We have a house finally!

Well, at last, some good news for us. We signed for our house last Monday and so we are now the proud owners of a very large house, numerous outbuildings and 18 acres of land!! We have also gained a few new pets, in the form of three cats and quite a few mice! The run up to the signing did not run smoothly. The moral of the story is never to trust a bank with your money. We arranged the money transfer to the currency exchange specialist for the Thursday before the meeting at the notaires office on the Monday. The bank were supposed to send the money on the Wednesday, however, they tried to take it from the wrong account and it was rejected. I re-did all of the paperwork and after several phonecalls on the Thursday they had still not sent it! A computer error apparently. I did not find this information out until the afternoon of the following day when I had sat in the branch, with Kirsty and Peter, from 9.20 until 2.40pm!!! Consequently we could not send the money to France on the Friday and we did not know until an hour before the signing on the Monday if the money had actually got there or not!! Well, no thanks to the bank, we have a house, so we have to be thankful for something. Andrew has also now spent the last week taking all of our belongings to France. After completing three trips to France we thought it was finally over but NOOOO! Guess what? I left the kids passports and the dogs one in the filing cabinet that is now in France!! OOOPS! Andrew has now got to go on another trip to retrieve them! Boy am I in trouble! Well, enough for now. I promise to do an update in the very near future. We have booked the ferry for Boxing Day to do our final trip to France and to take up residence in our new abode, so we hope to see as many of you as possible before then. If we dont, we apologise. Have a very lovely Christmas and a great New Year. xxx

We Are Still Alive!!!

Well, we still have a broken motor home and we are still no further forward with sending it back from whence it came!! The Managing Director of Barry Caravans is currently on holiday in London and apparently he is the only one who can make a decision. Once he is back on Thursday I hope that he is fully rested and waiting patiently for my call!! Josh and Kirsty have settled back into school life again and are also doing really well with their French lessons. Benoit, our teacher, is lovely and is highly recommended if any of you need French lessons for when you come to visit!! The house move is still moving forward and we are due to complete on 10 December. We just can't wait. All I have to do is prepare my CV and get a job now. I have spoken to the Chamber of Commerce in Caen who have already offered me an interview when we return. Fingers crossed. Anyway, we are still here until Christmas and really hope to catch up with everyone whilst we are here. Love to all. xxxx

NOT AGAIN!!!!! Never buy a Fiat

After our horrific experiences in France when the Turbo failed on our brand new motorhome, yesterday saw all those memories dragged up again as, once more, we were on the hard shoulder of the motorway awaiting roadside assistance. This time it seemed that the Cambelt failed and we are potentially looking at a new engine. Giving the RAC their due, they were with us in half an hour, diagnosed the problem and towed us to the nearest service station. This all kicked off at 11:00am. Unfortunately RAC were unable to tow us home due to the size of the vehicle so once more we were on the phone to Fiat Camper Assistance.by 5:00pm, the best Fiat could come up with was to send us a taxi to collect a hire car. With stress levels toppling over the edge I called RAC commercial vehicles and spent an amazing £775.00 to get our home recovered. Keep your eyes on Watchdog for the next installment on this very sorry saga.

Return to chaos

Those close to us will know that our arrival home fortunately coincidided with a huge handful of disasters within the family. What with new hips, care homes and hospital visits we haven't really touched the ground yet.

The french property market, just like any other countries, has a few perculiarities. One of these is a French organisation who have the right to buy any propertythat comes on the market. From the time when all the papers are first registered with the notaire, this organisation has 8 weeks to decide if they want to buy your property or not.

Fingers crossed it will all run smoothly from here.

Even with the turmoil we returned to, we still managed to squeeze in an 80th birthday for my granny, a pig roast, a barbecue with Keith and Sue, and the rest. We will catch up with all and sundry soon when we know if we're coming and going.

Taking this all into account it means that we should complete on our purchase at the begining of December. We hope to ship our stuff over before Christmas and then move in at the beginning of next year.

Back to Blighty

Well, after a few last minute alterations to our plans, we have returned to the uk safe and sound. A day ahead of schedule just to surprise some unsuspecting relatives. The journey home was going smoothly until we hit the wonderful motorway network that this country is renowned for. The first accident on the M20, then one on the M26 and dare I mention the M25. Fourteen weeks and 6500 miles of travelling in France and Spain and we only saw one traffic jam, our journey home saw us caught up in one of the biggest jams ever as an accident closed the M3 for nearly 3 hours seeing unimaginable tailbacks. On the brighter side of life, everyone was chuffed to see us and a few beers were consumed to celebrate our safe return. The house purchase appears to have gone smoothly and, during the consultations to purchase the adjacent field, we also bought 2 hectares of valley, forest and stream for the kids play area. Off for a hearty breakfast now, but will put some more news and pictures up later.

The First Contract

Well, we have done it!! Signed our lives away again!! The visit to the estate agents went well this afternoon and we signed the first contract. We now have to wait for the vendor to sign his life away too and then its all done. Well, for a short while anyway. Once the paperwork has worked through the system they believe that completion date will be 10 December. We are also buying a piece of land adjacent to the house at the same time so once again, on Monday, we will be signing our lives away again. Sounds simple, but I am not sure if the Notaire speaks English so it should make for an interesting meeting!!

