Our search for Computer desks

Both of us being PC fanatics, and having a computer each, it was difficult for us to find the space and a suitable place in our home where we could both work comfortably. We searched many a store for a couple of reasonably priced (if not, cheap) computer desks, which would fit in to our lounge area, this being the only place we had available to put them, but to no avail – everything we looked at didn’t seem to look right or fit in or was expensive.

We waited until Wednesday and travelled to our local Emmaus, a registered worldwide charity which has a large warehouse of second hand furniture, bric a brac – well it has everything one could imagine there. It is only open Saturday and Wednesday afternoon, but it is always well worth a couple of visits if one is looking for something French.

We saw this very old French table, solid Oak and very heavy, we could hardly lift it, and with the help of the French gentleman in the store, helped us put it into our trailer, at a cost of 40 Euros – it was a steal!

Arrived home and had to dismantle most of it outside to allow us to lift it into the house, and Iain got busy. Most French tables are extremely long and have extensions in the middle, so it was relatively easy to separate into two parts, having said that there was so much metal work underneath, such workmanship went into making this table. Iain got his saw out and several hours later was ready for me to just run a cloth of woodstain over them and a quick coat of varnish on our two new PC desks. We think they look amazing, and they fit wonderful under the huge area under our stairs in the Lounge, with plenty of sitting room and out of the way.

Also bought a good quality computer chair for 3 euros….. Bargain

An intense smell

We were busy working on the renovations in the house when we heard a huge commotion outside, now being down a very quiet country lane with only a French retired farming couple living opposite we wondered what was happening.

We opened the front door, nearly getting knocked over by the smell of manure, a nice healthy smell that we get twice a year when the farmers transport this up and down the lane to place on all the fields around us.

The farmers “muck spreader” had been going past our door, and the drive shaft had dropped and ploughed into the road leaving behind him a huge gouge out of the middle of the lane. Another farmer came and helped and after quite a time they had transferred all the manure into another unit. Now they had to lift the drive shaft and remove the vehicle out of the way, then tackle repairing the road the best they could.

Triangular road works signs were placed either side and within two weeks the maintenance crew had been and permanently repaired it.

It looks none the worse now.

Gravelling around the property

It took from Spring onwards last year to get the garden in some sort of shape and after spending the end of the Summer having 26 tons of gravel delivered, many an hour transferring this to the drive, parking areas and paths we felt that the garden was just about finished. (So were we).

When we went to the local gravel pits, we were presented with dozens of little plastic containers showing us all the different sizes and colours of gravel, and we were surprised at the quantity that we needed to do the job. We were even more surprised when this huge dumper (camion) arrived and tipped it out, we nearly fell over once the mountain of gravel that completely blocked the entrance to our drive.

It has been a long, cold, wet and windy Winter, but it feels now that Spring is on its way. It’s brighter and the garden is drying out from all the rain we have had. We felt it was time to mow the lawn and orchard and start to get rid of the weeds.

Of course, being in France, it is not permitted to use any form of mechanical equipment outside during the hours of 12 and 2pm and all day on Sunday, although some tend to ignore this, we being English feel we should follow the rules. So Sunday came and went without us getting out the mower etc. and it was such a beautiful day.

Monday came and it was all hands to the deck, grass 3ft high and our sit on mower struggling to cope. It took all of Monday and Tuesday to get a quick cut all round. We just started on Wednesday to tidy up and the heavens opened. One thing about living here is that we do seem to get more than our fair share of rain, locals say this is climate change in the region, and they have never know such rainy conditions.

At least the garden now is on the way to looking good.

