The Great French Escape

Tag: moving-to-france

  • Ho Ho Ho and a bottle of Rum for the voyage!

    Just when you think all is lost, another chapter starts, and so it did for us!! One cancelled sale led to a very quick positive sale straight after !! Now with Christmas upon us we had to move 9 horses and 4 dogs!! Luckily i had a field i rented so that was one thing sorted but we had nowhere to live and no house in France! The ones we had viewed on our last trip over with such positivity were just not right!! His lordship had taken me away from my focused area , South Haute Vienne, with its beautiful landscape, woods and rivers and fantastic swim lakes, to the Charente Martime with its lovely beaches and hefty price tags!! All because he had taken up Kite Surfing after a weeks lesson!! All the gear and no idea comes to mind!! I wondered if we would ever find a beautiful equestrian porperty near the sea without being a millionaire!!

    We then decided to rent in the UK whilst we searched over the Chrsitmas and in to the New Year!! Whilst Estate Agents in France like to only give you 10 photos, if you are lucky!! and no land plan, so you never know what is next to it!! I am a dab hand at finding the properties via google maps, ( what a time saver that has turned out to be over the years!!!) but still we couldnt find anything!! Drastic action was needed so we decided to dip our toes in and buy a holiday home in the South of the Haute Vienne, a stones throw from the border of the Dordogne ( i won in the end when the numbers didnt add up!! How many times he Kite Surfs compared to the cost of a house near the sea!! It was a no brainer really !!) We finally found a lovely cottage on its own in the middle of three acres and also with a pool, we also got one with a 2 bed gite for my family to come and stay! The first year, 2022, was hot, really hot!! When they say you cant work after 11am! You really cant!! but stone houses are fantastic for keeping cool so you dont really need air-con, but fans are a must!! We had a wonderful Summer there with the family and the dogs, surving on Schengen rules and a tourist visa! The plan had change, and that was fine, the big move would have to wait! Just 5 or 6 years and in the meantime we could enjoy the cottage for long holidays with the family! What a blessing and it truly was enjoyable,over the next three years, however plans have a habit of changing when you least expect them, and this change was not seen and a true bolt out of the blue!!

  • Getting to know you, getting to know all about you!

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    In the Begining…..

    So, you are here because you have decided to make the leap!!! A leap into the unknown maybe??Maybe you have been planning this moment for years, waiting for the kids to group up and for you to retire? Maybe you have decided life would be better to move before the kids grow up, allow them to settle into school young, maybe you have just decided on a whim?? However you have decided you have come on my journey also and i would like to welcome you in! Follow my crazy, headstrong, laid back, meticulously planned journey from the UK to France! No editing allowed lol just a good old fashioned warts and all blog about how “the royal” we, thats me, my mother and my husband along with our animals, are going about it!

    You know i remember one rainy night 2003 listening to the rain beat down on our tiny caravan whilst my son was asleep and my two girls were playing in the other caravan, watching a program on the television called ‘No Going Back’.It was about families who were making the move abroad to escape the ‘rat race’ here in the UK to find a better life! I was enthralled!! We were down to our last penny, literally, and trying to build a house for our little family with an array of animals. I was fed-up with it all i longed for warm weather and bright cheery sunflowers, an easy carefree life and bi-lingual kids! Fast forward a few years, as you can guess it didnt happen!! Life did!! Plans changed!! Work changed and our dream was put on hold!! Only on hold!! It was a little flame that wasnt going to be extinguished!! No way,Jose! Life went on, house got built, kids grew up and i started exploring France on holidays, sampling all it had to offer, feeding the flame, stoking that fire, keeping it going and then!! Covid hit!! Noone could forsee that strange dreadful time. We counted ourselves lucky! We lived in the Country, we could still get out and enjoy the beautiful green landscape without risk, many couldnt! The flame was growing in me again, stronger and bolder, this time shouting at me, ‘Its now or never,Lifes too short! Enjoy every moment you never know what is around the corner’!! It was like headlines off a newspaper screaming at me, lets do it|! Lets sell up and go now! All sounds easy, doesnt it? House goes on the market, rates are good, buyer comes along, offer is made and accepted, off the ‘royal we’ go to look for our forever home, the list of requirments were long!! Lots of grazing for the horses, big ceilings in the house, no near neighbours for the barking dogs, not near main roads for also said barking dogs, all bedrooms to have windows!! A must! After a week of looking nothing!! Area was increased, price was upped a little, still nothing! Then on the way back to the ferry the agent calls, our house sale is fallen through!! Its fate, no buyer and no house to buy, it must mean it isnt meant to be!! Im deflated and by the time we reach Northern France to come back to the UK the rains come down just to add to my already depressed mood! Time for a rethink as i repeat my mantra, ‘im not giving up, im not giving up’!!