Warm Spring Weather in France Just right for Shorts and Time in the Garden

Welcome to the 64th weekly post of our Baby Boomers Move to France blog.

This is our 36th week in France 4/4-4/11/2026.

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.

This week, we will work in the garden while the weather cooperates. I’ll play a round of golf at Ron and Michelle’s house. Bric a Brac (flea market) in Champagne-Mouton.

Our home in Chabanais, France

Things on the agenda this week:

• Follow up on taxes
• Follow up will
• Golf
• Start workshop door painting project
• Garden work

Weather forecast:

It feels like we are starting a little warming trend this week with highs reaching upper 70s and lows in the 50s. Sunny all week with only a slight and slight chance of rain on Wednesday.

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 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.

This Week in General

Just a note about my French spelling throughout the blog. There are special accents on some letters, and you will probably notice that I don’t include the accents. I just wanted to acknowledge that I use a standard QWERTY keyboard that does not include the French letters with special accents and that I mean no disrespect for the language.

Sunday

Sunday was Easter and we went over to Confolens to walk around and visit the Hope thrift shop. I have talked about Confolens in the past, but we haven’t really walked around the village. We had a beautiful day to check it out.

I love these old half-timber buildings found in the medieval towns and villages throughout France. Of course, this one is a little compromised by the satellite dish on the roof.

This bridge over the Vienne River in Confolens is ancient. It dates from the Middle Ages and had replaced a Roman bridge. Below I included a picture of the plaque that describes the bridge. Note it is in French and English,

Monday: A French Holiday and a market in Champagne-Mouton

EB noticed that there was to be a big market in Champagne-Mouton and thought it might be interesting. It is a village that we haven’t visited (other than driving through) before so sounds like a plan to me. We had another beautiful day for exploring and we were not disappointed in the market. EB bought a hat for 3 euros and I bought an orbital sander for 2 euros. There was a ton of people there and a bunch of vendors spread over several streets. Parking was a challenge and driving through the town became nearly impossible. Yes, I would go back though.

There were a lot of people at the market in Champagne-Mouton. Notice the Plane trees are getting ready to fill in and bloom. By the way the American version of this tree is a Sycamore. In the summer these trees provide lots of shade and can be found all over France from Paris to Provence. Even in little ole Chabanais.

Tuesday: Another beautiful day

Surprise, the 2 euro sander didn’t work well

I didn’t think the sander would be great, but for 2 euros I hoped it might. It has been said that I am an optimist. I have several projects that need a sander, so I have been looking for a good deal on a sander at the various markets. I guess I’ll have to break down and buy one at Leroy Merlin.

Elizabeth wanted to get started on the garden (jardin)

Wow, weather is so nice we reverted to shorts. EB made good headway on prepping the garden for planting in May. I made good headway on organizing the workshop.

Here, like every other place in spring, our car is green with pollen falling from the trees. Luckily, we don’t suffer from allergies. The car will need to be washed this week though.

Wednesday:

French taxes update. Good news

I received a notification that our French tax return is completed, and we will receive the documents for our signature soon. Bottom line is that we probably won’t have to pay any French income tax this year. We didn’t have any income from French sources, so it makes sense. We still are required to file a return.

Property tax is a different story. I’m not sure when that will be assessed. No hurry for sure.

Leroy-Merlin shopping

We drove over to Limoges for the Leroy Merlin shopping trip. I got my new sander. It is not one of the big-name brands, but I think it will be good for our needs. We also bought some garden tools and some parts to install a railing in our stairway to the master bedroom. Plenty of projects are lined up.

We went over to the new Hemisphere store to check it out. It is bigger than the one in Angouleme and has a lot of nice stuff.

Then over to the BUT store for a rug and a fondu pot. We found everything we needed and then headed home. We were surprised that the Darty store didn’t have the fondu pot that we need.

So why do we NEED a fondu pot? Well, EB came up with a really goooood cheese thing and a fondu will be a better way to serve it than her previous method.

We had a really good French class session this week. EB is the star student, but Ron and I are holding our own. LOL

Thursday: Dechetrie (waste disposal site) run and Golf at Ron’s!!

I’ll talk more about the decheterie in the French Life Style and Culture section below. We had 3 bins of garden waste, some old, pressed wood boards and a chimney flue to get rid of so we loaded up the Dacia, and I made the 5 minute drive to the site.

Golf

You know I love playing golf and we are so lucky to have met Ron and Michelle. Thursday Ron had “scheduled” a tee time at another pretty course. It was a par 70 so I figured I might have a chance at a good round, especially since I’m playing from the forward tees. I am a senior after all.

