A New Adventure in France

We returned to France this week for our permanent move after a busy month in the UK getting our 12 month France visa, paperwork for customs for the removal company, as well as packing up the UK house and getting it ready for renting. Having managed large commercial office move projects for many years, I really had to resist the urge to overthink and plan our own move and just to let the removers get on with it, and keeping them supplied with tea and cakes. Although our new adventure is so exciting, I was was very sad to leave the house I’ve been in for 26 years and we enjoyed drinks with several of our lovely neighbours the evening before, so it was a great send off.

The removal vans arrived about a day and a half after us with our furniture, belongings and Joe’s 1942 Ford Jeep. Joe would have loved to have driven the Jeep over himself but realistically it would have taken about a week and it would have been a long slog, avoiding busy roads. So we took the decision for it to be transported along with everything else, housed in a separate articulated trailer which was towed by the main removal van. The removal guys sensibly decided to drop the trailer at the large parking area near the cemetery between us and the village, rather than trying to negotiate both van and trailer up the drive.

After unloading everything into the house, we all headed back to the cemetery to unload the Jeep. Joe was responsible for driving the Jeep onto and off the trailer via slightly precarious ramps that were steep and not perfectly aligned. There was much relief all round when the crew saw the Jeep safely back on terra firma. At least it made it a more interesting move

So the task of unpacking boxes begins, although some will have to wait a while as we are in need of wardrobes having come from a house with fitted wardrobes. We’re also pacing ourselves in the heat and tackling things when it’s cooler. Joe’s focus, however, has been on trying out all of the toys in his ‘toy box’, also known as the barn (la grange). On the first day he had already used his ride on mower, strimmer, chainsaw to cut down a dead tree and the Jeep of course. I don’t ever recall Joe offering to go and buy bread, but he is suddenly very keen to do so – if he can go in the Jeep. Although we do have a driveway, Joe’s preferred route is to test the Jeep’s 4-wheel drive capability across the garden and down onto the road.

We introduced ourselves to another ‘neighbour’, Monsieur Villeneuve – a farmer who owns the farm land that surrounds us on both sides – when we saw him checking irrigation systems. Monsieur V. bought what is now our house in 1969 when it was the farmhouse with all the surrounding land. In 1980 he sold the house with the land we now own, kept the remaining farm land and moved to another farm on the opposite hill, from where he now farms that land and the fields next to us. He must have been a very young man when he originally bought this farm 54 years ago and he looks very fit now. Mr V. explained he is growing clover for livestock feed and it’s struggling in the very hot weather so we’ve seen an industrial scale sprinkler brought in to give a helping hand.

No more shoe losses to report but we dashed out one day on hearing animal cries to see a dog chasing a young deer across the garden. The dog seemed to want to play and wasn’t attacking the deer, but the deer hadn’t got that message!