Pet Passport

All our animals had all the relevant vaccinations and were chipped etc before we came here, but it seems to take them back we need to go through the process again. Our Vet here in France even thought the English were over doing it by asking us to get them blood tested for Rabies and waiting for six months. They were already vaccinated against it, but we had to get them done again, wait one month and then get them checked to make sure that the vaccine had taken, if so, then wait six months before we can take them back to England. Doesn’t that seem like backward thinking – they were ok in England – vaccination worked so how could they catch Rabies here ! Well, that’s the way it is folks, so one dog and four cats took a whole morning in the Vets and an arm and an leg later, was sent away to wait for a month. Then back again for the blood test, then wait 10 days, then wait 6 months. “Déjà vu.” Then they just have to return to the Vets 24 hours before travelling to be wormed and de fleed.

Getting out and about

After being so busy for so long, it seems strange now having no renovation works to do. We thought we could try and get out and about a little more than we had been used to.

On our way to Mayenne the other day we had seen so many posters for a Brocante and Antiques Fair advertised and although it was over an hours drive away we thought we would have the day out. It said Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so feeling that Friday would be the quietest day we left in the morning for a steady drive.

In England when they are repairing the road it becomes “cone” city, here they either just get on with the road works and one drives carefully round, or for major works they just close of the whole road and put up diversion signs. You can actually drive a detour of 20 miles – which is fairly common and no prior warning.

Ok so we chose the day when they sealed of the road, and we had to detour – a three quarter circle around where we wanted to go, so our journey took much longer and we arrived at the Brocante at 1pm. Now here in this region of France, everything closes between 12 and 2pm – no exceptions really apart from large Supermarkets, Street Markets and Brocantes. In this case – the Brocante we discovered on the first day of opening didn’t start until 2pm..of course, not stating this on their posters and not having been previously, like a few other people, we arrived and looked silly. So we wandered off for an hour (luckily the supermarket in this large town was open).

We arrived back just gone 2pm to find there was a 5 Euro charge each for admission, we have not heard of this before but paid our money and went in, thinking we were in for a real treat ! In France there are normally sellers of hot sausages and food (they usually have a large barbeque where they cook in front of you) and places where one can get drinks and coffee etc. Well, after walking into this hall and discovering there were about 20 stalls, all of which had items on which seemed to be tripled in price to anywhere else, no where to get food or drink, we were quite taken back. Covered every stall I believe three times and found nothing really of any interest and certainly not at a price that we would have purchased anything. Finally, we left and returned home, cutting across country to miss the long detour.

On route, we spotted another Brocante at the side of the road, a small house with a separate section and feeling that we had not had a day out, we decided to stop and peruse his wares. It was a large unit, absolutely brimming full of objects and furniture; it was three storeys high into the roof. We spotted one glass vase for 30 Euros (which in the other Brocante we had seen a similar one for 70 Euros.) There were some lovely items and we enjoyed our visit in his shop, which took over an hour. We love old French furniture it is normally solid Oak and carved and very heavy, and so cheap in comparison to the modern made furniture.


Life in France!

Let’s talk again

The photograph on the left shows the approach to our Viilage, it always makes me smile, such a wonderful view.

Several days after returning to France, we reflected on our Spanish trip, and discussed all our options. Hmm… what are our options ? OK.. we could stay or we could leave..we decided to leave. OK.. where could we go..well, we have Bulgaria, Croatia or somewhere similar where house prices are still relatively cheap, and then we have England. Having been through so much here in France, to adjust to the way of life, the language, the food, the culture, the idiosyncrasies, did we really want to go through it all again in another foreign country, the answer came swiftly… NO.

So it was agreed that we should return to England, but we felt that we must look at this as a step forward rather than a step back. We have learnt much since leaving and should take the experiences back with us. A different area in between all the family, so we could easily travel in any direction to visit.

Perhaps we could ask the government for a nice new town just for “returnees” as so many expats from England are returning for various reasons. Wake up I thought, and I did so quite quickly ! I forgot for the moment the reasons why we had left !

Next step then, we had the house on the market at the price that the Immobilier suggested and was surprised to have 3 viewings shortly afterwards. Then a phone call to say that the third couple had falling in love with the property and were approaching the bank. Well, this got us moving very quickly into “what happens now” mode, and we searched England for a suitable area, made some enquiries and made our decision to rent long term until we were sure this location was for us.

