Back for more ‘Real Estate Porn’? 
*Part 1 is here Link
Here we go then!
Not only did we find a perfect house, it has land, a pool, a separate apartment, AND the agent sent the details (and additional pictures) BEFORE it was sold!
Of course, we were in the middle of a pandemic and unable to travel. We had a video conference between the agent and the guy who looks after the house and land for the current owners, and we ‘met’ him as he waved to us through the bathroom mirror.
We decided to throw caution to the wind and buy it. That’s right, we agreed to buy a house online!
OK, it’s not quite as drastic as that. Yes we were worried that the property would slip through our fingers and we knew we had to make a decision quickly, but we were also exceptionally fortunate that the owners used the house as a holiday home and didn’t desperately need to get the sale completed immediately.
We agreed the sale on condition that we would go out to see it at the first opportunity and would make the unbreakable decision after the visit – yay or nay.
We started making plans to go out to France as soon as travel restrictions lifted.
Andy & Reina - bless them! – were more than helpful in this part. They agreed to put us up for a few days so we could travel over to France and view the property in person without having to find somewhere to stay. As it happens, we were so excited, we would probably have been OK sleeping in the car if we couldn’t get anywhere else to stay – certainly NOT ideal and we really DO appreciate our wonderful friends for their offer.
Andy on his tractor
A week before my birthday, I bought a puppy. Some of you may remember that we lost our big old Bear just before Christmas 2019 and his passing affected us deeply. I would have loved another Rottie, but the prices of dogs went up so fast, they could have been Bitcoin-based. £3000 plus for a Rottie - not necessarily registered pedigree, not always a good-looking animal (there are certain things I look for when choosing to even go and look at a dog) and so I decided to look at another breed.
Animals from the left: Spook, Cassie and Bear. People from the left: Dani, Mia and me
We bought a Belgian Malinois – a shepherd breed that trains well and has high intelligence and stamina – perfect for a farm-animal. We called her Tora – the female derivative of Thor.
My new puppy!
Quote from Trev: "Tora can now reach the kitchen worktop. We appreciate her helping clean the floor but using a full kitchen roll is a bit over the top."
It was like self-destruct mode! Let’s pile on the pressure! Find a house, make sure someone will look after my horses, cats, fish, chinchilla, dog – AND new puppy – and let’s then set off on a marathon trip at 2am to make sure we get to the port for the first crossing at 8am of the first day the UK is allowed to travel since lock-down was imposed – and all that on my birthday!
Dani & Greg (daughter & son-in-law) agreed to have Tora the puppy at their house. Our other dog, Cassie is older and more laid-back, and she’d be fine with a few days of visits for food and exercise (probably relieved to be free of the new puppy). Dani & Greg were in the slow process of moving house and had their own pressures, but they took in the puppy – and brought her back. The baby ‘Maligator’ was too much for their ‘Huskita’ (Husky and Akita cross, companion and service dog named Spook). Spook is a mild-natured dog, used to the peace and quiet of just her humans and Purdy the cat, and poor Spook just could not cope with Tora’s energy.
Spook
Dani & Greg were then locked in to the regime of visiting 4 and sometimes 6 times per day in order to make sure Tora was coping without us, just one week after leaving her brothers & sisters to move into a new home.
We know it was bad timing and the breeder had agreed to take her back for the few days if we needed it, but thanks to Dani & Greg, it all worked out in the end.
So, for my birthday, I got the puppy. For Christmas, Trev had a new drone. Of course he had to have his gift early because we’d need it to look over the property when we finally got there!
We set off for France on a cold early morning at the beginning of December. 2am – dawn was hours away and we were on our way to our next adventure! We arrived at the port in plenty of time and as I always say, I’d rather be waiting around at that end, than stressed at some unforeseen obstacles at this end of the trip.
In the car, we had our supplies – snacks for the journey and clothes for the few days. Reina promised I’d be able to go out on a ride with her, so I also packed my jodhpurs, riding boots and hat. We had an action-packed weekend ahead of us, and no mistake!
As well as our supplies, we also had provisions for Andy & Reina food from the UK that they had difficulty finding over there, plus an order of wall tiles!
The customs officer was chatty and friendly and laughed when he saw the tiles – apparently, a lot of ex-pats were doing the same thing.
We had a 4 hour ferry crossing ahead of us and were more than happy to find we shared the entire ship with less than a dozen private vehicles. The rest were commercial vehicles and even then, the ferry was only half-filled. People on-board kept their distance and their masks on. We enjoyed a good, stress-free voyage. Trev slept some, but I couldn’t. I watched the hypnotic December sea eddy and churn beneath us.
We arrived in France, got through customs and set off to find Andy & Reina’s little patch of paradise!
Unrelated picture - not even December!
We estimated a 7 hour trip and hoped to get there just before curfew.
The weather as we set off, was bleak, mid-winter-ish (no snow, but no colour to the scenery). Then it took a turn for the worst which progressed to dark, dismal and torrential by nightfall.
The rains came! We got lost and progressively more lost as we tried to get back to where we’d gone wrong.
We managed to get fuel minutes before the fuel station closed for the evening (French fuel stations close early during curfew because there should be no passing custom in theory).
We had a tough time navigating roads with no lights (unlike much of the roads in the UK) and due to heavy rain causing bad visibility and spray from HGVs causing worse visibility and difficulty seeing where the road was/went as we passed the slower-moving trucks. We did NOT enjoy that part of the adventure – not at all!
We swapped drivers and I quickly realised that the concentration needed for driving in those conditions was traumatic. Trev tried to get some sleep in case he needed to take over driving again and the knowledge that I was alone weighed terribly on my mind. I had to rely on my own instincts and ability and keep us both safe on roads I didn’t know and could barely see through the water.
Stressful, but we made it!
It was closing in on 9:30pm when we found the road we needed to get to our destination. Because of curfew, there was no traffic and almost 100% chance of encountering no traffic. The rain didn’t exactly stop, but because there were no other vehicles, at least the spray was eliminated. The roads were single track for a lot of the journey and Trev took over driving. He had a lot of fun trying out his rallying skills and I was just happy to sit and watch for obstacles (zero). Even the wildlife seemed to be avoiding the rain and we had a fast, safe last-leg of the journey.
We arrived close to our destination at around 10pm and in good spirits due to the Fiesta ST’s handling. We had to ring Andy & Reina to find the exact location as we didn’t want to annoy their neighbours by disturbing them so late.
Andy & Reina welcomed us with open arms and a beautiful home-cooked meal. Cottage pie! Delicious and most welcome after the day of snacks and not much else. Andy & Reina are vegetarian and we expected a meat-substitute, but no! We were treated to real meat!
Andy & Reina - our wonderful, kind, generous friends!
After an hour or so chatting and catching up, our day finally caught up with us and we were shown to our room. Our hosts forewarned us about how cold it would be, up in the eaves of the house, but the little heater took the edge off the cold and to be honest, we were too tired to care.
Goodnight all… more tomorrow.
*Some photos belong to friends and I have permission to use them.