400 Sailing Ambassadors Arrive in San Pedro, California

International Laser Class Association Worlds championship staging at the “calm side” of Cabrillo Beach in San Pedro, California. Sorry it is not France folks, but it’s where my brothers and I hung out when we were kids. Far in the background, beyond those far off palm trees is part of the Los Angeles harbor break water. Beyond the breakwater is the Pacific Ocean and the wave side of Cabrillo Beach. We learned to body surf on the wave side. There is more about this regatta below. Photo by Dan Beiley July 2025.

Welcome to the 27th post of our Baby Boomers Move to France blog.

As I sit down to write, it is Tuesday, the 22nd of July 2025. As you know I start early in the week and finish up on Sunday just in time for Elizabeth to check my writing and add here comments and then publish. As of today, there are just 9 days until we fly to France. On Sunday when we publish our blog it will be 4 days. On July 31 we drive to Miami and catch our 9-hour flight to Charles De Gaulle airport in Paris, France. Then we have about a 6-hour drive to the Airbnb in Duras, France. With luck we will be in Duras before 4:00PM. That means that our next post will be from France.

If this is your first visit to our blog, I hope that we keep the ongoing story of our move to France interesting enough to bring you back each week. We publish each Sunday. Long story short, we are a couple of “Baby Boomers” on an adventure to move to France permanently. It sounds easy enough. If you like the blog, subscribe. It is free to subscribe and there are no advertisements.

As we shared our plans with friends and family, we were asked questions about who, what, why, when and where, I figured that there is enough interest to share the experience. So, we started this blog. Our plan is to publish every Sunday even after we get to France. After all, that is when the real fun starts.

Did the title of this week’s post catch your eye? Are you wondering what “Sailing Ambassadors” have to do with our move? It is a bit of a stretch, but I think that I can make it work.

I will update our activities this week as the countdown is moving like a freight train right at us.

We will catch up on last minute farewells too.

Also, I’ll brief you on a couple of French Lifestyle and Cultural subjects that I have been thinking about.

Last week I mentioned that we had a zoom call planed with Leif and Lisa and that I was looking forward to hearing about their Viking cruise on the Rhone River. Leif did set up the Zoom call and we had a great chat on Sunday. I was a little premature about the cruise though. The cruise is scheduled for October. But that turns out to be a good thing as we might be able to catch up with them in Lyon, France. The drive is not too crazy, and we get to see Lyon and see the Rhone River too. Of course, I mean of course, we will take Rosie with us. Besides she is a princess. Well in her little mind she is.

To Dos

As usual we have a long list of “to-dos” this week.

Monday was Rosie’s vet appointment. It went smooth as silk, no drama and hopefully by next Wednesday we will have all of her paperwork in order. She needs all of this to be allowed into France. She eventually will get her pet passport when we are in France, so she will be able to travel all over Europe. I had no idea there was such a requirement. I guess it makes sense. French Connections will help us find a vet for Rosie and aid us in getting her passport.

Tuesday was our day to finally get all of our prescription information rounded up, just in case it is needed by customs. We had to go to the doctors’ offices for this. If you ask me, I think all of this should be accessible online.

We are taking some of our important files to France with us, so we had to review each file folder and eliminate unnecessary papers. The files add weight that we don’t want to lug around. I’m bad about printing every sheet that comes in or getting multiple copies of stuff. That caused a bunch of extra sheets that needed to be shredded. We did the sorting on Tuesday and finally shredded on Wednesday.

I printed our shipping labels that MyBaggage.com prepared for us. We send them the details of size and weight, and they prepare 1 label for the outside of each box and a separate “Back Up” label that they suggest we place inside each box. The labels are very official looking with bar codes and the address. They definitely look professional once printed. We got all of the labels taped in place and will finalize the packing of the last box. Everything must be ready by next Tuesday, 7/29. DHL will pick the 5 boxes up. Unfortunately, the pickup time window is 9:00 am until 6:00 PM. The good thing is that MyBaggage.com has taken care of the customs paperwork so all that we have to do is hand the boxes over to the DHL driver. The next time that we see the boxes will be when they deliver them to our address in Duras, France.

Farewells

On Monday we got to have dinner with Pam and Marshall at Anna Maria Oyster Bar. Marshall said they might come visit us in France. It was great to have dinner one more time with them. We have our fingers crossed that they will visit us in France.

Unfortunately, John and Denise couldn’t make it to Anna Maria Oyster Bar. John had been rushed to the hospital the day before. They kept him overnight for observation. So glad he is back home recovering.

We had dinner with Karen and Kevin on Saturday at Carabbas in Sarasota on Saturday. One of our favorite restaurants.

Then Lou and Kim will be in town from Pennsylvania. We will meet for dinner on Sunday at another favorite, Cooper’s Hawk. You will remember that Kim is Elizabeth’s friend from high school in New Castle, Pennsylvania. It is always great to see them. Kim is trying to convince me to start a You Tube channel.

Elizabeth got to meet her old boss for coffee this week too. It was great to see him as he was on leave of absence when she “officially” retired.

Dinners out and more dinners out. We will worry about the diet next month. LOL

French Lifestyle and Culture

I think I will make this a regular section of the blog. That way we will have a regular section to share our discoveries rather than sticking it in random places. So, here we go (on y va).