We will be back next Thursday to let everyone know how we have got on. I am assured by Andrew that it will be fine!!

Take care and see you all soon.

xxxx

At last!!!!!!

We finally escaped our favourite car park on Friday evening at about 6.45 pm. It had been a long day awaiting the return of the motor home. It was sad to leave the sound of the A84 and the long trek for the water ................... etc etc.

We made a hasty retreat to the campsite at Villedieu and had a lovely meal before collapsing into bed. It was a lovely quiet night!!!

The weekend has been spent relaxing, washing and de stressing before we start the search for schools and amenities near where our new home will be. We sign the first contract on Thursday and then will need to wait a couple of months for the process to complete.

For those of you concerned for our wellbeing we return to England on 13 September so you will be able to investigate at close proximity. The grandchildren will be on hand for spoiling rotten and I cant wait for a lovely long soak in a bath. Showers are great but I still miss my bath!!!!

See you soon guys.

Love to all.

xxxxx

The House

Well, after visiting the estate agent again this morning we are on the way to purchasing our new house. He has taken all of our details now and trusted us enough to borrow the keys for another look. We should sign the first contract next Thursday 6 September. We took the opportunity of taking some more photos for the nosy parkers amongst you. Hopefully, they will keep you happy until we return in September.

We are also hopeful that in the next day or so the motor home may get fixed. Barry Caravans came up trumps and have taken another turbo off one of their vehicles and sent it by DHL to the garage here. Its just a shame that Fiat did not have the decency to do something like that before now. Oh well, who cares we have a house!!!!

We also went to the beach yesterday afternoon. Well, I say the beach, it was more of a mud bath for Josh and Kirsty. I am sure that it must be good for the skin though! It was in the Bay of Mont St Michel. Unfortunately, oops, fortunately, Josh and Kirsty did not find one of the many sinking sand sections!!!

We have a house!!

I am not even going to mention the motor home in this message as it is too much of a pain!! I am just going to give you all the good news. We have just ten minutes ago bought a house. For those of you who are nosy it is in a place called La Ferriere Duval and the closest town in Aunay. I will add a few pictures here for you.

The other news, Kirsty lost her first tooth and Peter has grown two more. He is also copying lots of words now, so no more swearing for us!!

Lots of love from a very happy us.

xxx

Its actually sunday that I Wrote this!!

Well, what can I say to follow Tonys message of last week? The weather was bad all week and now Tony has gone home we have glorious sunshine!! My dad always said that the last week in August and the first week in September were the best of the summer. So far, it looks as if he was right. Despite the weather we did have a good time last week. The Bell Foundry was a great visit, recommended to all those who visit Villedieu in the future. The kids thought it was great, being able to ring the huge bells and scare silly the unsuspecting people who did not know that they were in working order!! Sian also caught the only fish of the week, a beautiful rainbow trout. Unfortunately, it was not big enough to feed eight of us and had to be put back for the next family! The campsite must have thought we were mad English people, which of course we are, and put up with us all week. I think we were their best customers (sorry, only customers!) but by the end of the week we had encouraged plenty of other campers to taste the fine food in the café and drink copious amounts of beer! By the end of the week the campsite was reminiscent of Glastonbury but thankfully the Range Rover was not perturbed. Our hire car, however, was found to be the worst off road vehicle wherever we went. At the beginning of the week, before it had even rained for two days, on arrival at the steam fair we had to be pushed IN!! Normally, it’s at the end of the day that people are being pushed, but no, this time it was at the start. Needless to say the steam fair was a wash out and we lasted there all of half an hour. Long enough though for Sian to find the biggest horse possible and fall in love with it. It towered almost five feet above her!! Now, the tale of the motor home. On the Thursday before Tony arrived we were quite happily plodding down the road to Villedieu when the motor home decided that hills were too much like hard work and could not go any further. After a puff of smoke and a bang we arrived at the top of a hill and the motor home refused to go any further. After calling the RAC in France we had to pay 200 euros for a tow truck to come and rescue us. He brought us a few miles down the road to Avranches, which is where the motor home has lived ever since. After a few aborted discussions in French with different mechanics the English mechanic arrived!! It turned out that they thought we had put petrol in the vehicle instead of diesel. We knew that this was not the case, but typical the only receipt that I could not find was the one we needed. However, we were absolutely certain that we had not made a faux pas and they finally put the motor home up on the ramps. After a few minutes they had found the problem, the turbo was one hundred percent bust. Unfortunately a new turbo would not arrive until the following Tuesday! This would have been bearable as they were kind enough to let us sleep in the motor home still, supply us with power and let us use their water. They also said we could have a hire car while it was being fixed at only twenty euros a day. This did not sound too bad as it would be the same cost as a camp site! However, as many of you will probably be aware, garages are not always accurate in their timescales. The new turbo also has to come from Italy, who shut down in the month of August!!! Typical!! Well, we are still sat here in our car park. We have a great view for miles, only slightly spoilt by the motorway which cuts through the middle of it. We are still hopeful that the new turbo will arrive this Tuesday, although we are not holding our breath. We are also learning to drive a left hand drive vehicle, a manual at that. It did however give Andrew several headaches to start with. He said it was due to having to drive on the right and in a left hand drive with the gear stick on the wrong side. Personally I think it was because he smacked his head on the door every time he got in and on the boot every time he put the push chair away, but I could be wrong! He He!! I think the reason we sounded so fed up last week as well was the conversation with Fiat UK. Apparently we should have three years of free AA cover with a new vehicle which also includes hotel accommodation and hire cars!! Great that they tell us this well over a week after we break down. (Barry Caravans watch out in September, I believe you are in for a pasting!!) Whilst here we have still been looking for our new home. We visited two last week which had great potential but did not seem quite right. On Monday we are to visit a large property between Vire and Caen. It has three and a half hectares of land and a beautiful stone property that needs some renovation. Lets hope it is the one! On paper, it is the best we have seen so far. We are also planning to visit four more properties on Thursday, so we are on the case. Today was a first for all of us too, Tractocross. It was great fun, twelve tractors racing as if they were motorbikes on a giant track. We were hoping that King Tony would win but unfortunately he came second! Never mind, it’s the taking part that counts!! Anyway, I think that just about says it all for now. Take care and hope to see you all soon. xx

