How Are We Doing 3 Weeks In?

8/18/25-8/24/25

Welcome to the 31st post of our Baby Boomers Move to France blog.

House hunting is still on the agenda this week.

Also, we will be getting to know the area around Duras better. Trips to towns and villages. We want to try a bigger town with a bigger grocery store and hopefully a pet store and I want to check out a music store too. We also need a hardware store. EB wants to get some storage bins so we can repack our stuff and get rid of the cardboard boxes.

Also, we share a note on how we are doing in our 3rd week in France.

If this is your first visit to our blog, we will try to keep the story of our move to France interesting enough to bring you back each week. Long story short, we are a couple of “Baby Boomers” moving from Venice, Florida and starting a new chapter of our life in the French countryside as American retired expats. If you like the blog, please subscribe. It is free to subscribe and there are no advertisements. I mean, I might put a plug if for companies that we like, but no paid ads.

As we shared our move plans with friends and family, we were asked questions about who, what, why, when and where, so we figured that there is enough interest to share the experience. So, we started this blog. Our plan is to publish a brief update on our life in France every Sunday. Hopefully we answer some of those questions and keep answering more as we work our way to our new life.

After a little over a year of planning and fretting we moved to France on 1 August 2025. We are into our 3rd week now so are still finding our footing. Not too concerned as we will be finding our footing for a long time (if others are correct, possibly years).

House Hunt

On Monday we had an appointment with Cle Rouge Immobilier to view a couple of houses for sale. These houses are outside of Duras.

We went to Loubes Bernac first. This is a cute place with 2 bedroom, 2 baths, plus a gite (a separate living space) which has a bedroom and bath and a kitchenette. In addition, this property has a very nice outside space. We liked this place, and it was in a nice village with amenities. It sits on a nice quite road and had off street parking. This place will need some work and updating though. The current owners have owned it for about 30 years, and it doesn’t look like they have done much to it in some years. It is less than 20 minutes out of Duras and not too far from Eymet which is a very popular town with lots of English-speaking folks.

The second place was in a much smaller hamlet (I didn’t get the name of the town), but it had 4 bedrooms and updated kitchen. All of the bedrooms are on the ground floor. This one has a nice outdoor space and additional property across the road. I asked what the heck would we do with that much land. The agent suggested an above ground pool, a vegetable garden and maybe chickens. It all sounds pretty cool. Of course, we don’t want the responsibility of land and chickens. LOL. A negative of this place is even though it is only 20 minutes from Duras and 45 minutes to Bergerac, the little roads winding up the hill was pretty much a deal breaker. Driving at night on these unlit back roads is pretty crazy.

Before our house viewings, Elizabeth walked down to the boulangerie and picked up a baguette and croissants and by the time I got downstairs she had our little table and chairs set up outside. We had our coffee and croissants outside. The weather was super nice. A little overcast sky and cool temperature.

We then walked down to the street market and bought some veggies, sausages and cheese.

French Lifestyle and Culture

On Tuesday we went to the Bricorama. I put this in this section just because I like the name of this store. This is a big hardware store chain. It reminded us of Ace Hardware on steroids. We bought the plastic bins that EB wanted to use to reorganize the stuff that we had shipped over to France. I want to buy a battery for my banjo tuner, but I only want one, they sell them in 4 packs. I’ll wait until I can find a single.

We also stopped into the Intermarche store too. This is big supermarket chain, and we grabbed some groceries and found some household items too. Even in this store you bring your own bags and bag your own groceries.

Something that I didn’t understand at first (still not a 100% clear) is the receipt at the grocery store. The receipt shows what they call TVA tax (Taxe sur la Valeur Ajoutee). This is a Value Added Tax. The general rate is 20% and two reduced rates of 10% and 5.5%. There is a super reduced rate of 2.1%.

So, 20% on most goods and services, 10% on hotels, restaurants, passenger transport and some medicines. The 5.5% is on many food products, basic necessities, gas and electricity subscriptions. The 2.1% is on medicines. I’m glad to see that food and most necessities are charged only 5.5%.

This TVA tax does not apply to medical care or renting of accommodations for residential use.

The price you see on the shelf in the market is the price that you pay and typically includes the TVA. The receipt has an itemization of the taxes charged.

I’m no tax expert so if my interpretation of the literature is incorrect, I apologize. It is just interesting to try to understand what the receipt says. It is all part of the learning curve.

