100 days from today, we will board a plane for our move to France. This is the first time we’ve bought one-way tickets anywhere.
It’s been interesting to see the reactions when we tell people we are moving to France. People in France seem to think California is all Hollywood, warm weather, beaches and blue skies, and ask us why in the world would we want to leave that.
For some reason, many people we’ve spoken to in California confuse France with Paris. They say, “Oh, you’re moving to Paris?! How exciting!” Um, no. We are moving to rural France. Peaceful and bucolic, certainly, but not terribly exciting.
Don’t get me wrong, we are thrilled about taking this massive step into a new lifestyle, and can’t wait to call this beautiful part of the world our home. But we’ll be miles from Paris (182, actually), and there are few similarities between living in the two places. It’s definitely France, with all that comes with it. We will struggle with learning the language, the metric system, their rather archaic ways of doing simple things (more on that later), the high gas and electric prices, and so, so much more. But we will enjoy getting to know the sweet and friendly people, revel in the fact that we are buying and renovating an amazing old house that was so reasonably priced we could practically put it on our credit card, and love exploring the network of charming small towns that each have something unique to offer. We will learn to cook with seasonally available products, and attend farmers markets to buy from proud local farmers. We might not understand the tradition of closing businesses at lunch time, even the large Home Depot-type stores, but we will embrace the French ways of doing things.
After all, it’s our choice to move, so we must accept the cultural differences, along with the happy routine of buying fresh bread every morning at the little boulangerie just a two-minute walk from our front door.
We’re in Le Grand-Pressigny to get some things in order in preparation for our move, which, by the way, has been scheduled for April 2, 2019. We bought one-way tickets to Paris. Scary! After that, our flights will be round trip, but originating in France. So far, we’ve managed to open a bank account at the (one) local bank, dropped off papers at the notaire (the house purchase is still not complete), met with our contractor, and will meet with our architect later this week. It’s all moving along.
Selling up and moving on.
One big thing to take care of is selling our house in California. Fortunately, our realtor is a very good friend whom we trust completely, so we’re relying on her to help with some logistics. She hopes to start showing it to local agents and clients in February, and is confident it will sell quickly. It is a fantastic house with a gorgeous view, and we’re optimistic it won’t take long.
About packing and transit.
Now we have to figure out when to schedule the moving truck, allowing at least a few days leeway before we leave California, just in case they have a problem and need to adjust our packing date. Because this is an international move, the moving company will not insure our belongings in-transit unless they do all the packing. The guy told me, “just answer the door with your cup of coffee, let the guys in and stand back. They will do everything.” That’s a little daunting. When you pack your own stuff to move, you know, for instance, that your favorite shoes were put in the box with the coats because they happened to be near that closet when you packed. Or that your precious vintage glass measuring cup (I do have one) was wrapped carefully and put inside something else to protect it. I am envisioning that ginormous pile of miscellaneous boxes being unloaded in France. Yikes.
As far as transit time, we’re told it will take approximately 8 weeks to get to France. The ship will arrive in Rotterdam, Netherlands, then the shipment will go by truck to France. I have no idea why that routing, but there must be a good reason. (I just looked up Rotterdam and learned it is Europe’s largest seaport.) When our stuff arrives in Le Grand-Pressigny, it will go directly into storage (we found an excellent local storage facility that was formerly a furniture factory), because we will be renting a furnished house while ours is undergoing renovations. We’re hoping that we will be able to get to some of our things easily so we can have appropriate clothing etc for the year that our things are in storage.
Our year in limbo.
While we wait for our house to be transformed, we will be renting “Les Balcons,” a sweet old house in town. We’re told it will take a year for the renovations. Actually, the contractor said, “no more than a year,” so that’s something. This house is just a few minutes walk from our house so we can keep an eye on the ongoing project.
Back to dreaming.
While all this planning and arranging is happening, I’m still happily flipping through Pinterest images of all things French farmhouse related. It’s been fun to dream, and we now have some good ideas for the new house when the time comes. If it would all just hurry up and start happening!