We waited and waited, then a telephone call, our buyers were having problems raising a bank loan, but not to worry because they now have a mortgage consultant who says there is no problem in getting them a loan, and we agreed a price. Guess what, well, we waited and waited and then another phone call several weeks later, they are sorry but they cannot get a mortgage, they are encountering problems, so they promised to advertise our property again.

We went to another two immobiliers in different towns nearby and signed up with them, again they both thought the price was fair…….and guess what……yes, you guessed correctly – we are waiting.
In the meantime, we thought that now that Spain was not happening, we ought to check out the animals for returning to England, so visited our Vet and explained, not Spain now but England.

His comments nearly knocked us over………

Experiences in Spain

We returned to our apartment, tired and confused and feeling unwell……


I was up most of the night feeling nauseous, and felt I had a head cold, and this remained with me for several days, after which I did feel slightly better. This did stop us travelling too far afield but we still managed to view quite a few of the towns and villages in the area.


The weather in this region of Spain seemed so changeable, and as one drove from town to town we would go from blazing sunshine to very cold, rain or even snow. On our journey around this area, it was difficult to keep any equilibrium; we could feel the change in altitude all the time.

Inland Spain was completely different to the Costas where we have enjoyed holidays in the past.


Some of the views we saw were absolutely stunning, breath taking, very beautiful, but these places were inhabitable, usually we were high up in the mountains. The infrastructure of inland Andalusia we felt was not good, lots of very bad roads, broken barriers and lots of road works, and I hate to say it, but plenty of “cones”, something we do not see in France. Also living in France which is a very clean, looked after place, we see no litter on the roads here…. shame we found this part of Spain to be the opposite.


Unfortunately, then it was Iain’s turn to contract a bad head cold, and he became quite ill, we feel sure it was the constant change in temperatures and altitude during the day which we had been experiencing.

However, we searched out some supermarkets and found these to be extremely good, more our kind of food, the meat was very reasonably priced and looked edible. We ate well during our stay and enjoyed what we had bought, which we found to be a very pleasant change. We knew that Spain would not be a problem for food, unlike France.

Both feeling not at our best, we still travelled around and went into a few immobiliers – no luck really, it appeared that even for Inland Andalusia our money would not go very far toward a liveable property. We certainly did not mind doing a part renovation – but the properties were too highly priced for us to consider this option. We felt like this that been an experience, but a completely wasted journey.

We checked our departure information and realised we had to be out of the accommodation by 11am…what a stupid error I had made when booking, our flight was not until 9pm and they had more guests arriving that day, so we could not arrange to stay on. This would not have been a problem, had we both been fit and had we not had to spend from 11.30pm until lunchtime the following day at Stansted.

We drove to Granada Airport to see if we could get a flight a day, or even two earlier, but alas the desk only opened 7.30pm for the one flight a day. So we checked on the internet and found that we could change but it would cost us over 400 Euros to do so. Oh to hell with it, we said, we will just tackle it.

So both feeling like “death warmed up” we left the apartment at 11.00am, feeling too ill to do much, we took a slow drive to Granada Airport, and sat out the 9 hours. Arriving Stansted half an hour earlier than planned, we put our cases into the the left luggage section and tried to find some comfortable seating for the overnight stay.

What an experience that turned out to be, hundreds upon hundreds of – well, we assume back packers and overnight travellers, lying on the chairs, taking up 4 seats with their sleeping bags etc. Not only that, they were on the floor, and in every available corner, some huddled together with roll up mats, some in shop doorways. Where on earth did all these people come from?

Rather than a very expensive hotel, which even we could not afford, why did Stansted not have a large room set aside, (even a small hostel) perhaps with rows of recliners or something. Just something suitable for people who had to stay overnight to get some sleep, and of course, unclutter the walking and sitting areas. We would have happily paid a small charge for this service.

