Spring has arrived in France
Week 31 in France 3/1-3/7/2026. 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 2025. By the way, the Charente department is the northern most department of Southwest France.
Welcome to the 59th weekly post of our Baby Boomers Move to France blog.
This week, we must get our Mutuelle insurance settled and follow up on our taxes. Our goal is to get some yard work in progress too. Let’s see how it goes. The weather will be relatively nice so “before” pictures are in order.
Our home in Chabanais
Things on the agenda this week:
- Mutuelle Insurance
- Follow up taxes
- French lessons
- Yard work
Weather forecast:
Sunshine is expected on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday with temps in the 60s.
Why this Blog?
Long story short, we are “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 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
Monday and Tuesday: Beautiful days that we spent working on US taxes and Long-Term Visa renewal paperwork
It is a shame working on paperwork and not spending time outdoors
Ya gotta do what ya gotta do.
We noticed that more plants are budding and some flowers are coming alive. I’m getting excited about the garden’s potential. I don’t know a whole lot about garden maintenance and development but still looking forward to puttering about.
Wednesday Uploaded tax documents and VISA docs
We work with our long-time tax guy and CPA in Sarasota, Brian Palmer. He recently has partnered with a firm called True North and they have a secure portal for document uploads. I guess Brian is stepping back from the day-to-day accounting work. So now our tax prep is in progress. They acknowledged receiving our docs.
EB has got all of the VISA renewal docs ready. We just have to get our official photo.
Spring in Chabanais March 1 through May 31
We got out and took a walk around town on Wednesday and EB got a couple of pictures of some of the trees in bloom around town. We are loving it.
The Vienne River was at flood stage just 2 weeks ago is now much more serene.
Not sure what kind of tree this is but it is right next to the boulangerie just down from our house.
We think this is a tulip tree of some kind.
Another pretty tree on the north side of the river a short walk from our house.
Thursday: Market Day we got up bright and early to go to the outdoor fresh market
Thursday is market Day in Chabanais and the first Thursday of the month is the bigger market day. Lots of fruits and vegetables, meats, flowers and plants, and clothes at great prices. We didn’t buy anything today just enjoyed walking around the market and seeing all of the stalls and their offerings. Rosie enjoyed it too.
We dropped Rosie off at the house and went to Confolens to get our official pictures for our VISA renewal. The SuperMarche there has an official picture kiosk, so it is very convenient.
Next door in the same shopping area is Bricomarche (DIY store) and we went in to buy some paint supplies then back to the house to get back to work.
I wanted to finish my wood cutting project so I can move on to the next project. Our Ryobi electric chain saw is working very well for this project. I was happy to get all of the wood cut up and EB helped me get it all stacked under the old chicken coop. This will keep it pretty dry if we get any more rain.
EB had the project of spraying a solution to clean up the green mold on some of the walls in the garden.
More good news: Our Carte Vitale arrived in the mail. Less than 3 months after applying. WooHoo!
We were on time for our French lesson and had the teacher all to ourselves. I wanted to be sure that I know how to write numbers in France. For example, the number 33,525.25 in France is 33 525,25. Notice where the comma goes? It replaces the decimal point, and a space separates the thousands place from the hundreds instead of a comma.
Friday another nice quiet day. .We had a little rain last night
I set EB up to paint our “B”. We had bought some sandpaper and blue spray paint at the BricoMarche for the job. She did a great job. Pictures to follow.
Then lunch at Signorizza, then shopping at E.Leclerc for groceries. I looked for the St. Germain spirits. Unfortunately, E.Leclec doesn’t have it.
We had a 45-euro coupon from Darty and wanted to use it before it expires. You will never guess what we bought. Remember Darty is an appliance store that sells everything from tea pots to big screen TVs. Did you guess what we got at Darty?
We bought an ironing board and an iron. That is definitely NOT on EBs list of things she would ever purchase.
I finally completed the tax paperwork and uploaded it to the tax prep company in the US. I had a question about our Wise account and yes, they needed that statement too.
Saturday was another nice day
I started working on the French tax stuff and EB worked on the VISA renewal project. French Connections HCB is once again helping us with this important VISA renewal task.
I got a little fed up with the tax online process and will get back at it on Monday.
So that was our week.
We had some beautiful weather and made some progress on our garden. Spring is coming alive in Chabanais and we are feeling more and more comfortable with our life in France. It is an adventure for sure. We are lucky that we have our health and spirit to enjoy this new life. Since the weather has been nicer we are trying to go out for walks around the town to get to know the area better and get our exercise in. Need to build up our stamina for all these hills around here!
French Lifestyle and Culture
Wine
As you know EB and I enjoy wine. We fit in pretty well with the French wine culture.
The French consume around 40 liters of wine per person per year. Each liter is just over a quart. A typical bottle of wine is 3/4 of a liter or 750 ml. (about 3 pints). Over 66 million people live in France. 66,000,000×40 liters per person is something like 2,640,000,000 liters of wine consumed in France. That is about 3,520,000,000 bottles of wine.
The US imports about 167 million gallons of French wine each year. So that is roughly 668,000,000 liters of French wine that is consumed in the USA. Believe it or not, that is only 5% of total US wine consumption. The US consumes roughly 13,360,000,000 liters of wine per year. Holy Moley that is a lot of wine.
Since there are roughly 347,000,000 people in the US that amounts to about 36 liters per person per year. Just a little under the French average.
If you are wondering which country drinks the most wine per person, according to the International Organization of Vine and Wine it is Portugal at just over 61 liters per person., then Italy at nearly 43 liters per person and then France.
Next Week (la Semaine Prochaine)
- Chimney survey
- Follow up VISA renewal
- Follow up electrician
- Follow up French Taxes
Weather forecast for next week
It looks like we have another nice week of mild temperatures ahead. Highs in the upper 50o F to lower 60o F and partly cloudy most of the week. Slight chance of rain every day.
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
