Spring is coming to Chez Beiley in Chabanais, France
Week 30 in France 2/22-2/28/2026. We have been in our home in the village of Chabanais in the Charente department of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region of France since the middle of December 2025. By the way, the Charente department is the northern most department of Southwest France.
Welcome to the 58th weekly post of our Baby Boomers Move to France blog.
This week, we must get our Mutuelle insurance settled and follow up on our taxes. Our goal is to get some yard work in progress too. Let’s see how it goes. The weather will be relatively nice so “before” pictures are in order.
Our home in Chabanais
Things on the agenda this week:
- Mutuelle Insurance
- Follow up taxes
- French lessons
- Yard work
Weather forecast:
Sunshine is expected on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with temps in the 60s.
Why this Blog?
Long story short, we are “Baby Boomers” that have moved from Venice, Florida to the beautiful French countryside as retirees. After a little over a year of planning and fretting we sold everything in Venice and made the move on 1 August 2025.
We publish a brief update of our adventures every Sunday to share our experiences, tips and mistakes.
If you are thinking about a move to France? We are happy to share our thoughts and answer questions. Just drop a question in the comment section below and we will get back to you.
If you are wondering what got into our head and inspired us to make the move, check out some of our earlier posts. Again, if you have questions about our adventure, drop your questions in the comment section below.
We are learning a lot about the French culture and lifestyle as we make our life here and each week, we include in the blog some thoughts on what we learn. If you have a specific question about France, let us know and we are happy to answer. Other folks probably have the same question. If we don’t know the answer, we will share resource information.
This Week in General
Monday through Wednesday: Beautiful days, a little cool in the morning but warmed up nicely
Spring is here at Chez Beiley
Plants are budding and some flowers are coming alive. The garden will be glorious in just a few weeks.
We noticed that the days are getting longer too. As we were driving home from our French lessons it was nice to drive in the daylight Just a couple of weeks ago it was pitch dark on the drive home.
What a great time for working in the garden, sunshine and mild temperature. There is a ton to do. We trimmed back some of the existing plants, I started cleaning up the chicken coop and EB had a field day working on the “summer house”. We started out calling it the summer kitchen, but EB has taken to calling it the summer house and the name has stuck.
That is the chicken coop “before” picture. No, we are not going to raise chickens. We have some rough plans for the space. Step one is clean it up. It is pretty sturdy so it would be a shame to tear it down. Those steppingstones on the ground are a path to the compost bin. They will be gone and the ground will be turned into a seating area and fire pit. That fig tree in front of the chicken coop will be trimmed back and the ground on that little stepped-up space will be astro turf for Rosie and flat space for practicing my golf swing maybe.
While standing next to the fig tree I took this picture looking back at the summer house. The summer house has windows on all 4 sides. Some of the windows slide open so there is pretty good cross ventilation. Cleaning those windows might be a challenge though. You can see 3 solar panels on the roof there. On the right you see the grape arbor. The grape vine produces green table grapes. It looks pretty scraggly now, but it will green up and I’m looking forward to a grape harvest.
I think the ground in front of me will make a great area for the fire pit and sitting area.
The summer house at night. In this shot I’m standing under the grape arbor. Those plants against the wall are rose bushes. They will be pretty when they bloom but they are right along the walkway so we are thinking they will need to be moved so we don’t get scratched up every time we walk by.
Inside the summer house at night.
EB took the below pictures of the summer house during the day. The first one you just barely make out the Barrier hotel and restaurant in the distance. In the next one you are looking towards the door and just outside the door is our herb and veggie garden. No veggies planted yet, but it is in the plan.
Inside the summer house. EB did a great job setting it up. Rosie is still not too sure about this. We had carried the couch and chairs up to the summer house last week. EB went shopping and brought back some furnishings to make the place a little homier. We took a break around 3:00 and sat in the summer house, had a beer and chatted about next steps.
Back to the chicken coop
The chicken wire was attached to 2×4 frames. The frames were then held in place by screws, so the frames were easily removed. I started collecting screws. LOL.
Who ever built this structure did a pretty good job, but they used a zillion different screw head types. I was constantly changing my bit in my electric screwdriver. Philips head, Torx head and hex drive screws of various sizes kept me busy.
I disassembled a little homemade hothouse that was in the chicken coop and saved the plastic sheets that had been wrapped around the frame. I will use the plastic to cover firewood. The small pieces of wood that were used to make the frame of the hothouse will work great as kindling for the wood burner.
Speaking of firewood. There was a bunch of wood thrown in the chicken coop. I think I can use it for our wood burner and fire pit. These pieces of wood are about 7 feet long and roughly 3 to 4 inches in diameter. I will have to cut them to proper length for the fire pit and wood stove. They will need to be cut into pieces that are about 15 inches long.
I removed some hay that was in the coop and added it to the compost and once I swept the little room it was starting to look like it will work out well for storing lawn furniture and the fire pit. I left the door open to let the little room air out. More pictures next week.