Noah and his Busted Turbo

Well, it's official, it's rained for a whole week and we have nearly floated away. We even heard the flood warning earlier today; [Tony typing now - because he is really bored with Jane typing so slowly and inacurately]. In all honesty it has only rained once this week - it started at the beginning of the week and hasn't stopped yet. We looked at three houses this week - two wern't great, and the third had been sold before we had seen it. The wagon is still fu*&£d. The turbo has had it - probably the Pyranees that shagged it. Fiat is a fantastic supplier. They have helped us our not end. They promised faithfully that the new turbo will be delivered within a few days. What they didn't say was that it would be delivered within a few days of Armageddon. Oh deep joy. If you fancy buying a Fiat - don't! I found myself needing to beg a nappy from a neighbour the other night. My French is now so good I offered to trade a baby for a pig instead of a nappy for a bottle of wine. Tony, Sian and Jaden have arrived this week - they brought the English weather with them. On the bright side, it has only rained once since they arrived, and we are sure it will stop soon. Perhaps tomorrow after they leave.

Villedieu Les Poeles

Well, thats where we are! It means 'cooking pot'. A jolly good name for somewhere for us to live, and my mum found it on the map without me spelling the whole thing, so it must be good. She even said it looked close to home on the map, so even easier for visitors.

Well, after a lot of thought we phoned the estate agent again today about the maison de maitre in Domfront, however, it is sold subject to contract. As everything happens for a reason we have moved very quickly on and found an extremely nice English agent in this town who moved here four years ago with a five year old and an eight year old and has not looked back. That sounded like a good start. She may also have found us a great property already. It is close to the town only 20 kilometres from the sea and has 5 hectares of land. That means plenty of room for animals, a toy farm, a camp site, softball pitches and bed and breakfast!!! It also has a lake and a river running through it! (Good news for the fisherman amongst you.)

We are not visiting the property until Friday, so don't get excited too soon. We are also visiting two others, so you never know, by Friday afternoon we may not be homeless!! It is also habitable, so no woodworm we hope!

The town here is lovely. It has a Bell Foundry, that we hope to visit, and is famous for its lace, copper and pewter work. The copper shops in the high street were huge. Josh even found the pot in Georges Marvellous Medicine. (A Roald Dahl book for those of you not familiar).

Anyway, enough for now. Love to all and speak soon.

xxxx

Get 'im Out! Get 'im Out! Get 'im Out!

Well, we are now in Beuzec Cap Sizun I think! Anyway, Brittany, and south of Brest. The sun is still lovely and the beach good enough to burn on again. Todays title of the blog was said very quickly by a male member of our party, who has been desperate to catch a lizard since we arrived. Well, he got his wish finally, only for it to dive straight for the safety of his sleeve. If I was not laughing so much I may have been able to help him. Thankfully, Andrew was able to control himself and remove the lively monster from his armpit!

That is not the only animal that we have encountered on our travels, we have been attacked by giant hairy caterpillars, killer mosquitoes, small biting flies, monster blue bottles, ladybirds, stag beetles, of all sizes, water rats that sound like rustling bags in the middle of the night and POP bellied pigs!!!! (To anyone else they are pot-bellied, but to Kirsty they are POP!!)

I have also done two more things that I have never done before, gone down a giant water slide twice, just to prove it was not a fluke!!, and taken the kids out on two different sorts of pedalos. The second was such a major work out that Andrew and I needed reviving afterwards.

We have also been to a great wildlife park in Branfere and a lovely water park where the kids got soaked, fully clothed. Branfere was great and we managed to take a whole DVD. It was all open plan and the animals could roam freely. I have never seen so many peacocks, wallabies and deer, to name a few, that where so close you could touch them.

We have been moving further north again into house hunting territory so hopefully we will be able to find some more suitable properties soon.

