Paperwork, Pear Trees, and Progress

Our visit is coming to an end, and as I sit at the Bordeaux airport (which, fun fact, is both tiny and surprisingly janky), I find myself reflecting on the last few days. We’ve crossed off some major milestones with this logistics-focused trip — opened a bank account, secured home insurance, and got to know […]

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Put Your Checklist Away…at Least for a Day!

You don’t have to “check the box.”  If I’ve learned one thing during our time in Europe, it’s that you don’t have to hit all the tourist destinations to have a memorable time. In fact, Ralph and I have the best times when we just wing it! Take today, for example – our only “full” […]

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Sunday Shenanigans in Southwest France

Ralph and I covered a lot of ground the last two days and we even found a contender! More to come on that (decisions, decisions) but here’s what we’ve been up to… Yesterday we left Pau and met up with two new friends, Mykle and Doug, to get a tour of Oloron-Sainte-Marie. They relocated to […]

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Go to Pau!

Is it lame that we’re in bed by 9 pm and I’m writing this update on our trip to Pau? Eh – I don’t care. We did and saw a ton today and I’m happy as a clam. 😉 Lemme tell you a little bit about Pau. It’s a city of around 77k people in […]

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The One That Got Away…

I woke up filled with anticipation…but first, breakfast! Believe it or not, this has been an acquired taste. 😉 I remember my first time in Europe. My mother saved up child support for months and months and took my sister and me on a 17-day bus trip across 7 countries. It was a very eye-opening […]

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Making our way to the Centre-Val de Loire

It was barely a month since my first trip with Jen, and now Ralph would get to experience the ups and downs of house-hunting in France.  Anyone who knows Ralph knows that he doesn’t get excited easily. He’s impatient and finds tasks like this frustrating. If he had his way, he’d buy the first thing […]

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When things go wrong…they go WRONG

Well, well, well. What a way to wrap up the trip! There’s a reason “mayhem” is one of my blog tags, and now I have an impressive collection of examples to share with you! After we finished dinner in Avignon, we walked by a fabulous building with a bouncer and a red carpet. TOO COOL […]

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No One is Getting a Shower in Nîmes…

It was dark by the time Jen and I checked into our swanky hotel in Nîmes. Our first priority was finding a restaurant for dinner. The hotel was in the heart of downtown, so we had plenty of options – just no reservations. Luckily, we found a spot with covered outdoor seating and a blanket […]

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Side Trek to Uzès

Part of the joy of seeing homes in person is checking out the highlights of the area. Otherwise, driving from house to house could feel like a slog. But it’s also the responsible thing to do, because you know what they say about real estate – location, location, location!  So as my househunting sidekick Jen […]

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Hitting the Ground Running…in Lauzerte

Twelve hours before our flight to Toulouse, my house-hunting buddy Jen and I got texts from Lufthansa that our early morning flight was cancelled. Instead, our new flight to Toulouse around took off around noon. We’d hoped to arrive in Lauzerte in time to see the Saturday market, but now that plan was out the […]

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