Cafe de la Paix (Cafe of the Peace)

This is another of our favorite restaurants in Duras. We like it because it is a sidewalk cafe in the center of town. The wine is good, and the setting is perfect for relaxing. It gets pretty busy after 7:00 PM. We usually leave before 9:00 so I can’t tell you how it is at closing time. The chateau is maybe 100 yards from the cafe and visitors to the chateau stop at this very convenient cafe. Also, three nights a week they have a color show on the chateau which is very cool. There are other sidewalk cafes in the area that are always busy. We will try them out and let you know our thoughts. I think that I took a picture of this restaurant.

After our trip to Marmande, we walked down to the Cafe de la Paix to have a glass of wine, and we saw a celebrity (Celebre). We saw Joanna Leggett; she is kind of a star on You Tube as she is part of the Leggett family from Leggett Immobilier. It just so happens our agent in Confolens is part of the Leggett company.

Wine break at Cafe de la Paix. Notice they bring you ice for your Rose on hot days.

Other Stuff

As the week goes along, we catch up on other things that need done. Like getting our bank cards. We have been waiting for a call from the local branch of our bank since our trip to Toulouse. I emailed our English-speaking bank consultant at BNP Paribas in Toulouse to follow up on the cards. She had told us that we would get a call from the branch in Sainte Foy La Grande. We hadn’t got a call as of Wednesday. She emailed right back and told us that the cards are ready and all we need to do is take our passports with us and we can pick up the cards this week. I asked for the address, and we went to the branch in St Foy La Grande on Thursday. All went smoothly and afterward we took a walk around the city.

We got some other stuff done on Thursday. In Sainte Foy la Grande, I got batteries for my banjo tuner. Then on to Bergerac to MaxiZoo for Rosie’s flea meds. Wow, Maxizoo is a huge pet store. We gave up waiting on the local vet to call us regarding Rosie’s meds. We were back in Duras before noon (midi).

I emailed Nathalie at HCB regarding our Orange phone plan. She will arrange our appointment at the store and type a letter in French for us just in case the folks at Orange don’t speak English. This was a bust as they can’t get us a decent plan since we don’t have a permanent address (we need to be able to show an electric bill or water bill with our name and the address for proof of residency. So much hinges on owning a property here. Anyway, we had to extend our tourist plan. Which is about 100 euros per month for the 2 of us. Very disappointing. Once we get a house the cost drops to about 35 euros per month for both of us. Yes, I sent an email to our adviser at French Connections HCB to alert her that Orange did not have a special reduced rate for us and expressed our disappointment. Hopefully she will get back to us on Monday. The Orange rep did let us know that if we make friends who have the Orange phone plans, we can use them as a reference and then pay only $15.99 each…..so we are trying to make new friends 🙂

Thursday night is Night Market too. We picked up a bottle of Rosé at one of the vendors and found a seat in front of the band. They were just setting up and tuning. It looked like a family affair. A mother and daughter singing duet, a drummer, base and lead guitar. There were 4 young boys playing in the dance area and dad had to come get them before they got into too much trouble. An English couple and her sister sat next to us, and we had a nice chat. They have had a holiday home in the area for 50 years. Their daughter lives in the area full time. We introduced ourselves and met Micheal and his wife Caroline and Caroline’s sister Louise. Micheal said he golfs 3 times per week. I’m a little jealous. We did see them again on Friday while we were at Cafe de la Paix. We all waved and said, “Hi”.

We left just before 8:00 so we could join the Zoom call with Cindy, Don, Rhonda and Dan. It was great talking to them. While we were having wine they were 9 hours behind us sipping coffee. I love technology, it was like we were all sitting together on Don and Cindy’s deck up in Big Bear, California.

EB is coordinating with the landlord in Confolens to book a a couple of days ahead of our actual 3-month rental there to meet the people and set up viewings of houses for sale in the area. We will book 3 or 4 days there to give us plenty of time to see the area and some houses. Then in November when we move there, we will have 3 months to really get the feel for the area around Confolens. This will be the winter months with little tourist traffic and a lot of shops closed for the winter. Fortunately, Confolens is a good-sized town so we expect a few restaurants and boulangeries will be open even in winter (hiver). Fingers crossed.

On Sunday we plan on visiting the castle, Chateau de Duras. I’m sure that we will get a little history lesson and will take some pictures to share.

So, How Are We Doing?

It has only been 3 weeks, and I think we are doing pretty well. We were talking about this at Cafe de la Paix the other night and agreed that we are passed the vacation mode feeling. We are studying our Duolingo lessons every day and feeling like we are getting the hang of driving and shopping and cooking and doing laundry here. We are wrangling our budget pretty well. The first few days were hectic, and we were kind of in vacation mode. Our budget is back on track now.

