Back To England

Well, I know I haven't been on here for quite a while, the whole ordeal of selling and moving out of France and back to England has been so time consuming and tiring.

What I will say at this stage is that we have been back here in England for a couple of months and are enjoying every minute of it. It is so nice to be greeted with a smile when one enters a shop, its wonderful to know exactly what I am buying and the food here in the supermarkets have over whelmed us. So much choice and hardly any difference in price. One feels at home and welcome and all the problems of translating and having to think about what one says and how one says it have almost disappeared from our minds now. When a bill comes through the door its so easy to understand every word and so easy to pay without any red tape or bureaucracy. When we disagree with something its so easy to explain our problem. In fact.... its so good to be home !

All the family came over at Christmas time, something which never happened in France and we were able to serve a proper Christmas dinner, something else which never happened in France.

It is very strange to say that neither us miss France, but we can say with hand on heart - that is the case. We even have accepted quite easily all the problems which England seems to have, perhaps it is because it is home and will always be so.

The rented house that we moved into, from the moment we entered felt more like home than France ever did.

Anyway, thats all the want to say at this moment, and I will start back dating some stories on how difficult it was to get home and then a nightmare to travel back to France for a couple of days to complete the sale on the house.

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………