Ron loaded up another course to for the second 18. I thought it looked wide open, but narrow fairways kept us honest throughout the whole 18. Ron still shot under 90. Me? No comment. Ron and Michelle Francis are great hosts and it seems that chez Francis has become a favorite meeting place for apero time.

EB came to Ron and Michelle’s around 4:30 and Allen and Deb came over too so by the time Ron and I finished golf they had a really nice Apero going. We joined in and we all chatted until 7 or so. Allen and Deb had been sailing at the nearby lake. Apero at Ron and Michelles, what a nice way to spend an afternoon.

I forgot to mention that my driver arrived on Thursday. Unfortunately, it was broken. This was obvious without opening the package, so I asked the delivery person to take it back. I guess I will go to the Decathlon golf department to buy a new driver.

Friday: Another decheterie run and the first sanding project underway

EB had another 3 bins of yard waste, and I had started working on the workshop door sanding project. I picked out a few pieces of junk for the decheterie too. We had plenty for the trash haul. It took about 15 minutes, and I was back home in no time.

About the workshop door. The door is a gray color, and I want to change the look, so I will sand it before painting it. I started with 40 grit sandpaper. The new sander works pretty well, but the work was slow going and I was ready to quite at 4:00 PM. I cleaned up my work area and called it a day. A lot of the trim in the workshop is gray too, peeling and needs repainting. By the way, most villages have rules about noise. Monday-Saturday, no noisy work from Noon to 2 pm (most people’s lunch time) and all day Sunday. The French really like to relax undisturbed!

It was another shorts day. Spring is definitely here and beautiful.

Saturday: Rain and overcast

We woke up to rain and an overcast and a bit colder day. We made a shopping list and drove over to St Junien for groceries. Whoops, we forgot the list. No problem.

We got to E.Lerclerc before noon and decided to grab lunch and a glass of wine at S Signorizza before shopping. Good idea (bonne idee). We like the lunches at S Signorizza.

In E.Leclerc we checked out the pergola offerings and EB wants one of those hanging Egg chairs. They seem like good quality and good price. We will keep thinking about it and keep looking. I picked up a couple of T-shirts to be ready for summer.

We found all of our groceries needs and headed home. Still raining a little so no work in the yard today. Elizabeth worked on her crochet project, and I worked on the blog and got a little banjo practice in. I’m still not very good but I enjoy my banjo. Every once in a while, I feel like I’m almost making music.

So that was our week.

A little exploring, yard work, and started the workshop door. Good news about our French tax return. By the way, I feel like we are getting pretty comfortable with the pellet stove and wood stove.

French Lifestyle and Culture

About the decheterie

In addition to our weekly trash pickup, for larger items we have the decheterie (waste disposal site). The decheterie can be found in most villages of any size. It is a very convenient place to take care of larger trash disposal. You drive in to this very organized area and show your access card. The attendant scans your card and directs you to a space based on the type of stuff you have to discard. There is a seperate place for yard waste, cardboard, metal, toxic liquids, electronics and more.

The space is elevated so the open top of the large roll on and roll off containers are at the same level as the ramp area. Unloading is simple. Just back your car, truck or trailer up to the edge of the space and throw your stuff down into the open container. It is all sorted by the different types of material and the attendant guides you to the correct container.

Once you get the hang of it, you become confident of the process and thankful for the convenience. This time I had yard waste, old particle board, a metal chimney tube and the 2 euro sander. There was a place for everything. It took me just about 5 minutes to unload. It is so easy and no need to weigh your vehicle before and after you dump your stuff. The charge for this is included in your annual taxes!

Next Week (la Semaine Prochaine)

• Roof cleaning on Monday
• Installation of solar panel (panneaux solaires) Tuesday and Wednesday
• Maybe a little work in the garden
• Workshop work
• Golf with Ron on Thursday
• I’m thinking we are due for dinner at the Barrier too

Weather forecast for next week

A slight cooling trend is forecasted for first part of next week and chance of rain. However, later in the week we get some sun and a bit warmer.

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.

I HOPE YOU GOT TO ENJOY THE MASTERS. I keep up on YouTube and the online news feeds. I’m hoping to see Rory repeat!!!

Keep in touch and leave questions, suggestions and comments below. We really enjoy hearing from you all.

Wishing you a good week (Bonne Semaine)

Mark and Elizabeth Beiley

Babyboomersmovetofrance.com