We finally found two uncomfortable chairs and settled for the overnight stint… a long cold wait where sleep would not come. We took breakfast as soon as they opened at 3.30am. and the food was just edible, the tea we had was like dishwater with a heavy film across the top. I can tell you now were so relieved when the time had finally arrived for us to board our flight. Arrived at Tours, very bleary eyed, Iain just about managed the 2 hour drive home, and we said those words…… never ever again!

We got into bed early that evening, where we felt sure our bodies became detached from our brain.

Spain was out of the equation, so it was back to the drawing board to start again……

Spanish Disaster

As I have said previously our apartment in Spain was excellent, even to the point of having an electric blanket. Goodness, we realised that we would need it, as it was very cold on the Thursday morning when we woke. The views were wonderful we did not realise we were so high up.

We had two appointments on that day to view properties that looked great on the internet. Our first one was just after lunch in a small village, this was my favourite it was described as having a lovely rose garden and the outside looked a dream.

We met the agent who had a “runner” with her, and we followed her in our car for miles up in the mountains, we seem to leave the lovely quaint village well below us, and climbed and twisted through a dirt track up the side of this mountain. Quite a difficult time for our hired car, one really needed a 4x4 to tackle such a route. The look on my face I believe said it all when we finally stopped in this mountain village, and started walking to the house. One could not even park near, as the street was so narrow. I wished now that I had taken pictures of this tumble down dump, which required total reform so you could see what condition this property was in. We think it had been on the market for many years and just left to rot. The photographs we saw must have been taken many years prior when the house was looked after. There was a 3ft breeze block wall to the rear of the property that was all cracked and broken and then a sheer drop of over 250ft down the mountain. I myself could not get near enough to look down, it didn’t feel safe. The house itself had no windows to the sides or the back due to having this drop obviously with no access around the house. Just one door and two front windows. The house needed gutting, a total reform. No kitchen, no bathroom, nothing. The “rose garden” was several roses that had been left to go very wild. 85,000 Euros was the asking price !

We were disappointed but not deterred at this stage and looked forward to our next viewing which was late afternoon, this was Iain’s favourite, a village house with 4 bedrooms, again the photos looked lovely. Although we had noticed that the photo of the front of the house had been taken quite close and one could not see the adjoining houses.

For this viewing we attended the immobilier (estate agency) and she drove us to this viewing. Iain looked around as he could not spot the house we were viewing, I had seen it and my mouth dropped. Next door’s side of the house was made of corrugated iron – the whole side, all rusty and dented, and took up the whole side wall of the front garden of the house for sale. Next door on the other side, well, it had burnt out, had a fire, and had been left for many years in this condition, it was a wreck. This house inside again needed total reform, although the details did not convey this message at all. Perhaps at this stage I should say we were looking at properties up 100,000 Euros. Although this was slightly cheaper, certainly not worth the money they were asking.

OK, we were disappointed again, and we learnt from that moment on that one should not take any notice of photographs, they can be too deceiving. We looked forward to Friday afternoon, as another agent who had half a dozen properties for us to see was taking us out.

We woke Friday morning to minus 1c… a very cold morning, and very misty. So jumpers were donned and we drove to a very busy Jaen to investigate the NIE documents and have a look round and then onto our meeting with the agent who took us in her car to a number of houses. The first two houses were reasonable although did need new bathroom, new kitchen, new electrics,etc. but we did see the potential there, with lots of work they would have been wonderful, unfortunately close to our budget, we could not have entertained all the expense to make these a viable proposition. The third house was better, top of the budget with no money to spare really, and just needed a bathroom, new kitchen and the electrics looking at, and obviously decorating from top to bottom. Lots of potential for this property, it could be very nice and I could imagine it completed. But none of these houses had any form of garden just a patio, which we felt was not good for our animals. The village was tidy and the people very pleasant.

