Living Our Dream in France: Week 15

Week 15 in France 11/9-11/15/2025

Welcome to the 43rd weekly post of our Baby Boomers Move to France blog. We are officially into our fourth month of full time living in France now and getting a feel for life in France. We love it!

The weather for this week has been on the cool side with some clouds most of the time. High temps in the upper 60s. We had a pretty hard rain down pour on Friday including an impressive thunderstorm over night. It didn’t last long but was the hardest rain that we have experienced in St. Germain de Confolens. That said the weather has been mostly nice this week.

Grand Rue, Saint Germain de Confolens pictured below. It is very common to see cars parked over the curb. Here the cobble stones have been paved over. Where we are staying is on the left just past the down spout where the little potted plant is. The thing that looks like a rocket hitting the side of the building is a streetlight. They turn off the lights about 10:30 at night and then you get a great show of stars, I picked out Orion and the Big Dipper the other night.

Things on the agenda this week:

• Get the license plate installed.
• Zoom call with Sean regarding financial plan for the rest of the year.
• Zoom call with Cindy and Don, Rhonda and Dan
• Check out more furniture stores

Why this Blog?

Long story short, we are a couple of “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 and made the move on 1 August 2025.

We started this blog to share the experience. We publish a brief update on our life in France every Sunday.

If this is your first visit to our blog, WELCOME!

To all of our regulars, thanks for being here. It means a lot.

If you or anyone you know is 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 include some thoughts to share with you each week.

Check out the “Resources” tab for a list of YouTube channels that were really helpful and inspired us to start this adventure. These channels are pretty active and post new videos every week. We still check them each week for guidance.

This Week in General

More Exploring

We went to the Saint Junien branch of the dealership that sold us our Dacia in order to have the license plate attached to the car. In France the plate is secured to the car with pop rivets. It is an easy task if you have the tools. As you know, I sold or just left all of my tools in Florida. Over the next several months, I will begin to replenish my tools.

I almost forgot to mention that our French continues to improve. EB was able to help a little old man at the grocery store find something. I was able to let the guy at the car dealership; know that I want to buy floor mats for the car. They are on order, and he will email me when they come in. Small progress, but cool.

The trip was a good excuse to drive around a bit to see more of the area. Saint Junien is a good size town and not too far from Chabanais. I wanted to get a handle on how to get on the highway, N141, from Chabanais so we did the run from St. Junien. Piece of cake. N141 is the road we will take to get to Limoges from Chabanais. We also stopped at a Bricomarche to look at garden furniture and BBQs. I spent some time looking at tools too. All in all, it was a good exploration trip.

In Florida EB made a bunch of crocheted blankets and donated them to the local old folk’s home. On Monday she bought some yarn and a crochet hook so she can crochet again. I’m really happy to see her getting back into it. She really enjoyed it.

On one of our walks around St Germain de Confolens EB spotted a small sign advertising the hours of a shop that repairs guitars and banjos. Who would have thunk it? I will have to keep an eye out to see if it really is in business. I want to get the banjo checked out and properly tuned up. The bridge location needs to be adjusted as I shipped the banjo to France with the strings loosened up and the bridge totally came off. I had marked the location of the bridge back when I changed the strings, but it still sounds a little off. I will work on it some more and watch some more You Tube videos, but I think I need a pro.

Tuesday was a holiday. A little cold in the morning but sunny and the day warmed up nicely. The town was quiet, and we caught up on our French lessons and doing nothing.

We had a great Face Time chat with Don and Cindy and Dan and Rhonda. All is well in California. We spent some time talking about everyone coming to France for a visit in late January and early February 2026. We would celebrate Cindy’s birthday in France. Don is working on the logistics for the trip which includes flying to Paris, then a train ride to Limoges. We can pick them up at the train station which is only about 30 minutes from the Chabanais house.

Wednesday was Furniture Day

We expect to be closing on the house on November 27. We needed to start ordering furniture in October. Delivery takes 8 to 10 weeks. So, we had to make some decisions Wednesday. We have our fingers crossed that furniture will arrive by the middle of January. We picked out a dining room table and chairs, a sofa and chairs for the living room and a bed for the master suite. They look great by the way.

Friday

I took the banjo to the repair shop here in Saint Germain de Confolens.

It needs:

• New strings
• The action needs to be fixed. He will probably put in a new bridge.
• The neck is curved; he will try to fix that.
• Then of course it needs to be tuned.

The guy surprised me; he will have my banjo ready on Wednesday (Mercredi) at 11:00 (Onze heures). I figured it would be weeks. He said that he is making a couple of banjos that will take a lot of his time so he would get my easy job out of the way quickly.

His shop is really cool. He is a banjo player and has been to the states (West Virginia, Virginia, the Carolinas) to play and attend banjo player events. He builds, banjos, mandolins, and various other string instruments. I will ask him if he minds me taking a picture of his shop.

French Lifestyle and Culture

French Holidays

Tuesday was Armistice Day in France. This holiday commemorates the armistice signed between the Germans and the Allies for cessation of hostilities on the Western Front of World War 1. It was signed on the “eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month” of 1918. This is known as Veterans Day in the United States.

