Just another week in Paradise
Howdy! We are glad that you are back for another week of our Baby Boomers Move to France blog. This is our 15th posting. This week, as usual, we will update what is going on regarding our move to France and our life in Venice, Florida as we figure out how this whole move can possibly happen.
OMG! The weather is beautiful in Venice this week. We love our cocktails in the afternoon (apres-midi) while sitting on the lanai overlooking the lake. It gives Elizabeth a little peace to decompress from the stress of her job and we get to spend a little time talking. Rosie likes it too. It is indeed a little slice of paradise.
Getting along with one car
So many of our neighbors survive with just one car, but I was a little skeptical. That said, once we made the decision to go down to one car it is not so bad. Generally, I get the car on Tuesday for golf and Thursday for French language lesson which is up in Sarasota. EB gets it for work the other weekdays and weekends are free for all. So far it has all worked out. There is bound to be a need for flexibility and that is a minor detail for us. I can easily make sure the gas tank is full, so life is good. The sale of the truck added a little cash to our French fund and EB cancelled the insurance.
I lowered the price for my teardrop camper to $2500. That seems to have generated some more interest. I’m checking my Facebook Marketplace ad every day. I’m hopeful something happens soon.
Phones
You will remember that we had some trouble with GPS on our phones during our scouting trip to France. EB’s phone was an old, old, old iPhone (7Plus). Mine was a little newer iPhone and we managed with it during the trip. It turns out that part of the problem is that we needed an upgraded and unlocked phones so that we could use an eSIM. You probably know what that is, I’m still not a 100% clear. As I understand it, we will need to get the eSIM activated when we get to France. So, we bought new iPhones with eSIM capability, and the Apple store gave us $100 to trade my old phone in. We have a bit of a learning curve to climb. The phones are pretty intuitive though, so I’m sure we will be pros in a couple of weeks.
One thing I find interesting about the system in France, I guess all of Europe, is the phone number protocol. We in the states, have a 10-digit phone number with the area code typically written within parenthesis then 3 digits then 4 digits like (XXX) XXX-XXX. The French system is 10 digits too, but they write their phone number in pairs of digits XX XX XX XX XX. Just something to get used to and learn.
News from HCB
As you know, Elizabeth and I have contracted with French Connections HCB to help us with all of the paperwork around our long list of administrative tasks that must be done to organize our move to France. I’m sure that I have forgotten something but here is a short list of some of the stuff that we must get done. By the way, I know that this can be done without the help of a group like HCB and it can be done a lot less expensively. I admit it, I’m getting older and just don’t have the patience to manage and put up with all of the BS involved. I’m pretty chill, but not good at this sort of thing. I know my limitations. LOL. So, the list:
- VISA
- Rental housing in France
- French bank account
- Temporary Health insurance
- Car purchase
- Pet visa and veterinarian
- Moving company
They can’t do very much until we give them a little better idea of our timing. I did get a batch of paperwork that is required for the bank account. Yikes! There are a lot of hurdles to jump in order to get a bank account in France. The application is daunting even if you have a chunk of cash to deposit. We need a copy of passports, a letter from our current bank like a character reference, proof of 3 months of utilities bills, and on and on. We will be spending the next couple of weeks working through this. I’m sure glad that we have HCB to help.
So far, the most critical part of this whole project is the timing of the sale of our Venice house.
I don’t want to jinx it, but right now we have a pretty solid offer for the house pending an inspection and that the buyers financing goes through. Neither one of these things is a big issue though. Once those 2 hurdles are cleared, we can nail some things down.
House sale update
Thanks to the hard work of our agent, Colleen Martens with EXP realty, the sale of our house is PENDING!!! I have to say that Eliabeth’s eye for decorating played a big part too. It has been such a pleasure living in this home. Truthfully the sale of the house is a bittersweet success.
Fortunately, the buyers have agreed to keep all of the furniture that we haven’t already committed to friends and family. That is a huge burden off of our minds. The good news / bad news is that we will need to be out of the house by the end of May. We get to celebrate for a day and then bust our butt to get everything done in time. Roughly a month; Oh S__t just a month!