Our next stop was a cortijo, we were told this did need some work but had a garden, OK. I agree it had a garden, and was cheaper, unfortunately not cheap enough. It needed total reform, including a roof (it was corrugated) – well it required absolutely everything. Having had one house back to its shell, we could not tackle anything like that again and be alive at the end of it to tell you about it. However, I did get the camera out at this one and took a picture of the bathroom – see picture titled Spanish Cortijo Bathroom.

Last house on the list was miles away and we sat in the car for quite a time whilst this patient lady drove us to our destination, we should point out that now the sun had come out and it was 28c…so we wilted in the car for quite some time. Felt quite ill. Whatever made me put a jumper on !

She parked the car and we started walking again through narrow streets, well all we could say about this one was more than total reform was required. We think it needed to be pulled down and started again. High price for such a property, but it did have a small section of garden – but one had to climb up the side of the hill to get to it – so that one was at the same height as the adjoining properties roof.

We returned to our apartment, tired and confused and feeling unwell……..

The planning of our Spanish trip.

Planning a journey to Spain sounds very easy… unless of course you live in France ! Iain required some time to return to England to see the family, I could not go at this stage due to having to look after all the animals. So we first arranged a return flight to England and arranged for his Parents to return with him, to take care of the animals whilst we were gone, everything seemed to go fine for this stage. No real problems, travelling from France to England and back again is very easy, although now the cost have gone up quite a considerably due to double taxes.

Now planning a journey to Spain from here is a different kettle of fish altogether, we would have had to drive to Paris or drive to one of the other airports and fly to Paris, and then fly to Spain. Firstly, from here not a good journey to drive into Paris, so that got aborted. OK, cant see the point of driving to another airport and flying to Paris and getting across Paris to CDG airport to fly to Spain, at the cost of over 800 euros each. Did not want to tackle the drive to Spain of over 2,000 miles round trip, our car is not that good with the petrol consumption.

OK.. so our plan developed we would fly to Stanstead which is only an hours flights and then fly to Granada or Malaga. Sounds easy – try booking it !…Cheap enough, but all flights out of the region, whether it be Dinard, Nantes, Rennes, are afternoon flights and we would have missed the afternoon flight into either Granada or Malaga. So we then searched French to English airports including the new route into EMA but could not get connecting flights for the same day. The only flight available to us was Tours into Stansted which was a lunchtime flight, we have flown from Tours before and it’s a great airport. So for the flight going out it arrived early enough to get a same day connection, unfortunately the return flight we miss the same day connection which meant arriving at Stansted late evening and catching the next flight to Tours the following morning.

OK, no problem we shall arrange to stay at Stansted for the night. Taking into account certain days with Ryanair which were cheaper than others, we booked for eight days. This of course made it more difficult to find reasonable accommodation for the extra night in Spain, but we seemed to manage that ok. The only problem that we seemed to envisage was that arriving at Stansted 11.45pm and after searching around found it was difficult to get a bed and breakfast place for the night. The nearest one which would take late arrivals was some 10 miles away with a costly taxi fare. The only option was the hotels at Stansted and the minimum for that was 170 pounds, well that seemed so expensive from 12 midnight till 7am in the morning, so we decided to stay at the airport and kill time.

We thought we had everything arranged so we set off on our journey to Tours at 9am. Everything went fine, arrived Stansted, and then caught our connection to Granada, it could not really have gone any smoother and we enjoyed the travelling. Arrived Granada and picked up our hired car with no problems whatsoever and drove to our accommodation, arrived about 10.30pm tired but happy. Accommodation was lovely, a small self contained apartment with a welcome pack, on the edge of the mountains in Andalusia. So a hot drink and into bed.

It was in the morning at our Spanish trip started taking a turn for the worse……

Digressing for a time

Well, today I was up late due to laying in bed last night engrossed in The Da Vinci Code, after seeing the film felt I just had to read the book.

I should have started this journal many months ago, but if you have read my previous blogs then you will no doubt appreciate that it was absolutely impossible to take the time to do that.

