Our First 6 Months of Full Time Living in France and How Are We Doing?

Week 26 in France 1/26-2/1/2026. We complete our sixth month of full time living in France on 2/1. We have been in our home in the village of Chabanais in the Charente department of the Nouvelle-Aquitaine Region of France since the middle of December. This is the northern most department of Southwest France

Welcome to the 54th weekly post of our Baby Boomers Move to France blog.

This week has been pretty busy. We will do our usual weekly update, make some comments about our view of the French lifestyle and culture and then a note on how we are doing now that we have been in France 6 months.

Things on the agenda this week:

Some important stuff this week and lots to talk about as you can see from the list below

• Finalize the solar power project
• Finalize the wood/pellet stove project
• Finalize the hot water project
• Hearing aid appointment
• Follow up with the bank regarding our check book
• Start prepping for Don and Cindy’s arrival
• Another meeting with a Solar power guys for quotes
• And weekly update

Weather forecast:

It looks like we have a bit of rain this week, but not too cold.

Why this Blog?

Long story short, we are “Baby Boomers” that have moved from beautiful Venice, Florida to the beautiful French countryside as retirees. After a little over a year of planning and fretting we sold everything in Venice and made the move on 1 August 2025.

We publish a brief update of our adventures every Sunday to share our experiences, tips and mistakes.

If you are 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 each week, we include in the blog some thoughts on what we learn. If you have a specific question about France, let us know and we are happy to answer. Other folks probably have the same question. If we don’t know the answer, we will share resource information.

This Week in General

Sunday was quiet.

On Monday we walked over to Cafe Lillian for lunch. I had a traditional English breakfast and EB had fish and chips. It is an English restaurant after all. EB had rose wine and I had proper English tea. I also had a piece of Bakewell tart, first time and it was really good (homemade too!). We like the place because the food is good and the owners, Ian and Penny, are super nice. Penny bakes too. They always have good advice for us newbies. Like so many small shops here, they are only open limited hours, for them they are open Sunday through Wednesday.

I learned that a proper English breakfast includes a fried egg, 2 sausages, bacon, black pudding (some people call it blood pudding), baked beans and toast. I had never even tried black pudding before; it is pretty good. I put cream and sugar in my tea and enjoyed a whole teapot of it.

Ian and Penny gave us the number of a local company that does wood stoves and I decided to give them a call. The phone conversation was totally in French. I think I made myself understood and I got the impression that the manager would call me to set up an appointment (rendezvous) to come to the house and see what our project requires. Fingers crossed that I heard it correctly. I got it right, he will be here on Monday (Lundi) at 10:00 (dix heures).

Tuesday: A trip to St. Junien to the bank and for some shopping

St. Junien is a pretty good-sized town that has just about everything. We stopped at the BNP Paribas branch office to pick up our check book and to see about my bank card. The lady there didn’t speak English, but we managed to tell her that we were there to pick up the check book. Check book in hand I asked about my bank card. She couldn’t figure out what the problem is, so she just offered to have a new card sent to our home. Should be here next week.

Our Wednesday schedule includes the water heater guy and the stove project

Water heater guy first thing in the morning

I signed the paperwork for the water heater and paid the deposit online on Tuesday. Peter, the heater contractor, called and said he will be over Wednesday morning.

With fingers crossed, I’m hoping all goes well. The water heater installation looks good and I’m happy to report that we have the needed capacity!!

Wood stove and Pellet stove project

Then at 1:00 (13h) I’m off to AASGARD in Limoges to meet Hugo and finalize the contract for the pellet and wood stove project. Excellent meeting and I’m feeling very confident that Aasgard will do a good job. The contract is signed and deposit made. There is a lot of work to do on our 2 chimneys to bring them up to code, but the result will be an up to code installation that will last for years to come. We will have a wood stove in the salon (living room) and a pellet stove in the dining room (salle de manger). With this arrangement we should be able to heat the main house completely.

The stoves will be installed in March. The weather starts to get nice towards the end of March with average high temperatures of 56 degrees F and average lows 42 degrees F, so we probably will get a little use out of them even as the temperature starts to warm up to average lows of 46 through April and 52 in May. We won’t get much use out of them through summer and into October, but in November the average temps start going down again.

WE END UP WITH A WOOD STOVE AND A PELLET STOVE!

I took the above picture so I would remember the standard that I should look for when buying pellets for the stove. It specifies “ISO 17225-2 A1 DIN plus”. Typical bags weigh 15kg (about 33 pounds).

Thursday: Solar project

We drove Merignac just outside of Bordeaux to meet with Hector at SunGreen and finalized that contract for our whole house solar electricity project. Hector showed us around the office, and we met some of his collogues and saw the type of hardware that will be used on our roof. We signed a shit load of papers. That project could start in March with the cleaning and sealing of our roof.

Rosie took the drive with us. Once she settled down, she did okey during the 2-hour drive. She was an angel during our meeting with Hector.

The drive this time was a lot nicer than last month when freezing temperatures left ice on the trees and lots of frost on the farms’ fields. This time fields are turning green and we had a nice drive, cold but sunny. Before heading home EB wanted to stop at the Conforama to check out the availability of a bureau. The store in Bordeaux is huge. Unfortunately, the particular item that she wants was not in stock.

The return drive was rainy during the entire drive. We were glad to get back to our cozy house.

Sunny Friday

Beautiful sunny day on Friday.