Love us. xxx

Hot in France

The weather is great and the pool is manic. It is currently over 30° here. We have found a great site where the kids would be happy in the pool all day. It has a great water slide and the kids have lost count of how many times they have been down it. Andrew is also in heaven as we have finally found wine country. For the wine connoiseurs amongst you we are in St Emilion. For those of you teetotallers, we are near Bordeaux. We have yet to visit a vineyard but hopefully that is not far off! We are moving on to Angouleme tomorrow to a site owned by more English. This current site is made up of 30% Irish, 30% Netherlands, 30% English, 1 Danish and a handful of frogs. The Irish are currently trying to fight with the French over girlfriends!! Not sure who is going to win but is an interesting conversation when neither speaks the other language. Sorry to say I cant put any pictures on today as I am on the site computer. I have, however, learned how to us a dodgy French keyboard!!!! Speak soon. Lots of love, us. xxx

Lourdes, Pyrenees, Spain and Back Quick!!

Well, the title says it all. We continued our journey and reached Lourdes at lunchtime. What can I say, an experience to be remembered. After stopping at the supermarket we managed to find a parking space on a road which seemed to be miles from anywhere. In fact it was right next to the park where the Grotto is situated. We walked the short distance and arrived at the queue to view the Grotto. For once the queue was not too long and after two seconds it was even shorter. A man asked us if we were English and ushered us to the front of the queue. No, not because we were English though, because we had a pushchair. So, the moral of this story is take a pushchair!! On entering the Grotto in silence there was an air of excitement, apprehension, an urgency to pray and all other feelings rolled into one. The stone was smooth were millions of hands have touched before. We then moved on and lit some candles in the area adjacent to the Grotto. Another amazing site. The only bad part to this visit was the commercial centre at the entrance to the park. Hundreds of shops cashing in on the experience. I chose to visit the Catholic shop only and bought a few reminders to bring back, including some postcards. (Yes, they are on the way!!)

We then continued our journey to the Pyrenees. Scary, is all I can say. I am glad Andrew was driving because I had my eyes shut. I have a dvd of part of the journey, so I will at least be able to watch that! The views however, were amazing and even though the sun was blazing there was still some snow to be seen on some of the mountains.

We finally arrived in Spain after a night in the mountains. HOT, HOT, HOT!! Yes, I know we should not complain, and everyone told us it would be, but it was too hot. Andrew commented that it was a bit like being a prisoner, because it was too hot to go anywhere. The views of the castle were fantastic though, including the many eagles and the paragliders. We decided that it was best to return to France as soon as possible as the children could not play freely and poor Sasha was panting continuously. We ventured out at eight thirty in the evening when the restaurant opened and had a lovely meal. The only difficulty we had was understanding the hand written notes on a piece of paper, which was the menu for the evening. My spanish, I am afraid to say, is very poor. Thankfully, the lady who spoke a bit of English appeared and we managed to have an edible meal.

The next day we made an early start for a return to France, and the language that I can speak. The first person I spoke to was the lady on the toll road. Finally, someone who understood me again.

After a whole day of driving we found the campsite. Great! It was closed for an extra lunch hour. We decided to move further north and find another. It was full! I phoned the next one and made a reservation. Great, we were finally going to be able to stop driving. Then, CLICK, CLICK, CLICK. We had something in the tyre!! The good news was that we had made the campsite though. On closer inspection there was a very large nail in the tyre! Oh well, it could have been worse, not sure how though. We phoned the RAC who gave us the number of the European helpline. They were very nice and said they would send someone in the next hour. He arrived with a tow truck and no new tyre. He had no way of fixing it either. Very useful. Steve is desperately needed!! He spoke no English, which made for a great conversation. Finally, we gave up and after keeping our fingers crossed for the night we managed to inflate the tyre in the morning and get to a garage. They were fully booked but after some negotiation and lots of pleases fixed the problem in less than ten minutes. Our faith in the French is now restored!!

What next then? We are now on our way back north on the quest to find more good food, interesting places to visit and a home. Love to all.

And the most important part, I leave till last! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BOB!!! Love you.

The start of a pilgrimage

Continuing on South, we have decided to head for Lourdes, not for the cricket mind you but to visit some ancient shrine and drink from a fountain. For years millions of people have visited this place so we thought we should go and see what it was all about.

We have toured the bastide town of Monpazier before moving down South of Bordeaux to Bazas. Here we came a cross a music festival and were very happy to encounter a street band playing oompah loompah music.

From here we have moved South East to a place called Marciac. Home to an enormous Jazz festival that starts here tomorrow. Unfortunately there will be no room at the inn tomorrow so we will be on route to Lourdes early in the morning.

We hope to cross the Pyranees into Spain later this week. The heat is getting to Jane and the dog so we won't venture too far in. A brief venture to Andorra and then back into France on this occasion.

In the pool yesterday, Kirsty learnt to swim without armbands, using a mask and snorkel and Peter went in just in armbands.

