Decision Time

Several times during our 'visiting' periods, Craig came to the house on his own. Every visit depended on work commitments on both our parts, so there were times that only one of us was available. I wouldn't have felt comfortable staying here alone, but Craig was, and spent the time profitably.

The journey itself was an adventure - he would fly from Luton to Brest (when Ryanair operated that route), shuttle bus into Brest, Brest to Morlaix by train, Morlaix to Huelgoat by bus, and then taxi to the house or vice versa of course. He was always very impressed by the French Transport - its punctuality, cleanliness and the price !

The problem this journey created were numerous, but mainly that he was unable to bring much with him - including clothes, so we started leaving our 'French Clothes' here as much as we could. I would visit the launderette before we left, so that our clothes were fresh and clean ready for the next visit.

On a couple of occasions I visited half way through his stay, which gave him some support and companionship, as it was quite lonely here - no television, no computer, just the phone, and radio. Other times, we both arrived together, and then I left him here for an extra week or so. It was strange each time I returned though, as work had been completed that I hadn't seen before.

One lone visit was spent chopping trees and thinning the hedges, with the help of our elderly French neighbour Joseph. He spends his time doing this type of work, so kept Craig going all day, for several days, despite the inclement weather at the time, and having to dry his clothes each evening around the kitchen. It would have been interesting to be a fly on the wall during this time, as Craig spoke no French and Joseph just a small amount of English. Craig would ring me each evening with an progress report, and sent photos too.

The day finally came when we received an offer on our house in England. It was very scary though - should we accept and make the move, or stay and continue with the renovations on the ad-hoc basis that had been going on for several years now ? Craig had no doubts, but I did. I'm not the most adventurous of people. I don't like being out of my Comfort Zone, and this was as far out as could be !! We would have no jobs, be in a foreign country, away from friends and family - our two little grandchildren, the list was endless as far as I was concerned............

BUT.......we decided to give it a go........

What was the worst thing that could happen ? We would never know if we could make it work if we didn't give it a go. We weren't that far away from everyone, and we wanted the adventure while we were still young enough. If we didn't do it now, then we never would, and we could always come back to the UK when we had had enough, if we wanted to.

SO.....the moving date was set, we handed our notices in at work, said our goodbyes, and left the house that had been home for 24 years.