So the next episode starts, the main house downstairs is complete, lounge, dining room, 2 beds, kitchen and bathroom. All new and looks great, it was a long time coming.

Now to the upstairs… electrics, plumbing, etc is all taken up ready. Four velux windows have now been put in, floor is complete, insulation delivered and ready to be fixed, we just need to partition for 2 double bedrooms with en suite and a small room which we were going to use as a study. First we will have a rest which was much needed !

Iain and myself had been talking – wish we could get some Fish and Chips…or a Chinese take-a-way, ohh… an Indian take-a-way, strange really what you miss when you cannot get these things. To buy the ingredients over here and make them yourself, well, it’s just not the same as strolling around Tescos, Morrisons, Asda….any English supermarket !

In France, it’s very difficult, sometimes impossible to get certain items. The meat being extremely expensive in the shops. No Meat Pies, Pork Pies, Scotch Eggs, Cornish Pasties, Suet Puddings, Cream Cakes, Sugared doughnuts to name but a few. No custard creams, bourbons, chocolate digestives, rich tea… no gravy granules, oxo’s, brown sauce, salad cream, decent baked beans. No English, Irish, Scottish cheese at all in the stores. No Bacon. No fresh Milk or fresh cream and in fact no fresh cream cakes of any description. Whoever said the French cuisine was the best in the world? (Of course, if one lived I suppose in one of the huge towns with a large English population, one may be able to buy this sort of thing at a reasonable price). The nearest we have been to seeing English food was the smallest jar of marmite… 4 euros… and a tin of Heinz Tomato Soup for 2 euros.. who thought of those prices?

Anyhow, these discussions continued and brought about other discussions, did we like France ? certainly didn’t like the food, found shopping very difficult. The weather was not as good as we had hoped, too much rain, and the winters were very cold, minus 10 is just too cold for us in the Winter.

We actually live in a beautiful village, where one can still leave your doors unlocked and open. It’s a lovely region of France, with honest, pleasant people and the area is very well looked after with no litter and with plants and flowers on every quiet roundabout and road, but I suppose we just felt we were not the type to live so isolated and were not cut out for the quiet life.

So we talked about selling and moving to a warmer climate, but we also missed our families and friends in England too, so it would have to be somewhere easy to travel back and forward. Would the food be more to our liking…we thought it would be. So we wondered about Spain, and set about doing some research, seemed we could afford somewhere inland Andalusia – near to Granada airport, the air fares are very cheap to England from there. So we had a French immobilier around who valued our property, we placed it on the market, and we booked 9 days in Spain, to look around.

Hence our journey to Spain began….

Why did we set up a website on France ?

Can I read your thoughts…why did you set up a website on Pays-de-la-Loire in France ?

As I had said in my previous blog, Iain was up a high ladder at the beams, when I heard a loud crash and I turned round to see him on his back on the tiled floor. He was lucky he didn’t kill himself falling from that height. Anyhow, fate has it on this one, his time is not up. He suffered much bruising together with broken ribs on his back. So rest obviously was in order, with all the work hanging over us at that specific time, we knew rest would not come easy…. and knowing I could not continue without him – we chose to do some computer work.

Although one reason was to take our minds of the situation, and give us something beneficial to do, as we had been used to working every day, we also felt that many people must arrive in France and go through what we went through and we thought we could make it easier for people if they had the correct information. We found a lot of sites but unfortunately, they were not always correct, and in fact giving us incorrect information made it harder for us when we got here, so we thought we would deal with actual facts and spent several months researching the information. Then we set up the site, and we have been researching and adding to it ever since. Our latest addition is naming and giving a description on every make of French cheese.

www.joinusinfrance.net

My next blog is getting to the point where we cannot continue with the house……

So to Renovate !

