Values

We had to brave some post Christmas shopping yesterday to buy some walking coats as we have discovered that we left our coats behind in France when we came back in November. It was a strangely depressing experience with 70% reduction posters all but obliterating most shop windows, Woolies selling off its shopfittings and a general air of desperation everywhere.
Today the news is of further drops in house values and another drop in the value of the euro - we can't help but feel that we are lucky not to have started a house purchase a few months ago - we might have found ourselves in double trouble now. Time for a sense of proportion before we start feeling sorry for ourselves!

I am brought face to face with REAL financial hardships on a regular basis in my role as a volunteer with the debt advice team at Stoke 's citizens advice bureau. As more people lose their jobs, businesses flounder, and house repossessions increase we can expect our appointments to fill even more quickly than usual at this time of the year. Although it is sometimes tempting to make judgements about those who allow debts to escalate my experience with this work convinces me that very often the initial trigger is something beyond the control of the individual and to be thankful for my own good health and secure employment which enabled me to make my own decision about when to stop working. Next Tuesday my first appointment is to help a family complete bankruptcy forms following the collapse of the husband's business which was linked to the building trade. This will inevitably lead to the loss of the family home and disruption of the childrens schooling - how can I even start to feel sorry for myself!

We have been watching the downs and downs of the pound against the euro over the last weeks and ever so slightly wavering over whether we will be able to make it happen.But as TC says there is no plan B - we NEED to live this dream and we will just have to enjoy helping someone out over the cost of their aperitives and buy somewhere at a great price. In the meantime TC will continue to work to fill the piggy bank under the mattress (best place we feel)

The train adds the strain

For TC's 60th birthday in February we are planning a railway trip to Nice for the Carnaval. We love Nice, out of season especially, and it seems like the perfect destination as there is a party arranged already! TC loves travelling by train so it will be a bonus to get there by rail. So far we have booked Eurostar to Paris from London, the hotel for an overnight stop in Paris, the TGV from Paris to Nice, a hotel in Nice for the week and the flight home. All very straighforward - there's just one missing link and that is the train from Stoke-on-Trent to London at the start of the whole expedition. This is turning out to be the most difficult part of the whole expedition to book or even see the timetable. It will also be the worst value for money ( pound per mile/hour) of the whole holiday.

We don't use trains very often in this country - I wonder why?

who'll feed the cat?

There's so much to consider as we contemplate choosing a new home.There are elements of our present life which we plan would continue and even develop when we are living in France

• we have a lovely garden and grow our own vegetables, we keep chickens and act as "staff " to a cat - Angelo.
  
• we need space for our books and the piano (TC's present piano is a grand - decision on its fate deferred pending eventual house purchase!)
  
• we need room for visitors even though for most of the time it will just be the two of us so we don't want to freeze in a massive "manoir".
  
• We don't want to give ourselves a huge renovation project ( been there, done that etc).

Here we have great neighbours who are happy to feed the animals on our frequent trips away. And there's the rub - many of the houses which appeal most are just too isolated but I couldn't bear not to have space around me and a view of the countryside. And what about neighbours ? We are very happy with our own company in general but would hope to become part of a community where we live.

Cold miserable weather is allowing me to spend far too much time in front of the computer scouring the websites of "immobilier". We have growing list of properties which we may visit in a few months, in the meantime it's just a case of keeping the faith - our perfect place at the perfect price is out there - oh and the neighbours will love the cat!

somewhere a place for us

After a couple of grim November days of freezing fog when dusk seemed to fall before 3pm we woke up to a frosty clear morning today and just had to get out for a walk.

We actually live in a really nice part of the country. Although Stoke itself leaves much to be desired we are on the edge of some great countryside including Derbyshire and the Peak district and wonderful walking country. Given a better climate (see above) plus a more laid back attitude to life it would be hard to see why anyone would leave.

Over the last 30 years or so I think we must have laid our heads for at least one night in almost every departement of France - many regions have called us back again and again so why settle on Tarn et Garonne? We have friends who have settled happily in Charente Maritime and Deux Sevres, and relatives with holiday homes in Brittany and Burgundy.

A few years ago we tired of the annual search for a suitable gite for the two of us and decided that as what we wanted was always basically the same - a nice place to eat and read outside, peace and quiet and somewhere to swim - we might as well buy somewhere of our own if we could find somewhere cheap enough. Given that prices in Provence were out of our range we settled on the Lot as a likely area to look for our holiday home as we had loved the area and it was less overrun by the English than the Dordogne. In the Autumn of 2005 we visited in the hope of finding our dream hideaway and visited St Antonin on the Aveyron where one of the agents we had contacted was based.

We immediately took to the area and loved the fact that it was less touristy than the Lot but was still very picturesque with loads to see. We were further seduced by a little fishing lodge beside the Vere which seemed almost perfect for what we wanted. We have had our share of problems with flooding (that tiny trickle of water becomes a raging red torrent fairly regularly and leaves a layer of red silt over the floor when it gets into the house - also fairly regularly), generator breakdown( there is no mains electricity), burglary (our last visit was somewhat fraught when we found the shed empty and just a pipe sticking out of the wall where the gas bottle should have been) and invasion by wildlife(loirs setting up home in every available jug and rucksac) ) but we have not regretted our choice and have visited five times every year for the last three years. The wonderful opportunities for walking have been a great bonus - we had not realised how good they would be until we started exploring the hills around us.

Each time we visit it is harder to leave and soon we hope to turn things on their head and make the trip south our "going home".

contemplating a visit to the dentist

Testing my resolve I often look back over the day and imagine how it would have been if I had been restricted to speaking and understanding French. For the most part I am confident that most casual interactions would be no problem - despite the SW accent which we need to tune in to every visit. We have been successful already in finding wonderful French workers to install a roof window, clear drains, fell trees, repair our generator and mend the boiler. We visit our French bank, the mairie and have reported a burglary to the gendarmerie. On the other hand...

Today I went to my wonderful dentist who has patiently (and expensively) kept me eating solid food for probably 25 years. Now this aspect of relocation really does scare me - I have visions of leaving my first visite chez le dentiste sans dents! I always feel I can understand quite well what people are getting at but it is all too easy to get quite the wrong message and a dental misunderstanding could leave me unsmiling. My hairdresser ( now that's another thing - French person with scissors getting the wrong idea) may well take me up on free holidays for a hairdo - perhaps the dentist would like to try a mobile service!

Its now or never

Worldwide financial meltdown, house prices in freefall, collapse of the pound against the euro, share values plummeting - seems like just the time to sell up and move to France.

Despite all this the plan is for us to move from our house ( no 82) where we have lived for the last 25 years and finally take the plunge and go to live in France. Dept 82 ( Tarn et Garonne ) has become our destination of choice since we bought a tiny fishing lodge beside ( occasionally in) the river Vere. Known to us as "Pavillon" the house is not suitable for us to live in permanently as it has no mains electricity and some flooding " issues" . It is however a haven and in a glorious part of France. We have talked for many years of a possible relocation and have decided that it must be now or never while health and enthusiasm remain strong enough to face up to the challenge of a new adventure.

So now its down to TC to decide exactly when to start his retirement, in the meantime there's 25 years worth of hoarding to sort out!