Setting Up Our Veggie Garden in Chabanais France

Welcome to the 66th posting of our Babyboomersmovetofrance.com blog.

We have been in France since August 1, 2025.

We still don’t have Wi-Fi so I’m writing using my iPhone hotspot and my iPad.

Sunday was a beautiful sunny day and EB had thought there was another special market day in Rochetcouart so we packed up Rosie’s backpack and drove over. It is just a short drive to this very pretty quaint village that has the distinction of having had a meteorite crash in the area something like 200,000 years ago. There are no remnants of the actual meteorite, but the impact had an effect on the surrounding land.

Luckily the meteor strike is not the town’s only claim to fame. There is a beautiful medieval castle there that is now a museum of modern art. The city has made a large investment in renovating and beautifully restored the town. We really enjoy visiting the town. We stopped at a nice little cafe de sport and had a beer. Rosie had her water dish.

Monday

EB received her French driver’s license. I’m still waiting for my approval letter.

We decided to go over to Cafe Lilian for brunch. While there we mentioned that we were having trouble with our Wi-Fi and got into a discussion about various internet providers. Penny mentioned that she and Ian had switched to SFR and had no problems for years. That was good to hear as we want change from Orange. We are really unhappy about the Wi-Fi issue and the lack of support.

Tuesday

Another gorgeous spring day. We got up early and did some weeding in the garden where we plan on setting up our seating area and fire pit. Around 2:00 o’clock we had Valentin come over from Garden Party to talk about our plans for the terrace and the cocktail coop. We felt like he was on the same wavelength as us and understood what we are talking about.

Then to Limoges to see about getting started with SFR. We left the house in a hurry and didn’t have all of the necessary paperwork. We said that we would be back first thing Wednesday.

We stopped for gas. 72 euros, yikes!

Wednesday

We hustled over to Limoges to set up our new internet service provider. We walked into the SFR store and in just a couple of minutes we were working with a sales representative. Roughly an hour later we were scheduled for the install Monday morning.

EB had her meeting at the Cancer Support France charity shop where she will start volunteering on Saturday.

Then we had our doctor appointment in Chasseneuil-sur-Bonnieure about a 25 minute drive. We have to get a letter from our GP prior to seeing any specialist. I need a hearing doctor and a dermatologist. EB needs a gynecologist. We got the required letters and renewed prescriptions in about 30 minutes.

We got back to Chabanais in time for our French class. We had a new lady in class from Wales. She has been in France for something like 4 years.

Thursday we took our morning walk. I wanted to walk by the pasture where the horses are grazing and EB planned a route that took us by the pasture, under the train bridge, over the pedestrian bridge that crosses the Viennese river , we passed by the elementary school and then back over the Viennese river via the car bridge into the center of town. We checked out the Farmers Market and bought two small rounds of goat cheese. EB said we might run into Ron and Michelle and we did. We agreed to meet at the Barrier Cafe for coffee in about 10 minutes. We took Rosie home dropped off our cheese. I decided to go over to the cafe while EB waited for Michelle’s text. We each enjoyed a couple of cups of espresso and chatted about our life in France.

I confirmed with Ron about golf at 2:00 and EB confirmed with Michelle about calling French doctors. Michelle speaks French fluently and offered to help. EB was so glad as she definitely needed help with the language.

Ron and I played 27 holes of golf and then joined Elizabeth and Michelle in the “Donkey” room for a brief chat before we went over to their land. They have a really nice piece of land that they are setting up to be their escape to nature.

Elizabeth had bought a filet of pork and I cooked it on the grill. Wow, it was so tender and tasty. We will definitely have that again.

Friday

In the morning we spent a little time preparing our garden, then off to the DeKalb garden center in St Junien where we picked out some plants and fertilizer for our veggie garden. We got tomatoes, peppers, beans, cucumbers, green onions and mint plants. We had lunch, then set to work planting our new garden. It looks really good.

Saturday

Culture and Lifestyle

I mentioned that EB and I met Ron and Michelle for coffee and chatted about our life in France . We agreed that customer service in France is different. It takes a little getting used to and then you realize that it’s different in a good way. What I’m getting at is when you go into a shop you are greeted and then left alone. No sales person following you around. The thing is that if you want to buy something you have to chase down a sales person. Here’s a personal example: I went to the Decathlon store. It is a big sports store. I wanted to buy a golf driver. There was a salesperson in the golf department and we greeted each other with “Bonjour “. I figured that he would come over to help. When he didn’t come over, I thought maybe if I go into the simulator and start swinging a club he would come over. Nope. So I took a club over to him and, in my best French, I said that I wanted to buy a driver. Then we talked about what I was interested in and he showed me a driver and he thought I was done. I said that I wanted to hit some balls before I buy. Oh he said, “you want me to turn on the simulator?” I said yes and asked for a couple of golf balls. He left and I proceeded to hit golf balls. When I was done and I chased the salesman down to tell that I would take it, he got me the correct head cover and that was it. No effort to sell me a glove, golf balls, or anything else. So what you learn is that you have to be specific and ask for stuff. I actually kind of like it.

Once again, I apologize for random formatting and typos and spelling mistakes this week. I’m having some trouble making corrections as I write this on my iPad using the hotspot on my phone. It’s pretty slow and not cooperating. Hopefully all will be fixed soon. Thanks for sticking with us. Pictures of our veggie patch an and flowers in the garden to follow. Have great week.

Mark and EB babyboomersmovetofrance.com