On Saturday 26th November the purchaser of our house came for a visit to look it over, we had no problem with that at all; then came the bombshell – she wanted to move in on Friday 2nd December. My husbands face was a picture! It was an ‘Oh Shit!’ moment! he then realised that he had to pull his finger out (fully!) and start to clear his ‘stuff’.

OK, we had been to the UK to help our eldest daughter celebrate her 40th birthday (what a lovely time we had too!) and had lost a few days of packing/sorting etc. He had hoped that Mme A. would want to wait a couple of weeks before moving – no way, she wanted to be in ASAP.

And so we signed the Acte de Vente on the morning of Wednesday 30th November 2011. (for a few hours we were homeless!)

Daughter came out with her partner and little Georges (the bouncy one) for the signing. A very quick turn around for them – one night in France and back home! I wanted them involved and insisted that they came out to sign; after all we had been inconvenienced enough over the last couple of years – time for them to make changes to their plans.

On the Wednesday afternoon we signed for the purchase of this property. Our Notaire is an absolute gem, we have used him over the last 10 years and he knows us well; our last property involved many purchases and a couple of sales. Amazingly enough one of the two agence immobiliers that we used did not realise that Maitre C. was fluent in English until we told him. It was a very interesting learning curve for us although Himself seemed to switch off during the process and automatically signed/initialled all the papers involved.

We moved the furniture and electrical goods over the Thursday and Friday morning with the help of some super friends, only downside, it rained non stop!! Since then we have been bringing boxes etc that had been stored in the barn (note: big shed!).

We are now installed in a very nice 3 bedroom house with a sous sol/garage. The house has not been truly lived in and loved. Only one room has been decorated and that is the main bedroom. There is a fitted kitchen and yesterday we went and bought a new fitted oven and ordered the hob to match. We have basically been camping since last Thursday using kettle, microwave and steamer but am now able to use an oven as well! We only had 4 functioning electric sockets until our lovely new neighbour, Mr M., who is an electrician, came and sorted out the fuses for us. He is in partnership with another guy Mr P. who is central heating engineer. Both of these men are friends of an English guy we know who has been here for 17 years as a builder…. Everything fits into place eventually!! I consider that we have been very fortunate with where we have moved and who we know.

I have sorted out the basics for living, beds set up, dining, lounging, bathroom etc. I still have loads of things to sort for our use and also for selling on. It isn’t until you go through such an exercise that you realise how much is accumulated over the years. The sous sol is full of boxes and duplicate things. After Christmas I will be advertising these things for sale and hopefully make a little extra spending money for our hols.

I like it here. I do hope that Himself settles as well, he seems quite comfortable at the moment. He has been through the mill over the past couple of years and maybe now a new beginning is right for him. Fingers crossed!

Dog and cats are fine. I bought some Feliway to help the cats settle. It seems to have worked as they are not scrapping as much as they were. They have had a couple of visitors, one ginger and the other a Felix type, it seems that they know the house!

The boy also is absolutely fine.

There are other dogs in the neighbourhood, one of which is next door. It is a little white ‘yappy’ thing – possibly Shih Tzu or similar. The little yappy thing was ‘yapping’ (as they do) and our boy heard it and decided “Oh goody goody, (pant pant) a playmate, lets go play!” Mme, owner of yappy thing, was horrified to see our boy heading in her direction and leaping over their fence in order to introduce himself and play. She scooped her precious up in her arms and shot indoors! We apologised to Mr. explaining that our boy only wanted to play - he was OK but I am still not sure about Mme… I think that they (dog and little yappy thing) need a proper introduction!

More to follow!