Bonjour!

I’m Alison. For many years I was the Executive Assistant to the CEO of a large global company in San Francisco, where I honed my organizational skills and became an excellent multi-tasker.

I started this blog because my husband and I decided to pack up and move to France and begin a new life in a country where we don’t speak the language and are unfamiliar with how things are done. What could possibly go wrong? We arrived in April, 2019. This is my place to document what we’re up to.

In May 2019, we started renovating a 300 yr. old house in the little village of Le Grand-Pressigny in the Loire Valley. After 18 months of full-time renovations, we moved into the house in November 2020. The house is mostly done (will it ever be completely?) and we are hunkered down while we sit out the pandemic.

People are always asking us why we would want to give up our comfortable life in northern California and move to rural France. Why wouldn’t we? Sure, we could have stayed in California and enjoyed a good life. But we were ready for a big lifestyle change, a chance to make new friends and learn a new language and culture. So far so good, but stay tuned to see how we do.