And we're off ....

Several years ago we decided, in a vague sort of Ed-and-Kaye way, that we'd like to move (read, retire) to France. For Kaye, this was a bit in line of following a childhood dream; for Ed, he prefers the climate (more sunshine). And, by and large, it's much cheaper to live in France than here in The Netherlands. So we started looking for areas where we'd like to settle.

We looked at many many areas over the next couple of years -- we'll skip that complete story -- and finally settled on northeast Charente, in west France. When we first stayed in this area, we both had the feeling that this was home. After our first visit, we went back for a week to look for houses. In retrospect, the very first house we saw might have been for us, but we were just getting started with the looking and didn't act quickly enough; when we went back for a second look, it had already been sold. That second house-hunting trip turned up nothing else of interest. On our third house-hunting visit, we said we'd look at houses for five days, through Friday, then have a few days R&R. After a discouraging week of seeing lots of houses, but finding none we liked, we ended up making two appointments on Saturday. That morning, Saturday, 11 December 2004, we saw our house.

We visited the neighborhood on Sunday, agreed price on Monday, signed papers Tuesday, drove home Wednesday. It took more than six months and much bureaucratic frustration to get the loan finally approved, but it happened, and we now own a, argh, second house. Of course, we'd been thinking of it as our Next House, our Retirement (as soon as possible) House, but not as a Second House, which seems too posh for us, and is a major pain in the neck. We still love the house and being there, but it is decidedly not happy being empty.

11-Jul-2008