Crooked House

A country life in France

A Month in France: Going around again

Journal Prompt 02/08/20

Can you think of a situation – a relationship – a dilemma – (a part of your garden?!) which you have revisited over time, looking upon it with different eyes, seeing and learning from the slightly different viewpoint? Hindsight is a wonderful thing – what comes to mind that you might have repeated, but then thought about and decided to change – big or small?

https://rozcawley.typepad.com/autumn_cottage_diarist/2020/08/a-month-in-the-country-2-we-all-need-a-place-to-sit-look-and-think.html

I wrote a whole other post, personal and rambling, before realising how very simply I might respond to this prompt in this particular blog. I shall move the original elsewhere now and simply begin again!

I mentioned briefly yesterday the fact that we had been living in a motorhome before buying this house. I didn’t say then that it had been our intent to be itinerant. We had been living on orkney for 11 years and had a fabulous 4 bedroomed house on an acre of ground by the sea – for just the two of us. We loved it but The Crooked Man wanted to travel and we both knew that we wanted to commit to full time travelling by shedding our property and possessions. We made ourselves homeless and we loved it.

We lived in this van for ten months after leaving Orkney

The reasons for buying our new house in France are dull and boring. We just needed a residential address, let’s leave it at that,

We looked at a few houses. They were all affordable and would leave cash in the bank from the sale of our Orkney home. Make no mistake: some of them were drop dead gorgeous. Crooked Mister has always liked plenty of space to live in and we fell for one property in particular; arranged over three floors, with two kitchens, two sitting rooms, a large garden space that included a swimming pool, and a whole second property next door. It had character, light and space and a bar/restaurant right outside the door. It was under two thirds the price of the property that we had just sold. We were within a gnat’s whisker of going for it.

Thankfully we took overnight to reflect. Habit and custom had been taking over from our new learning: we liked the simple life. We enjoyed having no possessions. Why on earth would we saddle ourselves with property maintenance on such a huge house for just the two of us when all that we actually required was an address and a handful of utility bills!

Thus it was that we made the sensible decision of buying our little cottage here – and neither of us has ever had cause to regret it. It’s small enough that we haven’t had to spend a fortune in furnishing it and all of the furniture that we now have has been sourced second hand. The bank account is a whole lot healthier than it would have been if we had bought the big house and so our jaunts around Europe are not fraught with financial concern.

In general, life is better when we aren’t worrying about things.

There is more to tell on this matter but I shall hold off for now and see if Roz comes up with another prompt to accommodate its telling.

3 thoughts on “A Month in France: Going around again

  1. I like the way you’ve simplified your life and accommodation! I would love to know about house in Orkney and what if anything, you miss from that location.

    1. Welcome to my Crooked House, Carole. Please remind me to come back to a reply on this. Just a bit pushed for time right now and I have a sauce simmering on the stove.

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