History - A New Start

This is the beginning of a new adventure for us.

We decided to leave New Zealand and head back to Europe, from where we both originate, and see some more of our European friends, family, roots, history and of Europe in general.

As we're no longer spring chickens, this required a lot of thought and planning. So after selling our home of the last 20 years in NZ, giving up our jobs, we have made the move to the south of France.

Over the last few years we made a couple of big trips to Europe which aided our decision to make this move. The logistics of moving from 20,000km with people, dog, household, workshop and other detail was a serious task, undertaken by Wouter, who basically gave up working in Feb 08 to focus on the whole thing.

To cut out all the lengthy in between details, Wouter arrived here 11th June and I arrived on 26th with our dog, Cassy.

Apparently collecting us from Charles de Gaulle airport was a tricky proposition, and Wouter saw the terminal from all sides about 6 times before navigating his way through to the right spot. Finding me, was, by all accounts, the easy bit. We still had to collect the dog. This was a bit of a rigmarole, but after visiting a few different offices and desks, we were all reunited, and Cassy was very, very happy to see us and was ready for action.

We're currently staying on a farm of 65 hectares, just outside of Montjardin (Aude), which looks out over the Pyrenees - some of the tops we see from our window are around 2,900m high, and still have some snow as we start some hot summer temperatures. Our hosts have donkeys on their farm, and do donkey therapy - that is, for people who want to get away from the bustle of city life and get close to nature.

We've found the donkeys are very curious and regard other animals as a threat, so we keep an eye on our dog when they are around. They all have their own personality (of course) and there is one 'adolescent' who likes to take a nip if he gets the chance.

Currently we're checking out the surroundings to see where we might like to buy our property. Also, we're finding our French feet - language wise and living in general. Feels like we still have 2 left feet and would certainly trip on the dance floor.....

Some of the local markets we've been to are bright, cheerful, bustling, interesting. One can buy an assortment of foods, clothes, wares, etc on a variety of stalls. Today we went to a vide greniers, which is the 'clearing of the attic' and the equivalent to the car boot sale, in which the whole village participates, including brass band, food stalls and lots of bric-a-brac.

We managed to buy a set of bed-ends and sides, which are made of timber and also to collect the pieces from the owners as our car was not quite big enough to take the large part (this is a minor detail).