First steps .

"We are going to live in France."



Josselin, Brittany     unevacanceenfrance.com



 A simple statement, one we began mentioning to friends and family, but it took many more nights at that table to come up with what resembled a plan. To start, we booked a two week 'holiday',staying in a friend's gite in Brittany, to get a feel for french life, make a tour of  Morbihan, the department we intended to live in, and assuage the increasing fears of the children.

Ferry crossings are often described as mini cruises, mainly by the ferry companies to be fair, but if the sun is shining and the boat is effortlessly plowing through a peaceful sea well you could almost be anywhere in the Caribbean . Unfortunately for us we had high wind and seas, and there was no doubting that we were in the middle of the English channel, with no escape for four hours.

The holiday went well, we glimpsed a life we could have, trying our french out on bemused neighbours, hearing "Comment?" for the first time, but unfortunately not the last. We shopped at the local market,the children were surprised to see baskets of live chickens watching the world go by as their sisters spun lazily on the spits alongside. Huge pans of couscous and paella tempted us ,a vast array of fruit and vegetables and olives of every description, amazed us.

Sausage galettes , racks of trousers cropped to finish at shin height ,cobbled streets, bells ringing in the distance , this was France for us.......and we loved it!

Our tour of Morbihan took us from Vannes to Carnac, up to Lorient and across to Pontivy, we viewed a number of properties ,some within our price range, others not, all offering something ,but mostly just hard work.We still hadn't found a town that made us want to live either in it or near it, we were looking for something, something that was difficult to put into words.....and then we arrived at Josselin.

Josselin is a medieval town that sits beside the Nantes -Brest canal, it is well known for its Chateau and Saturday market, well known to everyone but us! We arrived on a Friday afternoon, knowing we were due back on the ferry the following morning and this would be our last sortie.

Whether it was the first view of the Chateau ,stunning in the sunshine upon an outcrop of stone,or the beautiful little town that was beyond  that made up our minds we never knew, but what was apparent, as we strolled around the bustling streets, was we had found our town.

The ferry back to Poole found us in good spirits, not just because it wasn't lurching like an elderly bronco, but also we had achieved some of the goals we had set ourselves before departing two weeks prior.Life returned to normal, I carried on with my jobs , Olivia continued with the hospital shifts and the children returned to school, but it was different now, there was a cut off point, and in five months everything would change.

It was at this time that Olivia's parents, Ernie and Anne, decided they would  come with us, they had both recently retired and as Olivia was their only child , the thought of the separation from her and their grand children would be too hard to bear. This was wonderful news for us, Olivia had been having the same thoughts, and although it came as a surprise, it felt like the last piece of the puzzle had been put in place.

With both houses on the market, we started to trawl the French property web sites, firstly to find a place to rent for six months .Ernie and Anne would arrive each evening, with news of viewings, and questions on all aspects of french life, I suggested a visit, just to get a feel of France, a place they had decided to spend the rest of their lives in ,but a place they had never visited!

"No, no Steve, we trust you, no point wasting the cost of the ferry"

By the beginning of May we had a buyer.

The schools were informed that the children would not be returning in September, Olivia handed her notice in and I started to give the names of rival landscaping firms to new clients,so I could concentrate on finishing the work I had already had agreed to. We had found a place to rent  near Josselin, and sent our deposit, planning to move in at the beginning of August.

May and the first half of June was a busy time, the logistics of moving from one country to another took up all of our spare time, Ernie and Anne now had a buyer as well, so they joined us in the turmoil of surveys, form filling , packing, and worrying. I was battling the weather, and clients who wanted extras, while I was there!
Trying to tie everything up ,close the business and leave enough time to move most of ours, and my in laws belongings into storage, became my unwavering goal.
 I knew I was stretching our finances to beyond breaking point, all the extra expense and a massively reduced income,had wiped out our savings, but with the house sale just around the corner, clearing the rapidly mounting debt would not be a problem.

Then, in the second week of June, we lost our buyer.