Limoge and further South still

Well, great as Limoge was, I could only liken it to a city in the UK somewhere, congested, smelly, messy and totally uninviting. Jane did however locate some pottery to her liking and we have also resolved the issue of a present for Grannies 80th. We did find an aerial play park for the kids in Limoge which kept them entertained and wore them out for the day. Two and a half hours of tree climbing and aerial runways does wonders. Unfortunately this connection won't let me send you pictures of aerial kids but i'll put them up when we get a chance. We moved on from Limoge, heading South to Thiviers and then South again to Les Eyes sumfink or other. No doubt you'll find it on the map. Then today we went to Urzal to meet up with some old friends from round the corner in Lawn Close, Bridget and Tom. A very relaxing lunch in their Dordoyne residence saw discussions on property hunting, flooding, councils and other stuff. After lunch we moved on again and, after 2 bottles of red wine and a pint, I have no idea where we are. Here somewhere. The weather is awesome, finally like being on holiday however the Dordoyne price structure is not so appealing. All the property here is 100K more expensive, just for being here. Sophie Hughes, sorry to hear your holidays are boring, feel free to email Jane on janelar@hotmail.co.uk. To everyone else commenting, keep it up as it is good to hear from you all. PS. Happy 57th birthday for tomorrow dad, what more could you ask for but the best floods to date on your birthday. Hope you got the cards and chat to you tomorrow.

2 more properties down and still heading South

Well today, we have nearly hit central France. We are in Limoge, world famous for it's potteries. The English weather continues to follow us on our travels, 5 weeks in and only 4 days of sunshine. We viewed 2 houses today, the first in La Celle Dunoise, a long house with numerous rodent residents and a well overflowing into the cellar, and a house and barn in Bonnat, surrounded by 3 hectares of land, a million miles from civilisation with a 30 minute school/shop run. No surprise really that we have written both of these off. Todays campsite is very commercial, dedicated to the through traffic heading to the Mediterranean. Unfortunately not ideal for the kids and dog, it does benefit from internet access. Although still heading South, we have decided to focus our property searching North of here where we are more accessible to the hoards of peeps who wish to come and visit us.

Chateau de Loir

Well, we have moved south. A lovely campsite with its own lake, beach and brilliant play area for the kids. It even has an open restaurant and a bar! Not much to say really but for those of you missing us loads we thought you would appreciate some more photos. Le Mans, incidentally, is too big, too urban and has a large race track!!!!! You will see from the photos that we did all wear proper hats at the riding school and that we observe all necessary safety points when in the water!!!

Time to Fly South

Well, it is always good to go and have a second look at a property. That is what every good friend, relative and book will tell you. After our second offer on the property the sellers asked us for another one thousand euros. It seemed a very small amount but we had already decided that we would not pay a penny more. To settle our minds it was decided that we would revisit the house and have another in depth look.

We arrived at 2.30pm and the large windows had been flung wide again. We were reminded of an excellent DVD that Ian and Sophie had lent us about a year in France. The views from all of the windows were superb, even the cheese factory looked inviting.

The kids seemed settled in the 'salon' with their DSs and Peter was having a lovely time running riot with hundreds of doors and lots of original keys to fiddle with.

Andrew meanwhile, with torch in hand, was checking every room in detail. (Peter checked out the bidets!)

After checking out the trees in the garden again, for the purposes of building a tree house, we thanked Mme Timothee very much and headed for town.

Now for the bad news. Andrews first words to me, on exit, were "Time to Fly South". Unfortunately, the roof is full of wood worm, even the side that has been done in the past few years. The other major expense would be on the ground floor. All of the beautiful parquet floors would have to be lifted as the entire downstairs also has wood worm. This was found on closer inspection in the two cellars.

Although we have the expertise and the energy to do major works it would be a tragedy to have to destroy the house in order to do them.

So, the moral of the story is, always go back for a second look!!!

We will now progress on our travels and continue the search for the perfect property.

Love to all.

xxxx

Domfront and Beyond .......

Well, we are here again folks. We walked passed this internet shop three times! Then we phoned Tony, resident internet cafe finder, who sent us to Le Grand Mesnil. It was a hotel with internet access. LOL! It was a small B&B in the back of beyond, with a British lady who has only been here six months. She told us there was a very good shop in Domfront!!!, but let us use her computer anyway.

Well, I suppose you would like an informative update. We have had some very interesting nocturnal excitement. Josh, for those of you who know him well, likes to have a walk in the middle of the night. Andrew and I were awoken a few nights ago by the sound of "Mummy, Help Me!" When asked where he was, we realised that he was outside the motor home. The normal boobytraps of shoes had been removed that day and without making a sound he had managed to lock himself out. Needless to say, I was mortified! The door is now tied shut and the shoes are religiously put back before we go to sleep.

Now, about the house!!! We have put in a second offer on a magnificent property in Domfront. It has space for hundreds of chickens, one of every sort in Joshs book, or is it Andrews book, and space for everyone to stay. We are waiting as I write for a response from the owners daughter. The only bad thing that I can find to say about it is that you can see the Camembert factory. The picture at the top of the page is of the front of the house, half of it anyway!!!

Apart from deciding who is having what bedroom, we have also been to visit lots of other local towns and villages. Josh and Kirsty had their first riding lesson yesterday, they loved it. Their instructor, Thierry, was lovely. He was exhausted after running around the arena with them and then, bless him, he took us on a "promenade". I decided to be brave too and got the biggest horse they could find! Once I had managed to get on, my jeans would not let me reach the stirrup, it was like riding a bike. I did remember how much your legs ache after though. Kirstys pony, Hercule, was the sweetest thing, and she has decided that she wants one just like him. The

ponies in the picture are the ones from the campsite in Condette, we will add Kirstys favourite later.

