Busy Week

Bonjour et bienvenue. Hello and welcome. This is our 9th post! (3/23/25) Elizabeth and I are super glad that you are here. This will be the last post before we go to France for our scouting trip. I expect to post some pictures and will write updates during our trip. It will be an experiment for me. Speaking of experimenting, I started writing this post on my iPad instead of the computer so we will see how it goes. I don’t want to carry the laptop on the trip. EB says she will take her work laptop.

We are getting excited about the trip and followed up on our flights and our VRBO places. Fingers crossed, we think all is good.

We like to pack light; we each take a backpack and a small carry on as we prefer not to check bags and our experience of lugging big suitcases through airports and train stations is a painful memory. Last year our flights were cancelled and postponed, and because of it, we missed our train. Moving through all that drama with big suitcases would have beat us down. Super glad we packed lightly on that trip. I’m thinking that we will ship our bags when we do the final move to keep it simple. It will be a bit more expensive but with the animals we will have plenty to worry about.

I mentioned last week that we had a busy week planned this week. I will talk about some of the activities going on during the week. Also, I will include some information about ETIAS. Here is a list of topics.

1. I followed up on ETIAS.
2. Update on meet up with Kim.
3. Video session update
4. Rosie practice update

Before we get into it, I want to tell you about the yard sale that our community had last week. Elizabeth registered our address, and I was happy to see so many people stop by our house. We spent some time preparing and gathered everything from the attic and thinned out items from the house. Geez, we have a lot of stuff. We sold a lot of it and I’m pretty sure our customers were happy with the prices. I missed another photo op.

We are slowly getting ready for our move to France.

During the yard sale, I had our little teardrop camper trailer on display for sale and a lot of folks had some nice things to say about it. No, I didn’t sell it. It is still for sale.

This is our teardrop camper at a camp site at Highlands Hammock State Park out in Sebring, Florida. I like this area.

After the mess that I made getting prepared for the yard sale. I was able to arrange the garage so we can get one of the cars to fit. Can I get an atta boy? LOL

I borrowed John’s pole saw and made some progress on the palm tree out front. Whew, not my favorite job.

Meet up with Kim

Last week I mentioned that we were going to meet Kim, a friend of our friends Greg and Darrell. Darrell was on a business trip, but we met Greg and Kim and her friend Deb at the Bonefish Grill. Bonefish is one of our favorite restaurants. Kim is from England and lives in southwest France now and we were glad that we got to meet her while she is in town visiting Deb. Kim lives on a large property in a beautiful house in the country not far from Auch, France (pronounced like OSH, yes as in Oshkosh). You will remember that we will stay in Auch for a couple of days during our scouting trip. Kim will be back in France while we will be in the area, and she invited us to visit while we are in Auch. It is important to me to stay in Auch to get a feel for the city, but we will definitely get out to see Kim. The pictures that Kim shared of her home and the scenery around her home and the surrounding area are gorgeous. We are looking forward to visiting Kim while we are in Auch.

Colleen and the house video

EB made huge progress inside the house, so it was all set for the sales video. The weather was pretty good for the video session except for a brief rain sprinkle and the house looked good. Colleen arrived and made her artistic adjustments and had the house ready for her videographer. I started the fire pit and Colleen planned to fit it into her video. She will start showing the house next week. Elizabeth and I and Rosie left to stay out of the way during the video session. Artemis made himself scarce. We went to Three Bridges Brewery where Rosie is allowed. We got lucky as they had live music and an open mic night. A couple was leaving just as we arrived, so we got a nice table. The music was good and included a guitarist and a drummer. Two other guitarists took advantage of the open mic. EB and I shared the “Carnivore” flat bread and had a couple of beers named “1765”. Good stuff.

The video turned out awesome. Colleen produced an excellent presentation, and we are confident that it will be very helpful. If you missed previous blogs, Colleen Martens is our sales agent and Realtor with eXp Realty. I don’t know what eXp stands for, but we like her.

ETIAS

I have been following up on the European Travel Information and Authorization System as I thought that it was going into effect this year. The latest information is that it won’t be rolled out until 2026 now. I expect that we will have our long term stay visas by then so I don’t think it will affect us. If you are planning on going to Europe next year, you will want to check on ETIAS requirements. Just google ETIAS for updates. As I understand it, once the ETIAS is up and running, if you arrive at the airport without your ETIAS approval they might send you back home.

The EES (Entry/Exit System) is expected to become operational in October 2025. Thus, we might be impacted by it this year. It is an automated system for registering travelers from non-EU countries whenever they cross an EU external border.

All of this is similar to the ETSA system for travel to the USA by noncitizens.

Rosie

We took Rosie in her new carrier to Three Bridges with us. She laid down in the carrier, but she whimpered for most of the short drive. That really is progress. More practice is coming. She will go to ACE pet resort while we go on our scouting trip. She has stayed at ACE several times and seems to like it. Artemis will be there too. We will miss them of course.

A busy couple of weeks

We will be super busy flying, driving, hiking and visiting agencies to learn about each area over the next couple of weeks. Luckily, Elizabeth found VRBO places with washing machines so we will be able to wash clothes as we go. We expect the weather to be a little cool. Layers, long sleeves, sweaters, scarfs and long pants will be the norm. Temperatures ranging in the mid 40s to upper 50s and slight chances of rain. I’m looking forward to the drive from Paris to Sarlat la Caneda. We should see some beautiful countryside scenery. During the drive we will be going through the town of Limoges where we saw a house for sale online and maybe get a chance to check it out.

Below is us in Ireland all bundled up. We are ready for the weather.

Thanks again for reading our blog this week. We will be sharing our French scouting trip adventures and pictures. Stay tuned. If you have any comments or questions, please feel free to leave them in the comment box below. By the way, Jennifer, I didn’t see your comment. I don’t know what happened.

Okay, time to hit the publish button. See you next week.