By the way, a formal World War 1 peace agreement wasn’t reached until the Treaty of Versailles was signed in the Hall of Mirrors at the Palace of Versailles on June 28, 1919. The palace is located about 11 miles west of the center of Paris and is now a museum. I think that if you can make the time, it is well worth a visit during your stay in Paris.

Elizbeth and I had a 4-day whirl wind tour of Paris some years back and enjoyed a tour of the palace and the surrounding gardens. While I’m not big on big cities, Paris is amazing. Yes, it’s a bit touristy, but that is what you go there for. The sights, sidewalk cafes, the Eiffel Tower at night, the Moulin Rouge, the Palace of Versailles, Notre Dame, the Siene River, the Left Bank, coffee, croissants and baguettes, the Louve, the Basilique du Sacre-Coeur de Montmartre, the Arc de Triomphe, oh and a glass of wine!! We also wedged time in for a Segway tour of central Paris. We were 15 years younger and had more stamina then. LOL

Paris is great and all, but you must stay in France long enough to get out to the countryside where the real France is. A 2-hour train ride from Paris gets you to the legendary Loire valley. A little over 2 hours gets you to world famous wine country of Bordeaux and the Dordogne department named after the Dordogne river. We have talked about these areas in previous posts. We love it.

Many people go to the beaches of Normandy. We haven’t been there yet, but it is on our list. Again, only a short train ride from Paris.

I think our next trip will be to Provance. We were talking this week and decided that we need to make a list of all of the places that we want to see in France. From our central location we have pretty easy access to venture to other countries too. Spain, Germany, Italy, Belgium, Andora, Luxembourg and Switzerland share a boarder with France. Then there is the UK just a ferry ride across the English Channel. North Africa is just the other side of the Mediterranean. Where to start. Where would you go? Send your thoughts.

Small Refrigerators

A typical refrigerator here is pretty small by US standards. If you look at it from the positive side, small is a good thing. You go to the grocery store more often, that is true. However, you tend to have fresher food and less waste. The freezer area is small too. I’m thinking less electricity usage. We haven’t had to pay for electricity yet, but for the house in Chabanais electricity usage is estimated to be between 1240 euros ($1442) and 1740 euros ($2023) per year. This includes electric heat throughout the house; I expect to reduce that expense some by using a pellet heater. Electricity is pretty expensive here.

Small fridge in the gite. Just enough room for a couple of bottles of white wine and a bottle of prosecco on the bottom shelf.

Speaking of appliances, as I have said before, you won’t see many dishwashers or garbage disposals here either. The dishwasher that we had in our Duras Airbnb was super small. We didn’t use it. Clothes washers are common but clothes dryers a little less so.

A tumble dryer is definitely on our list of items to buy for our house in Chabanais. EB has done a little research on this. There are 3 different designs, the vented style which is common in the states, the condenser version and the heat pump version. Our experience with the condenser version hasn’t been very good. All of the research indicates that the heat pump version is more expensive initially but is much more efficient. All of the dryers that we have seen are relatively small though.

Saturday was beautiful so we headed to the 2nd hand store to see what we could find. The parking lot was full and so was the overflow lot. We ended up parking down the street and walked back. The place was packed. There was barely any room to move. It was way too crowded for us, so we just took a really quick tour and left. We walked over to the antique store down the block, unfortunately it was closed for vacation. Shopping done for the day.

I did get a chance to go to Credit Agricole bank ATM to get some cash. I will need it for the Banjo repair guy next Wednesday. It is always good to have a little cash on hand. This bank has branches all over the place in the countryside villages. We will probably switch from BNP Paribas once we are settled in Chabanais. EB has read that the branch in Chabanais has English speaking staff.

Sunday started out chilly and a little rainy, but it warmed into the 60s by 10:00. It was perfect for a ride to Etangnac. EB said they have their market on Sunday. So off to Etangnac. It was a small market but busy. They had a DJ and great music. We bought a couple of bottles of wine, some sausage, croissants, a baguette and some madeleines. I think it was just under 30 euros.

Etagnac is close to Chabanais so we headed for Cafe Lilian and had lunch in Chabanais. You may remember the owners of Cafe Lilian, Ian and Penny, are British. We did the fish and chips and a beer for each of us. Pretty good. Ian and Penny will close the cafe and take a vacation until the middle of January as Chabanais is pretty quiet this time of year.

Next Week (la Semaine Prochaine)

We have a couple of things to do next week:

• Drive to Poitiers and find the location for our OFII meeting
• Explore Confolens city center
• Check out Esse and Belle Vue
• Pick up the banjo from the repair shop and start practicing again

Weather for next week

Weather forecast for next week in Saint Germain de Confolens is cooling off with highs in the upper 40s and lows in the 30s with chance of rain throughout the week. I guess “winter is coming”,

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.

I expect everyone is gearing up for the holidays. We are seeing Christmas decorations in the stores, and the villages are starting to put up decorations now. I saw some videos on Facebook showing Christmas decorations and lights at UTC mall in Sarasota. Hard to beat that!!

Of course, the French don’t celebrate Thanksgiving but hopefully we will celebrate Thanksgiving by collecting the keys to our place in Chabanais. So far, the home buying process has been smooth and low stress.

A bientot (see you soon)

Mark and Elizabeth Beiley

Babyboomersmovetofrance.com