EB walked to the pharmacy and picked up 3 prescription refills. She used her letter showing proof of eligibility for French social security and they set her up in the system. She paid only about 6 euros (this included 4.90 euros for a lip balm). The lady asked if EB has a Mutuelle. We don’t have that yet. It is on the list.

She stopped by the boulangerie on the way back home and picked up a fresh baguette and 2 eclairs. Delicious!!

I mentioned EB is getting pretty good with the language. Today she had a telephone call with the landlord for the Airbnb that she had reserved in Sarlat. We will use that Airbnb when Cindy and Don visit. We are excited to take them on a tour of Sarlat la Caneda. It is a gorgeous medieval town about an hour drive from our house in Chabanais. Anyway, the landlord does not speak a lick of English, so EB had to clarify that, “Yes we want linens for 4 people and that we are traveling from Chabanais.” EB is pretty sure that he understands.

Pro tip: Whenever renting an Airbnb in France make sure you specify that you want linens included. Otherwise you end up “renting” the linens 🙂

On Friday we also had to find some more paperwork for the Solar power project. We needed the certification of compliance for our existing solar system and the invoice for the existing system. I’m sure that I sent the invoice before. EB went into the huge file that we got when we purchased the house and found the certificate of compliance. I scanned all and emailed it to Hector. Not sure if the documents are enough.

Dinner Out

Elizabeth had picked up a flier at an Italian restaurant in St. Junien a couple of weeks ago. It was advertising an upcoming live music event at the restaurant. She signed us up and reserved a table for two. Friday night was our first night out in a while and the food was good, wine was good and the French group (2 guitars and a singer) was really good. American music with a French accent. You gotta love it! Music by Seal, Credence, and others was performed very well. The group included a couple of French songs too.

We split (a partager) a meal, a bottle of wine and a cafe gourmand dessert including an espresso. I would definitely have that again.

Saturday: Nice quiet day

Sunshine and a little bit of rain.

I assembled the chest of drawers that we purchased on Friday before we went to the restaurant. Well, I almost got it done. Every project takes longer than the plan.

EB got the guest room cleaned up and organized.

That is the week. A little rainy off and on as usual for this time of year.

We finalized contracts for the solar power system and the wood and pellet stoves. Got the hot water heater installed and had a fun night at the Italian restaurant in St. Junien. A pretty darn good and productive week.

French Lifestyle and Culture

According to the plumber, the standard estimate for hot water in France is 35 liters per person. That is about 9 and 1/4 gallons. I get a kick out of that. I ordered a 100 Liter (just over 25 gallons) hot water heater for us. Even at that our water heater is small compared to our heater in Florida. Below is a picture of the installed water heater.

I don’t remember what the size of our heater was in Florida, I do remember that it was probably at least 2 times the size of this one. That said, we have plenty of hot water now at about 60 to 65 degrees C. That is about 140 to 150 degrees F. Plenty hot!!

We love the towel heaters that you find in the bathrooms here. This towel heater in the guest bathroom also heats the bathroom. It is soooo nice to get out of the shower and had have a nice, heated towel at hand.

Electricity cost comparison

Last week I mentioned that electricity in France is expensive, and I meant to include a comparison to the states: electricity in France costs between .195 to .22 euros per kWh which is about 0.23 to .26 dollars per kWh as compared to about .17 to .19 dollars per kWh in the states. So, if I divide .23 by .17, I get 1.35. Thus, the cost for electricity is about 35% higher in France. That is nothing to sneeze at! I got these numbers by asking ChatGPT.

Six Months in France and How are We Doing?

We have been pretty busy during our first 6 months here. Arrived in France August 1st, lived in the very quaint village of Duras for 3 months, moved to St. Germain de Confolens for 2 months, purchased a house in Chabanais, another quaint village, and now settling into our French routine and loving it.

It is winter here now, so the village is very quiet, and we feel like we are kind of hibernating. We are getting our little house comfortable and investing in it for the long term.

We are learning what it is like to be an immigrant. We have jumped through all of the hoops required to live legally full time in a stable environment, but I must say there is still concern that our Social Security checks will be negatively impacted by the US government and if so, it could impact our French immigration status when we renew our visas. We try not to worry about it but if we have to leave France, where will we go? Italy, Spain, or maybe Albania. We really can’t afford to move back to the US now that we have moved away.

Of course, our little problems are nothing compared to what is going on with immigrants and even US citizens in the states. People here ask us what we think about what is happening, we can only say, “what you see is not the America we know”. Yes, there are crazy, cruel, people everywhere but what is on display in the states just makes us so sad. Life for immigrants in the states, even legal immigrants and US citizens seems super scary. If you have an opinion not aligned with the government, it seems that you are in danger. We always looked to the US constitution for protection without fear and now, who knows.

Sorry for the “squirrel” moment there. I think of this blog as a celebration of our adventure in France and didn’t mean to get into politics. Our new life here in France is truly a wonderful adventure and with no regrets. If you have any wanderlust in you, just do it.

Next Week (la Semaine Prochaine)

• We have a stove guy coming Monday. We would like to know what we will have to spend to put a wood stove in our summer kitchen. Then we would have a year round room!
• We are so looking forward to Cindy and Don visiting. We pick them up at the train station in Limoges on Tuesday evening.

Weather forecast for next week

It looks like we have a rainy week ahead and cool temps. Highs in the low 50s^o F. Overnight lows get down in the 40s.

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.

Wishing you a good week (Bonne Semaine)

Mark and Elizabeth Beiley

Babyboomersmovetofrance.com