Do you miss it?

Miss what?

France!

Oh.

Now you mention it, not really and not often, only when someone asks or brings up something from that hideous time!

But. . .

Yes, I guess if I really think about it, I do miss friends that still belong to France, my kitchen that wasn't perfect but perfect for me and getting there. Oh and my big free standing bath in the dressing room. Actually the bathroom situation was absolutely superior to what we have here! Still, I will get the opportunity to do it again at some point with a lessons learnt upgrade.

France?

The lack of traffic.

The Brocante.

I couldn't do the pastries, so not that.

The wine......I used it like a pain killer!

What I did realise, is that I can get everything I need here in the end and I don't need the wine so much.

I guess, that’s the take away here and I can never loose my residency here, there's comfort in that. Many people retire to France and later are faced with selling up and moving back when time is running or money out. It's always something to think about isn't it?

Suits you now but will it suit you as the economy struggles or you become ill or widowed? Not just France but anywhere in the world, because generally our families aren't there with us. Meanwhile you'll have a ball but later?

It's been 17 months now and soon enough, two years since we made the decision to leave. For us it hadn't gone well from the get go, if we are honest and it felt like an uphill climb, where the incline was getting steeper day by day. We felt we'd failed in the end but still kept trying well beyond the sell by date had passed.

I know now, that it was part of our story but not all of it and I can let go now.

We've thought about going abroad again a few times since being back, but as time has gone on, we appear to have lost the need to upend our lives. Maybe it was more of a reaction to feeling a bit lost at first?

We certainly needed our feet on hallowed ground and time to heal.

We are getting there now.

I don't feel the need to whitewash the French misadventure. It was mostly too much. Too difficult. We are not the first people to struggle there are we?

No.

It's okay to say we struggled and it hurt. If nothing else we had a go at it eh!

I'm still noticing my online buddies putting their dream French homes up for sale, simply because life changes. That’s all. What we wanted when we bought in 2017 really wasn't what we needed in 2025. We can't expect a place to fit us, we must fit it.

Aging is quite eye opening, but if you struggle with the language and don't have the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, life can require a different solution!

I believe many of us never think beyond the dream and put the ' what if's' away for another day?

Anyway, I've been enjoying October immensely.....decorating the farm house with pumpkins and wot not! If anything I feel rather settled back in Blightly. There will be a move down the line/at some stage to the forever home, but for now and for once I don't have the 'itchy feet' syndrome. I'm okay. We've done one Christmas here already and suddenly the festive season is just around the corner again. It sometimes feels like life is on speed dial since we got back! At one point, I couldn't stand the thought of another winter here but 12 months has made all the difference.

Our one and only French Christmas was utterly bonkers! Down to the wire! We just got the log burner in! I was getting the tree decorated and P was still putting up curtains, I kept shoving his drill out of the way so I could set the table, then as luck would have it, H brought a the worst dose of the flu home from London and we all just about died! I think I ate one slice of ham on Christmas day and I will never forget that H struggled for hours to cook the festive feast because she had the oven on the wrong setting!

It was the strangest Christmas but we still made it happen and had fun inbetween the snot and sniffs.

Memories were made as was a trifle that never got eaten!

The planet is a bit of a bloody mess right now my lovelies, thanks to some old mad dictators in suits, so it's even more important that we enjoy the simple things in life eh!

Romance everything!

I can certainly do that!

Love and gumption

D x