La Maison sur Rue Traversière

14 Rue Traversière, Bellac, France

Well what started as a two month adventure in France has now become an adventure of a lifetime, or at least for now. While we were in Bellac last summer, falling in love with the village, the idea of buying a retirement home was germinated. It began to take root when we found that the house just 3 doors down from our rental house was for sale. The house shares the same view that we were in awe of from the first day and we savoured every day after that. We contacted Lisa, our bilingual real estate agent, and had a tour of the house, but not really with the fine eye of buying. We were the lookie loos who must drive agents mad. Well with the real estates email in our contacts book we returned home with a dream, but never really thinking that it would come true. With countless emails back and forth, more pictures, questions, quotes, concerns and approvals the dream evolved into a reality.

Looking back up at the house from the garden shed.

The offer has been accepted and the paper work has been processed and the house is ours. Now the tough stuff happens, as with any move. This is when the credits roll on House Hunters International and no one tells you about the unseen episode that should follow the fun episode of choosing a new house. Steve has been in touch with the electric company to get the account switched over, the phone and internet company to get this service ready and even arranged an electrician to meet us there to up grade the fuse box and to wire the attic properly. This has been made easier since there is such a large population of English living in France, that many companies have English phone numbers to help set up the small details of life. We arrive at the house for the first time on March 14 for the two weeks of my Spring Break. We had planned to use the time for shopping to make the house our home. We had previewed a few near-by stores on line and had picked out some things that we wanted. With further investigation, Steve discovered that it was less expensive and much easier to have the furniture delivered, so our quiet street will wonder who is invading when we arrive. We will have the internet/phone company, two furniture deliveries and the electrician all arriving during our first few days there.

We hope that we will be able to assembleFrench Ikea beds, kitchen table and chairs, (I am sure the illustrated instructions are as confusing in any language) but the two couches will arrive fully assembled, or at least thats what we think Maison du Monde's website implied. The other major activities during the two week trip will be to open up a bank account, get a French will (dealing with the house) and clean up the back yard. Also we hope to get reacquainted with our village and the good life in France. Somewhere in there we am looking to relax and enjoy some (lots of) French wine and cheese.

The view of Bellac from our back deck.

With two weeks to go, we have begun to pack some basic necessities of a new house as well as some reminders of our BC house. For only an additional $96, we can take an extra 23kg. on our KLM flight. The extra bag is full of peanut butter, some basic tools, duck tape and favourite art. I'm sure there will be an ongoing adding and subtracting of items in and out of the bag. We keep checking the weight to take full advantage of the 23kg limit without going over. We just have to keep in mind that we will be arriving in a vacant house, but we will have the fun of making the house our home. This is something we haven't done since moving into our current house over 20 years ago.

Hoping the pub down the street is open!

As the adventure continues, I will continue to share it with anyone who may be interested. We will be taking reservations soon, so keep in touch.....We will be returning to Bellac this summer, Steve for 4 months, and just 2 for me. We are looking forward to our first guests to arrive.

A bientôt!