Well, we hope to have some good news soon for everyone.

Take care and love to all. xxxx

The Bayeux Tapestry

Well, we were not disappointed. For something that is nearly 1000 years old it is fabulous. If only we all looked like that after 50 years it would be an achievement. For those of you who are completely confused now I am talking about the Bayeux Tapestry.

We arrived at lunchtime, just about the time when most French people disappear for two hours, or three! The satnav had taken us the long way around again but we listened and then ended up in the middle of a Mediaeval Festival in Bayeux. With many frowns from the locals we managed to negotiate the small streets that the satnav had avoided and eventually found a car park, great. However, there were no spaces! Never mind we thought, we will park in a local street somewhere. Ha ha! The streets were full too. We managed to find a tiny space at the end of a small street and a little old lady appeared from her doorway. The lady was not coming to complain, merely to ask us to pull further forward as she could not see out of her window. She assured us that she did not have a car and that it was perfectly ok to park in front of her drive. What a nice lady!!!

We then walked the short distance to the Tapestry. Spectacular. The kids were actually quiet and Josh thought it was great, especially the part where the man had no clothes on and you could see everything! Well, I think it was Josh. It was actually Andrew that spotted it first.

After seeing the Tapestry we visited the Mediaeval Festival which surrounded the town and then we visited the Cathedral. Both fabulous to see.

It was then time to return to the motor home, only there was a slight technical hitch, we had lost it. Obviously, either the nice lady or the smells from the Festival had damaged our internal satnavs! After the third street we finally found it, much to the childrens delight.

We are now near to Le Havre, moving back up the coast to rendezvous with Adam. Thats all for now folks, speak soon.

House 3 and dinner with Kerry

House 3 was a turn up for the books. Not only did it benefit from 70+ acres of land, it also had a new roof. No floors, windows, doors etc. though. Kirsty told the estate agent it merely needed a good hoovering.

With so much property to look at, we opted for spending the night in the front garden. Nothing like cheap accommodation.

After much contemplation, discussion, and sleeping on it, we decided to put it on hold and carry on with the holiday.

We'd had a text from uncle Kerry saying he was in Normandy so we headed off in that general direction. Strange but we seem to be seeing more of our aunts and uncles here than we did in the UK. We had a lovely meal with Kerry and Sylvie in Bagnoles De L'orne. I rustled up some French Cuisine supported by the local chip shop.

Today we have moved north to Bayeaux, home of the infamous Bayeaux tapestry. Hopefully when we go to look at it tomorrow, the kids will find it more interesting than a 1000 year old toilet roll.

Nice to here that the Swedish Fraternity is now also following our adventures, you never know we could be heading that way late September time and may be after a free meal.

We took this picture of the estate agent, would you trust him?

House 1 and 2 been and gone

What can I say, the photo of the stairs in house 1 was possibly the only good bit of the property, and that was only to first floor level after which the stairs sloped away as far as they went up.

Not to be put off though, the agent had another property just down the road which he thought may be suitable.

45 minutes of driving later and we were at house 2, way up on a hill with the most fantastic views for miles. Size wise this house was good as well, the downside being that the stonework was shoddy and the end wall was falling away from the house.

I've attached a picture of a place we like however it was not for sale, it was a bee and ant farm which the kids thoroughly enjoyed going round.

Anyhow, our adventure continues. We're in a town called Pontivy "sounds like it should be in Wales" where we have checked out loads of estate agents and also found a cyber cafe. We spent last night adjacent to Lake Guerledan. As is becoming all too familiar at the moment, it rained most of the night which, on the brighter side, kept the flys down. We have witnessed some sunshine today which is good and hopefully the turning point for this poxy weather.

Our trip is going to take us back up towards Calais over the next week so that we can Rendevous with Adam on his school trip. Until the next installment, love us, xxxxxxxx

P.S. keep up the comments, they make great reading.

House number 1

Well, having sorted the wifi, we managed to go surfing and have found house number 1, an ancient manoir in need of a fair amount of work.

The property is in a town called Gourin, about 65 miles or so from here.

There is a spiral staircase that looks like it may have seen a few feet over the last 200 years. One of the selling points. Our visit is due for Monday so when we have some more pictures, we'll give you some feedback.

Under the instructions of Uncle Buck, we are now webcammed up as well, so for those who find that the drip feed of the blog is not an adequate fix of us, you can now see so much more.

We can see the sea!!!

After a day of playing on the beach, in the sunshine, lol, we are currently on a site that has a back gate direct to the beach and josh and kirsty can wake up with the sea out of their window.

Andrew and Josh kayaked to an island in the middle of nowhere, and got attacked by the monster barnacles on arrival!! They were nearly attacked by the nesting seagulls in the new property that they checked out. However, they decided that a pile of rubble and only 200m of land was not enough. It did have a very large moat though in the form of the Atlantic Ocean and great fishing potential.

We are at Point de Kersiny now, which is near Audierne. The camp site is only a two star but it is really clean and has everything that a group of five children would want, park, beach out of back door, sunshine, more beach .....

