Breaking and entering

Our new chez nous: Anyone know a good window cleaner?

Now that our house is "hors d'air, hors d'eau" (meaning it has a roof, doors and windows) we are locked out. The builder and his cronies have the keys and are allowed full access privileges while we, as mere owners, are only allowed in when invited for official visits.

Our chef de chantier, a personable enough fellow for a Frenchman, explained to us at some length about liability, insurance and maintaining secure control of the building site...blah, blah, blah; regretfully, he could not give us a key.  Monsieur C. did not count on the subversive nature of his fellow countryman, aka mon mari, who left a window slightly ajar while I was nodding politely. So now we have been sneaking over to see our house illicitly.

Scene of the grime: an unlocked (dirty) French window

It feels a bit strange to break in to your own house.  The first time we went in, I hardly dared open the windows for fear of being seen.  Stefan laughed at me at first, then promptly lost all credibility by hiding behind a beam when a car with the builder's insignia drove by. 

From our new balcony we have a lovely view: a bit of the lake, the Jura mountains on one side, the snow-capped Alps on the other. And just next door, the sweeping bay windows of our new neighbours. Unfortunately they are curtain-less. We are not sure if they are just taking a while to amass the additional cash needed for window treatments or displaying (pun intended) a certain exhibitionist tendency. The workmen, who provide regular reports about such events, have dropped hints about housework done "à poile."

Monsieur admires the view (but which one?)

But as the saying goes, "people who live in glass houses..." The problem with windows is that you want to see out but not be seen. So you design your house to take advantage of the views and then discover that you must be careful of your own, ahem, southern exposure.

Given the amount of glass in our house, window treatments will be de rigueur, especially as we have no exterior blinds. This is quite the innovation in France where until recently home insurance was contingent upon being able to barricade every door and window with metal or wooden shutters. Now the experts have decided that double-paned windows are just as hard to break into, so we were able to save a major budget (and improved the aesthetics) of our windows. At least so I thought until we received the quote for blinds and drapes. Gasp.  Guess we'll just have to find a happy medium between living in a fishbowl and covering all our openings.