I have mentioned this before, but it is worth mentioning again, in the French countryside where we anticipate living, we will have to get used to the idea of siesta time. I know that is a Spanish and Italian thing, but the French take it seriously too. It is not uncommon to find shops and restaurants closed in the middle of the day so the staff can take a leisurely lunch and perhaps a nap. I think I can get used to that. Even in Paris you can run into a shop closed for lunch. Some of the restaurants open again for the evening meal around 6 or 7:00PM. You get used to eating late, I guess.

A real important cultural thing is to greet everyone in shops with, “Bonjour”. In passing on the street too. Sometimes Americans think it might be a little cheesy to say bonjour when you enter the shop, but it is a custom that if you neglect to abide by you will be considered rude. Truth be told it is a really cool custom. Oh, and don’t forget to say, “Au revoir” when you leave the shop. Now all that you need is, “S’il vous plait”, (please) and you have a good start on French. I know that I have mentioned all this before, but it is such good information and nice custom.

One thing that we are looking forward to is the weekly farmer’s markets in the village. While we were in Sarlat le Caneda, the farmers market was literally out our front door. I mean, there was a farmers stand as we walked out of our building. We navigated around the stand and the whole village center was a big farmers market. We bought cheese, sausage and a couple of baguettes. What a treat. Venice, Florida has a nice farmers’ market, we didn’t go that often as we had to get in the car and drive there.

400 Sailing Ambassadors

I’m sure that I have talked about my dad and mentioned that one of his big influences on all of us kids was a love for sailing and being on the water and a deep respect for the ocean and its nature. Dad bought me my first Gin and Tonic at the Cabrillo Beach Yacht Club. GnT was the thing and it is still my go to cocktail. LOL. Lucky for me it is Elizabeth’s favorite too.

As I remember it, the club was not even at the beach, and it didn’t include a marina. The boats were stuffed on a fenced in, black top covered parking lot on a dock about 15 or 20 feet above the water, and all of the boats had to be put in the water using a crane. Race day was just barely organized chaos.

I remember members of the club volunteered during the Olympics sailboat races held in Los Angeles harbor many years ago (I think it was in the 80’s). CBYC has been involved is some pretty big events. My dad was in the group that volunteered during the Olympic sailing events back then.

My brother Dan is carrying the legacy on, volunteering at CBYC during one of the biggest events in the club’s history. It is part of the International Laser Class Association Worlds championship regatta series. A Laser is an Olympic class single handed dinghy. I have never sailed one, but I have heard that they are a blast to sail, and actually a pretty good boat to learn on. The competition is fierce. With over 200,000 boats in the association in 40 countries you know it is crazy competitive.

Dan is on the “calm side” of Cabrillo Beach working with a group helping with the registration and weighing the race boats for the regatta. There are strict class rules for dimension and weight requirements and rigs. For this particular regatta there are over 400 sailors from 40 countries on a path to the 2028 Olympics. These are the best of the best Laser sailors. That is 400 ambassadors to the US from 40 countries. Sports and especially sailing is such a great way to bring the world together.

Dan says, “Working with these kids from around the globe has given me a newfound hope for humanity”. That is really good to hear. I’m sure that when they leave the US they will have a good impression of San Pedro, California and the US. They seem to have left a good impression on Dan. I gotta say, it is a good venue as the wind is pretty good and heavy enough to test a sailor’s skill.

Elizabeth and I are not taking a sailboat to France, but we will be ambassadors from the US. Not an official title but we represent the US. Anyway, that is the spirit that we take with us. Ambassadors of good will and respect from the United States (Etats Unis). I worry about the reputation of the US throughout the world these days. Someone told us to be careful and tell everyone that we are from Canada. Not gonna happen, don’t get me wrong, Canada is great.

This is not a blog about our families, but family fits in sometimes. I think that I could write a blog just on the family, but I will spare you. I thought about writing a memoir. I started a couple of times, but the words just wouldn’t flow. I will slip comments into our blog about our families when it fits.

Speaking of Being on the Water

My sister Cindy and her boyfriend Don are racing in a big Dragon Boat regatta in Long Beach, California this weekend. They are on different teams but not competing against each other. This is another big race with teams from all over the country. They have been involved in dragon boat racing for years now and both are very competitive. No doubt they will bring home some medals.

I’m sure that I mentioned Cindy is planning on racing in France next year at Aix le Bain. Don will be there too. Yes, Elizabeth and I plan on driving over and meeting them there. This is a race with representatives from all over the world. Big time regatta!!

Brother Larry wasn’t racing this week, but he sailed one of his boats from Oxnard down to Oceanside, single handed mind you. About a 120-mile sail (3 days) along the California coast.

WhooHoo!! Next Week is the Week!!

Busy, busy, busy. No stress though. Everything will be fine and no drama. OMG we leave for France next week.

We have our Passports and visas ready, have some Euros ready and have started packing. We will be purging stuff again, I’m sure. We are ready for the tolls along Alligator Alley and then on the run from Paris to Duras too. I’m sure we have probably forgotten something, but we will figure it out once we get there.

As always, we sign off wishing you all a good week and remind you to take care of yourselves and your family.

Keep in touch and leave questions, suggestions and comments below.

A bientot (see you soon)

Mark and Elizabeth Beiley

Babyboomersmovetofrance.com