The satnav is a great present! Thank you to all of those who contributed. However, we have found that it has a few faults eg, it finds the roadworks on automatic pilot and the smallest roads available to human beings. Whilst travelling through the picturesque town of Josselin it took us down a street so small that we had to wind in the mirrors and still breathe in more!!

Well, we must get back to our fine wine and sunbathing!! Talk soon blog spotters.

Love us.

The Departure

Finally we have made internet connection since our departure last week.

You'll be pleased to know that we made it safely across the channel and have already clocked up over 1000 miles.

Departure day was an emotional event for all those brave enough to show up. Tears were shed and lots of hugs exchanged. After nearly 30 years in Lawn Close, it was a strange feeling to be leaving.

Anyhow, we spent our first night around Bolougne before setting off South to Rendevous wit Ian and Mellanie in La Tranche Sur Mer. We have spent the last week working our way back up through Brittany checking out the property market as we went.

Today we are in a place called Concarneau and it is the first place we have found working internet. A number of false starts and a few miles on the bike without success resulted in us phoning the oracle "Tony" last night to find a proper Cyber Cafe.

I've attached a picture of the first pile of rubble that could make for a nice house.

Thanks to everyone for your comments and we look forward to catching up with you all again soon.

Mondays the day

Finally everything is falling into place. We have the cash from the bank, plastic to max out and a fuelled up motorhome raring to go. Monday is looking like departure day and, as usual, I can't wait. We've been saying goodbyes to all and sundry and we have a couple of functions left to attend this weekend before we hit the road. We've also found the batteries for the camera so I should be able to stick some photos up soon. Well, when I can remember where the camera is anyway. The house is almost completely empty and the container is full to overflowing, so much so that what's left will be delivered to friends or the tip depending on whom is more needy. No doubt my next update will be from the other side of the channel.

Departure is in sight

Finally the beginning of our almighty adventure is in sight. We exchanged contracts on the 4th June with a completion date of 6th July. We don't plan to hang around for completion as the more time spent here is less time spent enjoying retirement. We're planning a couple of days in Weymouth as a warm up to our trip next week. A chance to catch up with some old friends and test our new facilities to the max.

Time to hang up the glove and bat.

Having spent the last 10 years working my way up the softball ladder, Tuesday night was my last game for a while. What should have been a Mavericks, Marlins inter club play off turned into a fantastic game between a bunch of players who all wanted to play for the love of the game. Unfortunately the Marlins could not field their normal team but, rather than letting the game go by as a forfeit, they dragged in loads of my friends to have one of the best games TV has witnessed in a long time. On top of that, the cheffing skills of Vinny were put to the test as he fired up the grill and cooked dinner for one and all. I must say thank you to all the people who contributed to my softball red book. This is your life in softball. What an awesome present to take away with me.

Don't you just love the English weather?

After 10 years of throwing parties outside in Lawn Close, the weather finally turned against us. From when we started preparing at 6:30am on Monday morning, it was raining, blowing a gale and temperatures were not far above freezing. When you have 150 people coming over for a spot of lunch, all we needed was a bit of sunshine and a mild climate (similar to the South of France) Well it wasn't to be and throughout the day the Great British Weather continued to batter us and our guests. Although a few people chose not to venture out, we still had a fantastic turnout and I can only guess that the cold and wet made people hungrier as both the pig and paella were well and truly demolished. I believe a great time was had by all and must thank my dad for his efforts with the pig, uncle Glyn for the use of chairs and the sound system, Ross for lugging everything out and Jane for putting up with chaos and stress on top of moving house. I could run off a list of all the people that helped out but this is a blog not a novel and my typing skills keel over after the first 500 words so thanks to everyone for everything including cards and presents.

One less thing to stress about

Friday 25th May, a day to remember. After working for Pete and Maurice since 1995, a whole century ago, I finally threw in the towel and finished my career on Friday. I could not have asked for better employers over that time. I managed to do my second apprenticeship with them gaining skills in electrical installation. Pushing forward with them I moved into both Quality and Health and Safety. Finally, when it was time to leave, I'd made it all the way up the ladder to workshop manager. On the brighter side of things, the stress of being on call and heading up the workshop is now behind me. To make sure I stay in touch, they bought me the most excellent laptop as a leaving present. We're hoping to complete on the sale of the house on June 1st, which will then be one more bit of stress behind us.

Not long to go now.

Yet another week has just slipped by and it seems like we're almost ready for the pig move now. This weekend saw the moving of Kirstys bed along with more toys and other stuff. This leaves both Josh and Kirsty sleeping on mattresses on the floor. Hopefully we should get our completion date through today. Then we will be able to start the serious planning of the final part of the move and the ferry crossing to Calais. All going well, this will be my last week at work and I can only say, I'm ecstatic about it. 15 years in the rat race has run me to ruin and the thought of being able to throw in my phone and laptop and become stress free, has got me buzzing. Our leaving party is scheduled for the 28th May and will kick off around 2:00pm. The usual hog roast, combined with a paella, should see all in attendance well fed. We look forward to seeing you all there.

Where did it all come from?

Another bank holiday weekend and yet again we're sorting stuff out. This time we took on the mammouth task of clearing out the loft. No one could ever have imagined the amount of stuff we have accumulated over the last 10 years. If I broke it down into Ambulance size portions, it looks something like this.

