part one of our move to France

HI everyone, when we first arrived in France, we had to stay at a friends vacant holiday home, because we couldnt time the sale of our old house, and the purchase of the new house to coincide. Due to the holidays in France, some offices and workplaces shut down for the entire month of August, so there was a backlog for the notaire to deal with before he got to us, a notaire is the french equivalent of our solicitors...
When we arrived in France straight from the ferry, it was rush hour traffic, and we where in for a shock !!! driving on the wrong side of the road, is not fun when your not used to it, poor paul.... also, roads which would look like a lane in England, are actually proper roads here leading to communes !!! it was all a bit misleading, but we eventually found our friends house after 3 hours of stress wondering if we would ever find it... by this time it was dark and we where so tired, our pets, our son, and us, where so hungry, cold and tired, we dropped off the cats, dog, and ferret, yes i did say ferret, no one was left behind, sold, given away or put to sleep, regardless of age or health, they all traveled with us in the car, at the new house, where they relieved them selves, ate and finally went to sleep. We then slept ourselves after letting ourselves in, turning on the heating, hot water, and finding the huge key, that looked like a gaolers key!!!

The next few weeks,( while we where waiting for our appointment to sign our papers, with the notaire,) where quite an eye opener...... had we done the right thing, burning our bridges, saying goodbye to family and friends....

Next time I will share what happened next...