The one thing I shall not go into on this blog, is the time it took to understand and pay the house tax, the separate land taxes, the setting up of a telephone, the electric, the water (although we did not have any mains water, we apparently were still charged for this as it came onto the edge of our property), the bank account, getting onto the health system and all the things that one does in England with no thought at all, here in France it is something that one allows a lot more time to do. A lot of patience is required together with a good dictionary.

Having now realised we require the services of an electrician and a plumber, to correct the faults that we did not know we had at the time of buying, one makes the necessary telephone calls, and then one waits, and waits and finally a French Artisan turns up and discusses your requirements. Then guess what… one waits and waits and waits, until finally you receive a Divi (quote). Complete the form and return it to them, and guess again…. One waits and waits and waits… if you are lucky the job will be started – about 3 – 6 months after you have accepted. Could be sooner if you are very very lucky. Could be much later if you are unlucky. OK.. well it was all booked and we waited. There was much to do in the house without the plumbing and electricity. We started on the beams – OMG – how does one get years and years of paint off…we sought advice – sandblast, was the answer, and professionals told us… well, you could loose the beams if there is woodworm or if the user misses his aim you could loose the ceiling…you may end up with weird shaped beams, and for this you only pay an arm and a leg (and there is no joke in the cost for this job) – you also have to clear the tons and tons of sand used away after they have finished, and must not enter the property for a week while it all settles !! OK.. must be another option – tried all the industrial strippers, sanders, you name it – not easy so high up ! Of course, having been through this, we now know the answers and could guide someone through with no problem at all. You drop the ceiling, and we are sure glad we did, as there were so many “rat runs” and nests and huge holes, it really surprised us. OK…20 odd large trailer loads of rubble, rubbish, stones, bones, lattes etc we removed. Bought a high working platform and one by one dropped the beams. I stood with an angle grinder (well, actually got through 4 of them) and stripped off every bit of paint, on all four sides, and Iain then took them and sanded them, finished them off and we treated them and put them back. Four months it took, nearly every day and I am not joking when I say we managed to build up some good muscles. Iain lay on his back, high up and cleared the paint of the huge king beams.

Iain up a high ladder at the beams, next minute on the tiled floor……do see my next blog on…why we set up a website about living in France.

Walls needed to be pulled down to make a large kitchen, and the dry lining on all the walls was beyond repair, so dealt with that, another 10 trailers of rubble and Bristol board.

Before we knew it, the house was a shell and a huge pile of rubble in the corner of our field!

We then boarded inbetween the beams, linseed oiled the beams, and painted the ceilings. Six months of real hard work, but the beams look great! Four King Beams and eighty eight beams. Would recommend it to anyone !


OK..time for the plumber and electrician to arrive, had to replace all the electrics and all the plumbing. Cost was phenomenal – but cant criticise the workmanship that was involved, excellent.

Had to have in the electric people to replace the cable to the house, the water people to replace where the mains came in etc etc.

Had to arrange and wait six months for a new septic tank – which we shall not go into as JCBs and lorries all over the land and garden in November is not good –lets just say it took the whole of Summer to move the unwanted soil, re lawn, and landscape the garden.

Now to save another long story, we shall just say we then dry lined every wall, replaced the doors, took up the kitchen quarry tiles and dug out a foot of sand as damp was coming up, and concreted a floor and laid floor tiles. Put in some patio doors and boarded the whole 92 m2 upstairs floor. Fitted a solid Oak staircase (with some labour help as it was so heavy).

I feel sure I must have missed lots of things we had to do since arriving here… but hey ! if I cant remember then that’s a good sign.

Finally stained all windows and doors, and wallpapered, painted etc. put on skirting boards etc etc… and there you have it… our house !

How we arrived France

Well here we go with the next saga – the day it changed the rest of our lives forever. The day we shall never forget and was controlled by happenings, which we could not have predicted. We say Fate !!