The weather has cooled down, so we are enjoying having the house windows and shutters wide open.

EB was going 120 mph at work in July and is now down to 30 mpg here, so she is still adjusting to the whole retirement thing. She and Rosie get their stretch-out just about every day. So that part of her routine hasn’t changed. With improved weather she is working on her walking routine, which is good.

One of the most important tasks that she has taken on is the online house hunt. It has already paid off. We have our Confolens rental all arranged because of her efforts. More importantly we have an agent in Confolens that is looking for properties to show us when we visit there in September. Our agent has already found a property that she will set up for a viewing in September. Elizabeth is coordinating all of that.

I mentioned cooking; Elizabeth is working miracles with the limited kitchen in this small rental. I think that we are eating well.

Me, I’m getting into tea. Not drinking so much coffee and that has made a big difference for me. I haven’t decided which tea is best yet. There are so many flavors! If anyone has a suggestion, please share your favorite and why in the comment section below.

We are both getting better at going up and down the stairs here. They are so steep and winding, I had to use my hands on each step to get up the first few days. Now we both go up and down without much issue. Rosie has figured them out too. It is having a positive effect on our wellbeing.

We still struggle with the language which is to be expected, but we keep doing our best and try to speak with the shop keepers a little every day. During our morning walk, I stopped into the boulangerie and ordered a baguette classic and 2 croissants. The lady behind the counter said my French is very good. Of course, she didn’t know that I have been practicing how to order a baguette just about every day for weeks. Once in Confolens we will see about French lessons.

I’m still reading the news from the states, and it seems politics are getting crazier and crazier. I don’t keep up with it as much as before. I do see that NC is getting some serious weather from hurricane Erin. I need to figure out how to get the French news.

I’m getting a lot of compliments on my 2025 Masters hat that Corey brought me from his trip to the Masters this year. I guess the MASTERS IS HUGE EVERYWHERE. Many thanks to Corey!

Friday, we woke up to a really nice day and took Rosie for her normal walk. Afterward EB walked to the boulangerie for a baguette and croissants, and we had our coffee. Our daily routine is settling in.

Next on the agenda is a drive over to Marmande to finalize our French cell phone plans. As I mentioned above, it was basically a bust.

Saturday is a Lebanese night at Parvis Magnas. We got our reservations on Thursday during the Night Market. We are all set for a new experience on Saturday. On Saturday we walked over to the restaurant in time for our 7:30 reservation and they had our table all ready for us with a little name plaque. It was a really good meal and included a main course, dessert and Lebanese coffee. Of course they served us a good red wine. We left around 9:30. Rosie was with us the whole time and settled down into her little bed at our feet for the duration. She truly is a good girl.

We did go to La Maison des Vins (that sounds sexier than “the house of wines”) just down the hill from our rental. There we learned a little about the local wines and then tasted whites, rosés, and various reds. We ended up buying a couple of bottles of rosés, and 4 bottles of reds.

We made Sunday our touristy day and spent a large part of the day at the chateau. It was first built in 1137 on a high and impregnable position overlooking the Dropt River valley. Of course, it was renovated and revised by each new owner and occupier over the centuries. It was at one time occupied by the English King Henry lll. I guess this was during the 100 Years War. Wars and deals and marriages and more wars caused the ownership to change since its original construction several times. It is now a museum owned by people of Duras. While we were there, we watched a display of falconry that included falcons, eagles, owls, crows, and even buzzards (sorry I can’t remember the correct name for them) and then after a wine break, we watched a display of horsemanship. Knights and Ladys and sword fights. All great fun.

I would say, all things considered, we are doing just fine.

Next Week (la Semaine Prochaine)

On our list for next week:

Call rental car agent to set up dropping the car off in Bordeaux. In the meantime, I’m hoping to hear from HCB regarding our new car. If they can’t get it to us before the end of the month, we will have to get another rental car while in Bordeaux.

EB will follow up with our agent in Confolens about house viewings and our rental. EB is planning on getting access to the rental house in September for 3 or 4 days. I’m not sure if they have a minimum rental period. I’m sure EB will have it all figured out next week.

We need to call Orange to update our tourist plan. We already paid for it we just need to activate it. Let’s see how that goes.

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.

Keep in touch and leave questions, suggestions and comments below. We really enjoy hearing from you. Your kind and encouraging words remind us that we can do this. We have completed our 3rd week in France. Time is going by so quickly!

Our heart goes out to the people in NC who got hit by storm surge from hurricane Erin. I hope FEMA can help them.

A bientot (see you soon)

Mark and Elizabeth Beiley

Babyboomersmovetofrance.com