Most of you know that, in November 2017, Jeff and I returned again to France. It was not planned, it was very spur of the moment, but the spontaneity of it was exhilarating for us both. The reason? To view a little house on the river, in the town that we had grown to love, when we visited in June.

The result of course, was that we put in an offer, which was accepted. To say we were ecstatic, is understating it. We were, and are still, enraptured with our new home from home.

The process of buying a house in France is quite different to what we have come to expect in Australia. Not for the French a quick turnaround of a month or 6 weeks. Non, pas de tout, it is much more in line with their view on life generally… lunches should be long, nothing is urgent and why shop at a Supermarché  when you can stroll idly around the weekly market, discussing at length the best recipe for lamb shoulder, beef cheeks or oysters, not to mention the preferred accompaniments? So too, is the buying process. We offered on the house in November, the ‘Contrat de Vente et Diagnostiques’ (contract and building report) have been signed and posted  and the completion date is 9th March. Three months to get everything arranged, that’s not too taxing at all!

We’ve opened à French bank account (oui, avec toutes les lettres adressés à  Monsieur et Madame!!) at the local Credit Mutuel, with the rather dashing, but more importantly, very friendly and helpful, bank manager, Monsieur Duval. That wasn’t too difficult either, although, we were very fortunate that our immobilier (real estate agent) came along to the bank appointment with us. While my French is certainly improving in degrees, it’s most definitely not at a level where business vocabulary has been necessary to either learn or use, so her help was, and continues to be, invaluable.

We are now becoming very familiar with the whole new world of transferring money internationally and shopping around for the best rates..who knew??.  Sometimes we just stop and look at each other and think how lucky we are. This has been a dream of mine, in particular, for years and here we are, right in amongst it!! And how lucky I am, that I’m married to a wonderful man, who has grabbed onto the dream as well and is as much enamoured with France, everything it has to offer and specifically, the idea of owning a home there, as I am?  Very fortunate, indeed….

So, now we are in the planning and preparation stage. New noise cancelling headphones have been purchased (imperative for the long haul flight) since our old ones have now seen better days. 

Flights and accommodation in Paris have been booked and paid for and train travel arranged, so we’re just counting down the days now.

We’ve made copious lists on what we’ll need to buy for the house, which has been so much fun. It’s been a long time since either of us needed to set up a house from scratch. It’s so interesting, Jeff has never been one to be keen on shopping in the past, quite the contrary in fact, but he certainly is now! Turns out eBay is his new best friend, something I never (ever!) thought I‘d hear myself say 😃

We keep pinching ourselves…in April, when we return home after a month in France, we’ll own our own little French house, in a gorgeous little French village, which has a wonderfully welcoming French community.

If I could say something to that little girl, growing up in country South Australia, would I ever have thought it would be this?? Certainement, pas!! But I’ve been reflecting a lot in the past few weeks, in particular. I’ve given a lot of thought to all the twists and turns in my life, some of which were fabulous, some most definitely not, the people I know as my friends, people who have come into my life, stayed for a while and then left, people who haven’t realised what an impact they have had on me..either in a good way, or otherwise. My interest in learning French at a late age, with the lucky happenstance of meeting such a wonderful teacher at the right time and who was absolutely the perfect person for me to learn from. I’ve since found another, equally as wonderful, teacher, who is pushing me ever closer towards my goal of fluency, with great patience, lots of good humour and friendship.

So, everything and everyone has lead to this. Jeff feels similarly and we are both just so grateful. And my husband has started in earnest to learn some French now, too. We have random conversations whilst driving, cooking dinner or out walking, so his vocabulary is slowly increasing. He’s attitude is amazing, with no concerns about making a mistake, he just dives straight in and gives it a shot.  The French will love him for it….

I’m not sure where life will go, but this is where we are now….Dis donc!!!