On the personal front though the decade has been a huge success. TC retired on 1st January 2010 and our mission " move to France" went into top gear. We spent the start of the year downsizing 24 years worth of accumulated "stuff", selling the house ( not without some ups and downs ) and also making many visits to our holiday home in Bruniquel. We finally moved out of 82 Uttoxeter Rd in July and lived in Bruniquel (dept 82) for three months at first while househunting and then waiting for our purchase to go through, it was a lovely summer. We settled in to French life and started to get to grips with the bureacracy!
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| Making apricot jam in the sun - a taste of things to come |
The intention was to probably spend 10 years having our French adventure and then return home but it did not take us long to realise that this move was more permanent than that. We are now in that 10th year and in no way considering returning to the UK. We are very lucky to have found an answer to the question "what do we do when we retire" which has made us both fulfilled and happy.
During that 10 years TC has learnt new instruments, expanded his musical talents and is enjoying his music more than ever before. Traditional music and dancing is still a huge part of our lives and we have been able to learn occitan dancing together. It is through music and dance that we have been able to make many friends mostly French, some English some Dutch and have escaped being trapped in an ex pat bubble. I have taken up ( aka got obsessed with) patchwork and become president of the patchwork club - its really good to have an interest to fill the winter non - gardening days. We have made Segala our home with some changes, we have created a new garden and I have become more confident with a new language ( I can even talk on the phone in French!). In 2017 we became officially French citizens with dual nationality.
Of course we are a long way from family and old friends but many of them we still see as often as before and for better "quality time". From April to September we operate as a sort of unnofficial chambres hôtes with visitors both family and friends. This is NOT a complaint - I wouldn't want it any other way - we love sharing our life here and showing people around the area we are lucky enough to call home.
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| painted by our farming neighbour on a farm building in the village |
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| it takes a long time to become young |
I know that if I had been living in England over the last decade I would have been constantly depressed - radio 4 on all day - BBC news - don't do them here! It's bad enough here where I can filter the bombardment through French news and my facebook bubble - I got hospitalised with a mega mystery infection when Trump was elected and shingles after the Brexit vote!
So here's to the next 10 years - more music and dancing and less hatred in the world ( I live in hope!)
aiçi sén pla