• One load of stuff still in boxes from when we moved in 1996
• One load of kids clothes and soft toys
• Half a load of assorted Christmas decorations
• One load for the skip of boxes and other junk

Thankfully this part of the job is now finished and our house is breathing a sigh of relief with all this weight gone from the loft.

Splashing about on the water.

Having got the gear, with some idea, we decided an afternoon on the gravel pit was called for so that the kids could be let loose to enjoy the new toys.

We headed for the swimming area at Wraysbury, a regular haunt for ther family during there many years in the village.

Although a little bit on the cold side, the water was crystal clear with the sun shining down on us. We were joined by Sue and Sian and also our friends Steve and Laura.

The afternoon was exceptional fun with Steve being the first to capsize followed not long afterwards by an intentional fall out by Joshua. The kayaks were incredibly manouverable, a lot different ot the ones we've been used to in the past.

The afternoon went so well that we're hoing to do the same again this Sunday.

Now for the fun bit!!!!

Well, the motorhome arrived on 14-04-07. You start to realise the scale of the beast when it's parked in your drive and there's no room for anything else.

Seems strange being a household with 4 cars and only 2 drivers.

Spending 6 months living out of a motorhome, looking at houses and enjoying the scenery is all great, but I have decided to add a little spice to our adventure.

Today I'm off to collect 2 kayaks along with all the gear so that we can have some fun on the 1000s of miles of french waterways, inland lakes and coastal resorts.

This will be like a return to my days with the scouts. Hopefully I can remember how to roll one of these, otherwise I'll be getting very wet. For the kids it should prove to be an exciting new hobby for them to take up if they enjoy it.

What to do with the furniture

When you've lived in a house for 10 years, you tend to hoard stuff that really you should throw away. As the years go buy, you fill the holes under the bed, the airing cupboard becomes full of boxes rather than towels and the loft is groaning under the weight of all the aquisitions stored away up there. All this combined with sheds, garages and workshops amounts to an awful lot of stuff.

My dad always used to suggest that people should be forced to move on a regular basis in order to get rid of all this unwanted baggage. Well our time is now.

We've purchased a 20' second hand container, unfortunately not as bright and cheery as the one in the picture. This was delivered to the farm on 12-04-07 and the task ahead of us now is to pack it in such a way that we can retain as much of our rubbish as we can.

We've taken the option of buying a container as it means that when we finally find somewhere to move to, we can ship the container whole without the rigmarol of having to unpack it all again.

Moving the workshop.

Well, with the wheels in motion for selling the house and moving, I decided to spend the Easter bank holiday weekend moving the workshop. This was no mean feat, possibly as severe as packing up the house when we get to it. For those not in the know, my workshop was 24 feet by 12 feet and packed solid with tools, timber and other stuff that was too good to throw out but not good enough to have in the house. Friday was spent packing up and sorting rubbish. Saturday was spent progressively emptying and starting with the dismantling. Sunday saw the start of the reassembly at Robs house and Monday saw the finishing touches put to the roof and walls. All in all a very successful mission however it was exceedingly tiring and I do believe the hardest Rob and I have worked in years.

So, What to do next?

Well, with the idea lodged that we should spend some time in France checking out locations, I came up with the cunning plan of a motorhome.

The research continued as we looked into all sorts of different motorhomes. Ranging from the enormous American Winnebagos to the more manageable VW campers. Visits to various dealerships took place as we started to hunt around for what would be most suitable. Finally a trip to the NEC helped us to make the decision. Hundreds of homes were on display and our governing factors bought us down to just a few.

Something not to disimilar to this was our final choice and, after a few minutes of contemplation, we signed up for our biggest ever expense barring buying our house.

What's It all About Then

Well, if this is you first visit here, you may want to know what this blog is all about. Back in December 2006 whilst sufing the WEB on my lunch break, I came across a chateau for sale in Brittany. Now any other day of the week I'd have just glanced at it and said "oooh, that's nice" before moving on to find something else to pass the time of day. This property was different though. Firstly we could afford it, secondly it ticked all the right boxes in what I'd dreamed of as an ideal property, and finally, my Dad was interested in coming with me to view it. A few e-mails to the estate agent and a couple of phone calls later and it was all sorted, we were off the following week to go and view it and, we'd hopefully put down a deposit. If only property buying was as easy as that. On the morning we were due to sale out on the ferry, an early call from the estate agent shattered my dreams. In a matter of moments my whole world had fallen apart and the chances of another property like this coming on the market at the right price seemed like nill. Christmas was soon upon us and Jane and I spent a lot of time carrying out a post-mortem of events before deciding it was time to move on. When I say move on, it is meant in the litery term as we made the decision we would sell up our longterm homestead in Lawn Close and move to France. Months of research took place after this, looking into the ins and outs of French Life, property buying, locations and properties. We were overwhelmed with the options available to us and, although finding lots of potential properties, we were not happy to commit to any of them. Like a shot from the dark, a friend of my mums had suggested renting before we considered buying anywhere as they had had an unpleasent experience with property in France. This seemed a very logical approach however it still didn't resolve the issues of where to buy.