Another before picture of the chicken coop. It is a little hard to see, but if you look closely, you can see the chicken wire on the 2×4 frames and door, the little hothouse and the wood pile. We might put some pavers on the floor.
We will use those chicken wire panels in the garden and secured them to a wall, so we have a place for vining plants to do their thing.
I did a little cleanup of our workshop and sorted all of those screws that I had collected from the chicken coop. We have been saving our jelly (confiture) jars for the purpose of sorting screws and such.
Thursday, we went shopping for tools.
I need a chain saw for my firewood cutting project and a circular saw for some other projects coming up. We bought some stuff for cleaning the green mold on the garden walls and a sprayer for the purpose. We also needed a couple of light fixtures for our living room. I’m working on getting an electrician to do the wiring. The wire colors are different here than those used in the US and while I was able to get the light fixtures in place in the bedrooms, that was existing wire. For the pellet stove and the water heater and the new lights in the living room I feel I should have a licensed electrician route the wires properly.
For this shopping spree we went to Leroy Merlin in Limoges. It is a nice hardware store with just about everything.
We went to our French class and afterwards we finished off the night with a charcuterie board, wine and a couple of games of Rummicube. As usual EB won the series.
Friday was quiet
I had to get to work on the blog and EB had to go to the Barrier hotel to follow up with reservations for Don and Cindy’s next visit. More on that later. We might go over to the Barrier cafe for dinner tonight.
By the way, our Mutuelle insurance is set to start on March 1st. This is a huge milestone for us as it says we are officially set up in the French health care system. I will be contacting our GP doctor for advice on my hearing aids. EB will need to follow up with the GP for her specialist needs.
Also, EB applied for her US Social Security benefits. This is important as I want to be sure that there is no issue with our income when it comes time for us to renew our Long Stay visas. I’m not really too worried about it, but we don’t know what we don’t know. I guess this is an example of the “tradeoff stress” that some expats warn of. We leave the US and leave some stresses there only to have a different kind of stress in France. I think EB would agree with me that we are in a really good place now!
Saturday was another super nice day
I got the chain saw assembled and got to work on the pile of wood that the previous owners left behind. I think some of it will be good firewood. EB worked on her project of putting up privacy screen along the north fence. This fence overlooks our neighbor’s garden. At about 3:00 we got some sprinkles of rain, so we got everything cleaned up and called it a day.
So that was our week.
We had some beautiful weather and finally got to work on our garden, and the summer house is looking good too. We have more pictures to share. I will save them for next week.
French Lifestyle and Culture
Barrier Cafe and Hotel
On Friday night we went to the Barrier Cafe for dinner. We got there just after 6:00 PM (18h) when they open up for dinner. Well, they open for cocktail hour (the French call it L’heure de l’apero) at 6:00 and start the dinner service at 7:00 PM (19h). This is pretty typical in France.
No problem for us, they sat us anyway and EB had a glass of wine I went for a beer. At just after 7:00 they took our dinner order. I had a burger and EB went for something called Paupeille de veau. I switched to wine, so we ordered a carafe. They allowed Rosie in and she sat under the table and whined off and on. I think we will leave her home next time. The place loaded up once dinner time started. This restaurant is very convenient for us as it is a short walk from our front door. I see this place becoming one of our favorites. Nice, simple, casual dining.
The restaurant offers different beers, mixed drinks, whiskey and even Armagnac in the bar. Armagnac is the oldest French brandy and has been the elixir produced in the Armagnac region in Gascony in southwest France for over 700 years. They say it is the only spirit that can really become more refined with age. I was going to have some but forgot. Definitely next time.
Did you know that if you are going to order a spritz in France you can opt for the French version. Instead of the Aperol Spritz you might want to opt for the St. Germain spritz. It is made with prosecco and sparkling water and the fragrant St. Germain elderflower liqueur (from the Savoie region in France). I haven’t tried this yet but will definitely have to try it. The recipe is pretty simple: 40ml (1.35 oz) St. Germain Elderflower liqueur, 60ml (2 oz) Brut prosecco, 60ml of sparkling water (Perrier Carbonated Mineral Water) and a lemon twist.
Next Week (la Semaine Prochaine)
- Nice weather next week so work in the garden is in the plan
- With the nice weather we are starting to investigate what villages close to us will have Night Markets.
- Follow up electrician
- US and French Taxes. Follow up tax documents.
Weather forecast for next week
It looks like we have another nice week ahead. Highs in the upper 50o F to upper 60o F and partly cloudy most of the week until slight chance of rain over the weekend. Overnight lows get down in the upper 40s.
Signing off for the week
As always, we sign off wishing you all a good week and remind you to take care of yourselves and your family. It has been fun working in the garden and figuring out how we will set up our seating and fire pit area. More to come next week.
Keep in touch and leave questions, suggestions and comments below. We really enjoy hearing from you.
Wishing you a good week (Bonne Semaine)
Mark and Elizabeth Beiley
Babyboomersmovetofrance.com
