Picking up momentum

Simple: a long weekend in the ‘Land of Pigeonniers’  to try and get our heads around exactly where in France we want to live. See a few properties to get a better idea of what we could afford/expect….have some nice food and wine.

Well, 10 properties later…we are back home in London and putting our house on the market!

We arrived with a detailed list of what we wanted…and didn’t expect anything to fully fit the bill.  And, no, nothing was perfect- but there were three properties that could easily work for what we want to do.  We realised we can make this happen now.   I have my favourite of course- but I am confident we have choices and will be able to find something when we now go back in May.

Some highlights of the trip:

• The rented Renault Twingo automatically linking to my phone and blasting Rufus Wainwright as soon as we set off from Toulouse airport
• Viewing a 13^th century castle and ‘compound’ and believing for about 10 minutes we might actually be able to make it work (later realising it probably costs a lot of money to ‘shore up a tower’)

• Hearing our French estate agent  Ludovic enthusiastically telling a French couple about what a great idea we have for a cooking school…focusing on local products, including the Black Gascon Pig.  And then having them agree.
• Spending £5 on a bottle of wine that was really damn good!
• Eating duck confit with a cep sauce on a February day – outside – in a lovely village