It is hard to believe that just 2 weeks ago our village and surrounding countryside were covered in 6 inches of snow. As I write today, the sun is peeking out through the white clouds and it is markedly warmer. With the clocks going forward tomorrow night, it will stay light until almost 8.30 here.
We have made progress this week despite having a flat tyre on our left-hand drive Renault. My husband - Mr. Fix It you will remember -quickly put the spare on and we drove it to a local tyre garage where the most charming man spent a good half hour locating the puncture. He whistled as he worked and again we remarked on how friendly people are in this lovely part of France. We will re-register our Renault with French number plates very soon. French bureaucracy notwithstanding, this is something both my husband and I are keen to do: another step in integrating well in our new life in France. For more information on how to go about registering a car as well as how best to integrate and more, please take a look at my France Buying Guide here: www.francebuyingguide.com/guide.htm
There is so much to do in this beautiful house that one is almost spoilt for choice each day for what to do next! Currently my husband is working on making our future bedroom habitable: he has already fixed the “chauffe eau” (water heater) in the ensuite and will be going back yet again to the plumbers’ merchants this afternoon to buy enough pipe to run the plumbing and electrics up there. We await a couple of quotes for knocking the supporting wall down between the existing kitchen and next room and inserting a steel. I am so looking forward to actually seeing the space we have there and then planning our kitchen. But it is workable in its present state and I have managed to make several decent meals for us in my mini oven and stock pot!
Having a practically minded husband is something to be grateful for but sometimes he doesn’t know when to stop! Hence I took him off to Carcassonne last Sunday with the dogs. This really is quite the most stunning ancient city and is the second most visited site in the whole of France: one can easily see why. Eddie & Alfie, blissfully unaware of the history, loved meandering around the cobbled streets and we had supper in a restaurant with them by our side.
Having 2 cute dogs is definitely one way to ease the integration process: Eddie & Alfie are hugely admired wherever they go. We often take them, without leads, for a wander around the village last thing at night when all is quiet. I met a lovely girl doing just the same thing with her Alsatian the other day and we now meet up quite regularly.
We have made progress this week despite having a flat tyre on our left-hand drive Renault. My husband - Mr. Fix It you will remember -quickly put the spare on and we drove it to a local tyre garage where the most charming man spent a good half hour locating the puncture. He whistled as he worked and again we remarked on how friendly people are in this lovely part of France. We will re-register our Renault with French number plates very soon. French bureaucracy notwithstanding, this is something both my husband and I are keen to do: another step in integrating well in our new life in France. For more information on how to go about registering a car as well as how best to integrate and more, please take a look at my France Buying Guide here: www.francebuyingguide.com/guide.htm
There is so much to do in this beautiful house that one is almost spoilt for choice each day for what to do next! Currently my husband is working on making our future bedroom habitable: he has already fixed the “chauffe eau” (water heater) in the ensuite and will be going back yet again to the plumbers’ merchants this afternoon to buy enough pipe to run the plumbing and electrics up there. We await a couple of quotes for knocking the supporting wall down between the existing kitchen and next room and inserting a steel. I am so looking forward to actually seeing the space we have there and then planning our kitchen. But it is workable in its present state and I have managed to make several decent meals for us in my mini oven and stock pot!
Having a practically minded husband is something to be grateful for but sometimes he doesn’t know when to stop! Hence I took him off to Carcassonne last Sunday with the dogs. This really is quite the most stunning ancient city and is the second most visited site in the whole of France: one can easily see why. Eddie & Alfie, blissfully unaware of the history, loved meandering around the cobbled streets and we had supper in a restaurant with them by our side.
Having 2 cute dogs is definitely one way to ease the integration process: Eddie & Alfie are hugely admired wherever they go. We often take them, without leads, for a wander around the village last thing at night when all is quiet. I met a lovely girl doing just the same thing with her Alsatian the other day and we now meet up quite regularly.
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We have been here almost a month now and cannot imagine wanting to go back to the UK. Aside from the enriching lifestyle here, I realise it is also the feeling of space one has here that makes us happy: France is not overcrowded and one feels far less stressed. We are just at the start of our journey, it is true, but we are determined to carry out our house renovation gradually and temper the work with visits here and there. “This is not an assault course” said my husband. It is so rewarding to see the house slowly taking shape though; we are just thrilled that we finally did it.
Alexis! Reading your post made me really excited to be here in Paris with all the struggles of a language-incompetence, not to mention bureaucracy! I think every ExPat has a story for that department....thanks for the lovely post. I'll be back for more.
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