Moving Day arrived - luckily it was dry, and luckily the removal van arrived on time. It was quite surreal to see all our furniture disappear into the van, knowing that we wouldn't see it for a while. It was all going into storage, to give us some breathing space, and we had all the essentials already in France from our frequent visits there. Anything that we were loathe to be parted from, we put in the van, which at the end was so full we could hardly close the doors. Heaven help anyone that opened them by mistake !
I took a last walk around the house that had been our home for 24 years, and we pulled away......
Every part of the journey took on a new meaning - this wasn't a holiday now - it was to be a new chapter in our lives.
We arrived 'home' next morning after a pretty awful journey - there were road works and diversions - but we got here. I must admit to feeling a bit overwhelmed and emotional, but I'm sure that had a lot to do with tiredness. Some friends visited this afternoon, who were also embarking on a similar project not too far from us, and I felt a lot more positive when they had gone, and looking forward to our new adventures. Now, the problem was to see this as our life and not as a holiday !
First job, was to arrange an Internet connection - we discovered that despite all the advertisements, we were limited to just the one provider in our area. However, we needed to be connected to the outside world, so had to grin and bear it. We received the Livebox relatively quickly, but discovered there was a fault on the line, and we had to wait for an Engineer to call for the repair. He came and replaced the cable coming into the house - and we were up and running - outside world, WE ARE HERE !!
Another early project, now we were here full time, was to reapply for planning permission. We had a very beneficial meeting with the Planning Officers in Chateauneuf de Faou. Rather than pussy foot around trying to second guess what we needed to do, we went straight to the people who know - and were really glad to have done that. It wasn't easy - my French wasn't that good, and their English was on a par - but we got there in the end. Now we knew the process - there was to be no stopping us ! Due to the size of the project, we had to get the plans stamped and signed by an architect - and we had to pay a relatively substantial sum for a few minutes work, but necessary !
We had our post redirected from the UK, but we had a telephone call from a lady who lived about 15 minutes from us here in France, to say that she had received a big bundle of mail for us. It seems that as she too was receiving redirected post, La Poste had 'assumed' we were one and the same person, and delivered it altogether ! Now however, our regular postman knows us well - he always gets out of the van and shakes our hands, sometimes brings us eggs sent from his mother, and knows that an envelope addressed to 'Pops' from our grandchildren, is likely to be for our house !!
Knowing that I needed to improve on my French, which was at a rusty O-Level standard - yes I am that old ! - I ventured to the local Babel group. It was a very social occasion, and ideal for those who needed the company as much as the language skills, but I knew very early on that I needed something more intense than that, and discovered that our neighbours had a French teacher who visited their house once a week, and who would be prepared to accept me as an addition to the very small group. There are just three of us of similar standard, and it makes a very interesting , but very tiring, couple of hours on a Wednesday evening. There's no hiding in the corner with just three of us !!
Just four weeks after our arrival, we were on our way back to the UK, for the wedding of one of the children. It was lovely to see everyone again, even after such a short time away. The day was very hot and sunny, and the bride was beautiful ( and the groom too !).
I was a very proud mother of the groom - and only cried a couple of times !
This visit gave us a good break, and made us realise that the pace of life in the UK is not what we needed at this point in our lives. A good trip back, but we were ready to start again in France.
One thing we discovered though, is that every time we go to England, we return with a cold ! I'm not sure if its the contact with other people that we don't have here, or English germs, or maybe the fact that we spend a lot of time outside here and so can ward off French germs - whatever, it appears to be inevitable - visit England - return with a cold !
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