The established and well known removal company had informed us they would arrive at 9am in the morning, under no circumstances would it be earlier, the men did not start until 9am !!! So we had booked our crossing for 10.30pm on the overnight ferry thinking that they would take about 3 to 4 hours to load everything up, giving us time to gather our thoughts and the animals and drive to the caravan park, load up and do the five hour journey to the coast. So we made sure the previous evening we were all ready with cat baskets etc and made sure we got up at 7.30am to pack the rest of the bedroom etc. as one does, most people have moved house – has it ever gone to plan. We had just literally got out of bed when the door bell went and there were about eight young men at the door with the removal van… well, from that moment on – chaos reigned for about an hour – and that’s all it took, all these men running in and out – because they said they had another job on, so they had laid all hands on the deck for a quick job. (Shame they could not have informed us previously of this).

OK..9am and all is quiet, no furniture, no food, no nothing ! Everything had gone, including our breakfast.

So we commenced what became a slow and painful journey to the coast with many stops and breaks. Arrived at the port and was held up quite a time while they checked all the animals etc. (Cats were not amused at being hoisted out of their cages and pulled around, particularly as a couple of them had messed). OK..dealt with it and everything from then on seemed to go ok.. never towed a caravan before so it was a slow journey to our new home – and after some 26 hours on the road we arrived to find the area where we needed to place the caravan overgrown with weeds/grass, well over three feet high! How could this have happened from late February to beginning of May we thought…. we now know and understand…This is France !!

Slept rough that night with our caravan not positioned and next morning went and bought a heavy duty power driven strimmer with the recommendation of the chap in the shop. Two days later a section on the field had been removed and ready for the caravan. Oh…by the way….the power driven strimmer decided it was too much for it and broke down after the second day of use. But we had cleared enough to position the caravan and we slept like dogs in heaven that night – out of sight and completely shattered.

So commenced our renovation project…..

Lets leave England

In 2004, due to my partner and myself being made redundant from our jobs, myself from my Admin position in Social Services (they were amalgamating with the NHS) and Iain whose IT company was restructuring and moving. We decided now was a good time to start a new life in France. Like so many English we were dissatisfied with the way the country was going – to the dogs – as we say !

So we came across to France for a holiday and to look around, we fell in love with a large house in the country with two and a half acres and decided it was for us. The house looked lovely, it had full central heating and electric shutters and although it needed a lot of work, we felt the basics were there. So we ploughed forward and made the giant leap and bought the property. Made sure we had an English translator and English speaking Notaire and thought everything went rather smooth.

The house had a woodburning stove, a cooker and some kitchen units… our first surprise after buying was – all of these had disappeared…. Our first encounter of the term in France “buyer beware”. It seems that the French will remove anything and everything from the house before leaving. Not much of a problem for us, we thought, as we knew we would have to renew them anyway – we just thought they would have been handy for the time being.

The house had oak beams downstairs and these had been painted over for many many years with white paint etc. we thought our first task was to remove the paint. The second problem was when we checked the wiring in the walls, most of it had burnt out (it is not common in France to have a surveyor and one could not have detected what was behind the walls) – and the third problem was we were informed it had mains water to the house. Alas, misinformed – we had well water and the mains came in to the edge of the land. OK, we can tackle this, it’s not out of our reach to sort it, and anyway we had bought by this time and put it down to experience.

Sold up and came over to France with a caravan, our dog and our four cats.

Here the nightmare and hard work began………….

Introduction to our journey

We started this blog due to having some trials and tribulations through our journey in this life. We feel sure our experiences from this journey will help people and give them a different perception, if not, well they will certainly take the time to have a good laugh at our expense.

Strange as it seems we can see the funny side to our escapades, we are beginning to believe that fate has taken hold and there is no way out but to continue on this path, and when a crossroads is reached, well, we know from experience that we are most likely to take the wrong one !

Now you may say, this is due to being negative, but after spending many years thinking positive and being constructive, we can assure you this is more fate than "mind over matter".

Our blog is intended to change our course of actions, and hopefully by putting into words what we are experiencing and have experienced in the past will also change our luck - for the better.

Let us begin..........