Our French Village House (Episode 4)
Week 24 in France 1/12-1/19/2026. We are well into our sixth month of full time living in France.
Welcome to the 52nd weekly post of our Baby Boomers Move to France blog.
HAPPY ANNEVERSARY BABY BOOMERS MOVE TO FRANCE BLOG!!
Happy birthday to our granddaughter Ravyn! She is 10 years old this month. Speaking of birthdays, my dad would have been 102 this month.
Things on the agenda this week:
Some important stuff this week:
- Meeting with Solar power guys for quotes
- Meeting with wood/pellet stove contractors for quotes
- Having trouble contacting our US investment advisor so follow up needed
- Second French lesson
- Bed complete with Tuesday delivery!
- Try again to contact BNP Paribas regarding my bank card
- Contact our US tax guy
Weather forcast:
Weather for the week is forecast to warm up. We do get up to the high of 55o F on Tuesday and as lows as 39oF overnight on Saturday. That is a definite warming trend. Partly cloudy and some rain is expected. I think the weather might cooperate so I can get some outdoor projects done.
More about our house
Along with our regular weekly update, this week we will share more about our home prep progress and a little more detail about this 120-year-old stone village house and its location relative to the village. See below in the “French Lifestyle and Culture” section. This will take a couple of posts so stay tuned. LOTS OF PICTURES.
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
We took a Sunday drive and explored the surrounding area a little. We went through Pressignac, and stopped in a little town then Massignac to check out the lakes and then an even smaller village called Puyiet.
I’m still working on Banjo practice working on Wildwood Flower, and EB is making progress on her latest crochet project. It is a heavy blanket.
I subscribed to a daily English language news blog (The Connexion Daily) that helps keep us up to date with French news. It is mainly geared toward British expats but is pretty informative and most of the articles are general information. EB is on a couple of expat Facebook feeds that she refers to often.
Monday was a pretty nice day, A little cool but not too bad.
We received our outdoor fire pit on Monday. Just need to assemble it whenever we figure out the area it will be going in!
Nothing much else going on Monday except our letter from CPAM regarding l’Assurance Maladie (health insurance) arrived. With the letter we received our French Social Security numbers. In France the social security number is needed in order to get into to the French health care system. It means that we will receive reimbursements for our out-of-pocket expenses at the doctor or pharmacy. We have not received our Carte Vitale (medical identification card) yet. We have a few more steps to do in order to get that.
This program pays for 70% to 80% of medical expenses. We will get a “mutuelle insurance” policy to cover the remaining 20% to 30%. The cost of these insurance policies depends on a number of factors. Basic individual plans run 20 – 50 euros per month with comprehensive plans including optical, dental, hearing aids and specialists’ visits can run 60 – 90 euros per month. High level plans for families and couples can range from 70 to 160 euros per month depending on the number of dependents, age and the benefits. My understanding is that these costs go up annually. We will have to get accurate quotes in the coming weeks.
We anticipate that the French government will impose additional fees to American expats in the near future as in the current system, Americans do not pay into the social services system but get the advantages of them. This will make the healthcare system the same for everyone. All indications suggest the cost will be fairly nominal though.
Tuesday another nice day
The weather is starting to head in the right direction.
We got the rest of our bed components installed and made the bed up with new linens. We moved our clothes in and set up the bathroom. We are officially moved in. LOL
We had a very interesting appointment with a solar company. As I mentioned last week, we decided that we want to have the entire house solar powered so when the guy said his company can extend our existing solar panel array with 4 more panels such that it will power the entire house with solar power, we were ecstatic. It is a little costly up front, but not too bad considering that I will have someone that I can call to help maintain the system and our power bill will be cut by roughly 75%. Actually, the guy said more but I’m being conservative.
Another really great thing is that I won’t have to worry about lithium ion batteries or a separate inverter and their maintenance. This system has it all built in and any excess power that we generate goes into a storage cloud, so when the weather is bad, we just draw on our cloud storage. Basically 24/7 solar power. I need to do a little more research, but I like the idea. We just have to find someone to sell our existing batteries to. The proceeds will help pay for the upgrade. The appointment was scheduled for 2:00 (14h) and it was about 3 hours long. We offered the sales guy coffee and madeleines. We learned a lot and were ready for a glass of wine after the sales guy left.
Our Wednesday schedule included an early appointment with a pellet stove company.
We had to get up at O Dark Thirty for the wood stove appointment. I scheduled the appointment for 8:00 AM. The sales guy arrived, and I immediately took him to see the existing solar panels and the battery/inverter setup. I explained that I had bypassed the system because of the alarms. He took pictures and asked me to restart the system so that he could see the alarms. I did and thankfully the alarm came up. He noted it all, I shut the system down and we went back into the house to discuss what he could do for us.
He politely mentioned to us that he was here regarding the wood stove. Yeah, I got it mixed up, I thought he was the solar guy that I have scheduled for after lunch.
Anyway, we had a good laugh. It turns out that his company will send a guy out to trouble shoot the solar power system though.
We liked the stove presentation and have decided to go with a pellet stove. The appointment included an evaluation of the area to be heated and also the total volume and his recommendation would include a duct to heat not only the kitchen/dining room but also the living room and guest bedroom. That is great! No need for a separate stove for the living room.
