Unexpected benefits of hostel living

For the last three weeks since we got here we've been staying at a little hostel called Résidence Creolile (www.creolile.re) and it's been great.    Jean-Fabien the young guy who owns it only opened it recently so there is still stuff being done to it in outside but the hostel is small (just three studios and three dorms), bright, cheerful and friendly.  Plus the guys here are really friendly, helpful and great to be around.

Résidence Creolile

Laurence teaching Ela the drums

 

We have the largest studio here.  It's two rooms a private living/kitchen/dining room and a bedroom with a double and two singles.  So we are all sleeping in the same room which while it may not be the most romantic of setups does have unexpected benefits.  As the bedroom is closest to the corridor Aurelie and I pass through it a lot when the kids are asleep (luckily they are both heavy sleepers) when we are going back and forth so we get to see them sleeping la lot and do you know what, sleeping kids are the funniest/cutest things in the world!  And as any parent of young kids can tell you it's really quite nice just to watch then while they sleep.  Back home we'd put the kids down to bed and leave them to sleep but because of the move and our current set up we find ourselves just stopping to look at them sleeping as we are passing by, something we could have done any evening back in Dublin but just never really did as much.

We had the place generally to ourselves for the first two weeks but things have gotten a bit busier this week as there is an international bodyboarding competition happening here at the moment and a lot of the guys involved with the media side of it are staying here.  So the place is full of surfer guys (and they are all guys bar the masseuse), one of them even called me "dude".  They are nice guys though we only see them in the evening as they are off covering the event from before dawn each morning.

It looks like we'll be here for a few more weeks (no complaints) as the house we have decided on (finally) probably won't be available until the start of November.  It's a creóle house with lots of fruit trees (litchi, coconut, banana, custard-apple and possibly more) to provide shade and fruit (hopefully).  We should be signing the rental documents on Tuesday so it'll be good to have that sorted all going well (you never know with French paperwork!).