Banks, Apartments and Schools, oh my.

J’aime le banque Crédit Agricole
I took this morning off to attend to our banking needs. As I mentioned in a previous post, on Saturday I wandered into a branch of the bank Crédit Agricole, where I met the manager, M. Bartelana and his English-speaking associate M. Aviles. Today, I returned with proof of my employment to complete the process of opening an account. Mssrs. Bartelana and Aviles were there to greet me at 10am. Everything was in order except for a photocopy of a recent utility bill from our home in the U.S. – they’re willing to use this for the proof-of-residence requirement. I’ll ask Ceil to fax it over and we’ll be all set.

After the banking was over, through, we got to talking about my plans to rent an apartment in town. In France, it is necessary to have renters insurance before signing a lease – Crédit Agricole can handle that for me. It will be necessary to provide proof of my bank account – M. Bartelana gave me his card and private phone number, and told me to have the agents call him directly. And then he made several phone calls to landlords and real estate agents around town, with M. Aviles translating – how many bedrooms did I need? What price range? How many cars? Etc., etc.

At the end of our appointment, M. Aviles gave me his cel phone number and invited me to call him off-hours should I need any help translating. And then, to my surprise, M. Bartelana put on his coat and asked me to follow him out the front door – he led me a few blocks into the heart of the city to an immoblier (real estate agent) and introduced me to Sylvia. Apparently, during his phone calls, M. Bartelana was looking for agents who could speak English, as well as vacancies. All told, the folks at Credit Agricole spent well over an hour of their time with me, and offered me every assistance short of helping me unpack after we move in.

So – my solemn pledge – from now on, regardless of who leads the CA team in the Tour de France, I will root for them each and every year. I invite you to do the same. Vive Crédit Agricole!

Apartment Hunting
Sylvia showed me photos of three or four apartments on her computer – I’ve asked for something in centre ville, le quartier annciennes – the heart of town, the old quarter. A parking spot seems a necessity, given the crowded and narrow streets. We also want cuisine equipee – a kitchen with appliances already installed. In France, when you move into an apartment, it is typically bare: no light fixtures, no appliances, no window coverings, etc. I figure we can buy a certain amount of furnishings, but I’m not ready to spring to a fridge, etc.

These requirements narrowed the field quite a bit, and we wound up walking to visit two candidates. The first place has a two-car garage, and was rather modern, and utterly lacking in charm. There was a fridge and range in the kitchen, but pas four – no oven.

The second place positively exuded charm – precisely the kind of place I imagined, but no parking and no fridge. (Right away I began to rationalize – why not buy a fridge? I could bring it home, re-wire it, and turn it into a keg-erator in the back room. Sure.) It had a nice patio where we could BBQ, lots of space, beautiful old wood floors, etc. And it matches my image of what an old apartment in an ancient city in France is supposed to look like. I thanked Sylvia and agreed to get back to her next week.

Clearly, it’s too soon to jump at anything. I’m going to visit other immobiliers this week and see what my options are.

School Hunting
The apartments I saw today are close to one of the public schools and it would be a bit of a walk to the Catholic School I admired during my walk-about on Sunday. At work yesterday, one of the team members mentioned that his daughter attended a high school in Chateauroux which emphasizes foreign languages – he thinks the primary school attached to the high school might be a bit more “accessible” for Miles and Lee. He’s going to check into it and get back to me tomorrow. I also plan to visit le maire (the mayor’s office) in Bourges and see what more I can learn about options for school.

Finding our way at work
After one full week on-site at the supplier, I’m beginning to understand exactly what I / we will be doing. We’ve had good success meeting with the managers of the company and agreeing on the core issues preventing them from shipping good quality product on-time. Although their factory is a mess, with dozens of half-finished units line up all over the place, the real problem lies in their (in-)ability to get the airlines to finalize the design early enough, and their (lack of a) process for documenting a “bill-of-material” and getting parts made / purchased in time. Tomorrow we’ll have another “workshop” and charter teams to attack three or four specific issues in these areas.

I also sat in on the weekly status teleconference between the supplier and Boeing. What a mess – on both sides. The supplier guys don’t have their information gathered and organized; the Boeing guy in Seattle was calling in from his car and didn’t have his “stuff” together either. If there’s one thing I’m good at it’s running an efficient and effective meeting, so I told participants from each side that we would be making some significant improvements beginning with the next session.

So I think that’s how it’s going to go – I’ll spend about 1/3 of my time acting as a focal point for communication between the supplier and Boeing (striving, always, to get the supplier to assume responsibility for running the meetings, etc. – don’t want to build reliance on me personally). The other 2/3’s will be spent planning / facilitating improvement activities to ensure that the designs are completed and parts are ordered in a timely fashion.

A Welcome Addition to the Boeing team
Yesterday I learned that the folks organizing this project had found a senior manager to come over and lead the team. This is a terrific relief to me. I’ve been an “acting” supervisor for these folks, and although by all accounts I’m doing a great job, with each passing day, I’ve been reminded more and more of why I decided to get out of management years ago. The people on the team are great and have been doing well – but I’ve been carrying stress (on their behalf) while we sort out precisely what we’re going to do over here. I don’t mind having to sort things out for myself – in fact, I’m good at seeing what needs to be done; but it’s weary-ing to do the same (or at least, to feel as if I need to do the same) for four or five other people.

The new leader is a guy I know and like very well – we worked together years ago and we’ll make a great partnership on this project. In many respects, the timing is perfect – we’ve been over hear learning, laying the foundation, and he can arrive after the French holiday season is over, and help us stay focused, manage the bosses back in Seattle, deal with all the expense reports, etc. And plus, he is bringing is wife and kids too, so hopefully, this will be a bit more community and support for us. Amen.

C’est tout pour maintenant, mes amis. Ou revoir.