He will send a quote to my email soon and he says the installation could be done in February.
I have a couple more stove people to get quotes from.
EB wanted to buy some more items for the house, and I stayed home to accept delivery of a couple of items to be delivered.
Our solar power meeting was set for 1:00PM (13h), but the guy’s GPS wasn’t working and he couldn’t find us. Oh well, I have other solar quotes coming in. At our French lesson on Thursday we found out that about 2-3 years ago, France changed the names of MANY of the roads, so if you have an older GPS and have not updated it, you will not be able to find some things!
We tested our Sous Vide machine
Elizabeth had thawed some a chicken breast to try out our new Sous Vide machine. The results were excellent as expected. She cooked rosemary potatoes with rosemary she picked from our garden. Delicious! So cool.
Thursday turned out nice
EB went to the market for some box wine and food supplies, and I assembled the grill and waited for more deliveries. EB had ordered a slow cooker, and it arrived. It is a bit bigger than our old one. We have a perfect spot to store it though.
I got the grill put together and it looks pretty good. The grill will be stored in the workshop for now. The charcoal arrived on Friday. I can hardly wait to fire it up. Hoping for good weather soon.
In person French lesson today
Our second French lesson with a human was good. This group lesson is structured as a conversation, and everyone sits around a table and gets to talk about their week or ask specific questions. Along the way we get grammar and proper pronunciation instruction. The hour goes pretty quickly.
Rainy Friday
We got up early so that we could drive over to Conforama in Limoges. EB wanted to buy a small dresser and mirror. Unfortunately, the dresser that she wanted was out of stock. Oh well, maybe next time. We did find a microwave though.
EB did the driving for this drive to Limoges even though she doesn’t like driving in the rain. She likes the highways though. Hardly any traffic. This is the N141 highway that runs from Angouleme to Limoges. We will take this road when we go to Limoges to pick Don and Cindy up next month. By the way, you don’t pronounce the “s” at the end of Limoges. I’m finally starting to get it.
Saturday: Another shopping day
More rain off and on, but it didn’t stop us from going shopping. We wanted to get a small freezer so we can take advantage of sale opportunities for meat and frozen foods. We went to the Super U, E.Leclerc and Darty stores in St. Junien. At Super U we got ink for our printer, groceries at E.Leclerc and the freezer at Darty.
We had a Darty store coupon for 120 euros burning a hole in our pockets. I wanted to get a Bluetooth radio too. We brought the radio home, and the freezer will be delivered on Tuesday next week. It will go in the laundry room, I think.
That is the week. A little rainy off and on and some nicer weather too. Important news from the French government concerning our social security numbers and great progress on our solar and pellet stove projects.
One of our big wins this week was our Sous Vide set up and now we have the grill to do it right. I’m not sure if Rob Wysocki is still reading the blog, but I figure the news of our sous vide would interest him. Of course, Don and Cindy know why we are so excited about it.
EB is happy about the freezer and I’m happy about the radio.
French Lifestyle and Culture
More About Our House (installment 4)
This week we will describe the Master bedroom and “ensuite” bathroom of our house.
Up the stairs to the landing and turn right. This picture is a little wonky. The stairs really do not slope like that.
Straight ahead as you walk up 3 more steps you see the master bath. Turn right again and you walk into the master bedroom. Those steps in front of the bed are for Rosie. She hasn’t figured them out yet. It’s a process.
EB wants to add some wall art in here. No rush. Once again, this room has angled walls. That back wall angles away from us in this picture. The stripe in the middle of the wall is at an angle too. It is a wall that hides part of the chimney. It cracks me up.
Yes, that is very glossy paint on the door and a ceramic doorknob.
This room has a window that opens inward and is protected by wooden shutters on the outside. This window over looks Rue du Champ de Foire.
Looking back out of the bedroom you can see on the right the wall where EB wants a small dresser and wall mirror. Oh, and another bed for Rosie. We looked for a dresser that will be just right for that spot. We haven’t found the right one yet.
That’s the brief tour of the master bedroom and bathroom. Still a work in progress. I’m hoping for some nicer weather, so we can show off the summer kitchen.
Next Week (la Semaine Prochaine)
- Another meeting with a Solar power guys for quotes
- Another meeting with pellet stove contractors for quotes
- Third French lesson
- Freezer to be delivered and set up
- We are expecting our new check book from our French bank. Will have to pick it up in St. Junien.
- I expect to find new hearing aids in St. Junien too.
Weather forecast for next week
It looks like we have a cooling trend coming our way next week. We do get up to the high of 57o F on Sunday during the day then cooling down to 46oF during the day on Saturday. Overnight lows get down in the 30s. Partly cloudy and some rain is expected throughout the week.
EB had a bit of a cold with cough for a week or so but is all better now. We are adjusting to the weather.
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.
Wishing you a good week (Bonne Semaine) Stay warm. I see there is a cold weather advisory for Venice, FL. Temps in the 50s then right back up to the 70s. Good golfing weather. I don’t know why I am so obsessed with the weather. LOL
Mark and Elizabeth Beiley
Babyboomersmovetofrance.com