I still have to sell the teardrop trailer which is proving tougher than I expected. I also need to sell my 9mm pistol including the gun safe, 3 magazines and loader and some ammo. Should be easy enough, right? It is practically brand new.
We will keep most of our pictures that we have had on the walls. Many of the pictures are mementos of our trips of the last 20 years. Some are pictures that our dear friend Joe took and gifted to us. Others are pictures that we bought at charity events. Still others are family photos.
I will need to contact a moving company (French Connections has recommended one) to help us package a couple of the pictures. They will also pack and ship anything else that we decide to take to France. Once we have all of the stuff corraled we can schedule a quote.
Clothes will probably ship via “My Baggage” to arrive at our French address in less than a week after they pick it up. I looked it up and the weight limit for each bag is 66 pounds. Since we are willing to wait for delivery for a week the cost of each is $175. I’m not sure how many bags we will need. In my little mind I think we can do it in 3.
My sister, Cindy and her boyfriend Don will take the wood live edge dining table and bench and the Black and Decker cocktail mix machine. Also, a wind chime. They have plans to use them at their mountain house in Big Bear, California. I think all will look great in their place.
Debbie wants the wine cooler and the chairs on the front porch. We will load it up next weekend and deliver it to her house next weekend. I think that takes care of all of the furniture that needs to be moved out.
Now the hard work of figuring out what we should take with us to France. We will be clearing out closets and trashing things that we have kept over the years. Some of it is stuff that we kept just because. It just has to go now.
Since we are selling our house as “turnkey”, we will leave everything move in ready. The new owners will just bring their clothes and personal items. The only furniture they will need is a dining room table.
New mailing address
While we don’t have a French mailing address yet, next week I will set up an account with “Travel Mail”. This will be temporary until we get totally settled in France. This might be overkill, but I don’t want to leave it to chance.
Kim has agreed to let us use her address in France for purposes of our VISA. We have heard some people do this kind of thing successfully. That said, I hope we have an address set up via HCB soon. I think that will be better for us, especially if we have mail sent to this address from the French administrations. We should have an official place for 3 months minimum. I will be following up on all this next week with the HCB team. AS you know, we settled on the area around Bergerac as our starting place, but since we will have a car, I will let HCB know that we can broaden the rental search area. Based on our own research we think that we can find a great spot farther from Bergerac. We want to try to keep the cost down some, if possible, too.
Car research
I mentioned that I have begun a little research in order to pick a vehicle for our use in France. I sent our thoughts on this along with a budget to HCB for help in finding a car. They have a service that has the car waiting for you when you arrive at the airport in France. This saves us having to rent a car and they go over the features of the car with you before you drive off. I like this idea a lot. We will have Rosie and Artimus with us so having the car ready will save on the stress level too.
French language lessons
I started French lessons, 2 hours per week on Thursdays for 6 weeks. Piece of cake. The name of this class is, “French for travelers”. It is great. The teacher was born in France and is really good and those 2 hours flew by this first week. I am the only member of the class of 11 that is planning on moving to France full time. Everyone else is traveling to France on vacation within the next few months. Most have been to France before, and it seems like they speak some words. For their upcoming vacation they want to speak the language a little better. There is no question in my mind that the class will help me improve.
By the way, if you haven’t been to France, GO! Don’t worry about the language, just learn to say Bonjour (hello), Merci (thank you), S’il vous plait (Please), and Au revoir (goodbye) and you are all set for your vacation. Don’t over think it. The trip is not as expensive as you think. The first time Elizabeth and I went we figured it was a once in a lifetime experience. Well, the first time is a once in a lifetime experience that makes you want to go again.
What is happening next week?
I hope that you come back next week to read about our French move progress. There is a lot of follow up on French Connections HCB efforts on our behalf and our task list here.
Besides getting ready to move, EB has a pre-op consultation in preparation for her gall bladder removal. Then of course her work at Tervis is still top of her mind.
All I have to do is golf on Tuesday, French lesson on Thursday and fill out the paperwork for the bank account application. I swear that application will take the entire week and gray the rest of what is left of my hair. Oh, and I need to work on clearing out/organizing stuff. The garage will be a bit of a challenge.
If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to list them in the comments below. Please feel free to share this blog with others. We are having a blast sharing our adventure each week.
See you soon (a bientot).
