further hospitality and on the third day they were gone to travel to who knows where. 

I hope our paths cross again one day and I know I would use any of them to move anything for me, they were great, strong, hardworking men and there were no causalities of any sort that I have discovered from the move. I was pleased we had employed people and not just given money to a large faceless company and I think of these vans travelling all of Europe, what stories they must have.

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