La vie au Moulin à Nef

The Resident Director sends each fellow a copy of the Fellow Information Packet as a pdf file. It’s full of helpful information about your stay at Moulin à Nef.

Residence

Fellows stay in the Maison Vieilhescazes. There are four roomy bedrooms, one on the ground floor and three upstairs. Each fellow has their own bedroom. The three upstairs rooms share two bathroom (as of 2015). The Resident Director will arrange for one group dinner a week and will take you to the public market and supermarket Tuesday morning at Valence d’Agen. Cooking and housekeeping are up to you and your fellow fellows.

Studios

Your studio will be next door to the MV in La Cebo, the 17th century house transformed into four working studios.

What’s up in Auvillar

There are currently five restaurants in Auvillar, as well as a pizza truck in Auvillar on Thursday evenings and in Espalais (short walk across the bridge) on Friday evenings. There is a Post Office – La Poste – complete with bank machine which will work with US debit cards and credit cards with PIN numbers. Careful on big fête weekends, it sometimes runs out of money. There is also a newly combined corner grocery and tabac, a soap store, a gift store, and three art galleries.

Internet at Moulin à Nef

Much like VCCA in Virginia used to be, internet access is problematic in rural France. We have the highest speed connection currently available, a broadband wireless service, but it’s only 4mb and we all share the same connection. It’s also prone to slowdowns and outages. When it’s working, it works well in both the studio building and the MV, but when it’s out it’s out. Please use it the way you would like others to use it, e.g. no peer to peer file sharing, resize photos before uploading, no internet radio, etc.

Electricity

It’s a 220 volt world in France, with European style plugs. Find adapters like these pictured below for all you your electronics. The more expensive transformer/adaptors aren’t big enough for high dryers and don’t help with electronics – you don’t need one.

adapter2prong
USA-France Adapter 2-prong
adaptor3prong
USA-France Adapter 3-prong

These won’t work with high-wattage devices like hair-dryers, curlers, etc, but they work perfectly for all laptops, phones, iPads, etc. There are 220 volt hair dryers in the MV for your use.

Money

US$ cash and travelers checks are impossible here. Please bring either euro currency or a debit card with a PIN that you can use at any bank machine. US credit cards will work for many things but not all.