11th September 2016

British expats are stressed. Anyone'd think it was 9/11 or something. On arrival here everything was wonderful (read Pensioners in Paradis (https://www.amazon.co.uk/Pensioners-Paradis-Olga-Swan/dp/1847994156?ie=UTF8&ref_=asap_bc). This lasted for around 7 - 10 years. Then, slowly, slowly, a sort of mind confusion occurred. Do we want to die in France?  (Him indoors says he doesn't want to die anywhere!) Eventually, this crystalised into putting our house on the market. This weekend we had 2 viewings: 1 via Leboncoin, the other via a local agency. Now this is an unusual house, so for the first I showed them all the petit trucs the house had to offer, but for the second, disaster set in. First, 5 mins before arrival, our 'wonderful' neighbour decided to start his very noisy mower. Peaceful environment shattered. Then I thought the agent was the buyer (she'd never visited before and didn't know the house at all), and French agents require absolute silence and no input at all from sellers!  Result: no sale yet again.  And you wonder why I'm stressed.....

12 October 2014

A few days ago a couple arrived at our front gate. 'Is your house for sale?'  Eh?  Well, not exactly, but...where did you hear that?  'A neighbour told us.'  Oh.  'Could we come round this afternoon and have a look.' S'pose so.  Frantic rush round to make the place presentable. Head in a spin.  1500h a car arrives and out climbs the couple together with the neighbours with the chickens at the back of our garden!  (For those with a long memory, the ones where Bruno jumped over the fence and attacked their chickens).  I should pause here. Did you ever see that film Castaway with Tom Hanks? Life casts him away from home in a lovely sunny place with all the coconuts he can eat. He adapts for a while, enjoying the sunshine, but eventually starts to build a liferaft. Why would you want to leave such a sunny place, family might say, before they return to their lives back home? Back to reality. Him indoors currently needs treatment that is only available in France, and exchange rates mean the price offered will only buy an apartment in the UK, and what to do with the 2 dogs. Nothing comes easy.