This is a blog post I wrote a few months ago. My plan was to document and share the journey of our moving to France - in real-ish time. But what I didn’t calculate into the equation was just how much time it takes to organize an overseas move. The best laid plans…

Which means this blog post is a bit old as far as the events happening - 2 months to be exact. My original thought was to scrap it - it’s not relevant anymore. But au contraire! When I read it, I realized it’s such a key part of my journey that I do indeed want to share it. So here you go…

If you’d like a little more background as to ‘why France’ (I get that question a LOT), definitely check out the post Falling in love with France. And if you’d like to know more about how we found Cognac and this particular house, you’ll want to go back to Finding Home Sweet Home.

Arriving in Cognac

It’s been quite the journey so far, that’s for sure. I arrived in Cognac exhausted, jet lagged, but still excited to be here. My sister Stacy and I (thank goodness she came with me!!!) arrived at the train station and there was Juliette, my new neighbor, who had generously offered to give us a ride. She dropped us off at the Airbnb we were staying for a few days (just until the house is livable) and handed over the keys to our new home in France.

Townhome in Cognac, France — Our new home in Cognac! Chez Nous 😍

I was beyond excited - on the inside - but physically just worn out. We dropped off our bags and walked over to Chez Nous (that’s what we’ve been calling our new house, which basically just means ‘our home’).

Diane unlocking the door for the first time — **We opened the door and walked inside.**
I felt a rush of emotions - and surprisingly not all good.
I was feeling utterly overwhelmed. The house is completely empty and I have to figure out what to put in it so that we can live there.
Not everything has to be done right away, but the purpose of this trip is to get it ready enough so that Neal, Maggie and I can come straight from the airport to here. No Airbnbs needed.

Next item on the agenda? Try out the water which I had signed up for the previous week.

Nothing. Not a drop. But I know I signed up with the city! Didn’t I? I mean it is all in French…

Stacy being the master home repairer that she is (thank god almighty because I am NOT) she found the main water shut off valve et voila! We have water! Well in some places. There were some other valves that we had to find and then we were in business.

After figuring out the water situation, we stumbled back to the Airbnb - after stopping off for some sandwiches first. We didn’t have any more energy than it took to grab some quick (but always delicious) sandwiches from the local boulangerie.

And then…sleep. Oh glorious sleep.

The Next Morning…

I was excited, energized and ready to go. The schedule for the first day was to wait for deliveries - mattresses and appliances (fridge, washer, dryer). Also we had sent 11 boxes from home with clothes, books, bed linens… and they were scheduled to arrive. Oh and some Amazon packages as well. Side note: as much as I despise what Bezos stands for, the convenience, service, and options that one can find on Amazon are just too good. I would like to say my principals won’t let me shop there anymore, but so far that hasn’t been the case. Hopefully once we get here and get used to the local shops, I’ll be able to wean myself off. But for now…

The appliances came. But no installation was included. Wait, I have to install my own appliances?? Then the delivery guy says (in French bien sur) that they can install it for 50 euros. Sounds good to me!

The installation didn’t go seamlessly - I'll just say that. I still have a fridge in my kitchen (not in the cabinet it was intended for) and the washing machine is in the hallway, also not in its little cabinet. But they are both operational and the logistics are being worked on. Stay tuned for more updates.

The boxes came, and luckily our neighbor, Juliette (who is our French angel, by the way) lent us a box cutter so we could open all of them. We started putting things away and it actually started to feel like home.

The second day, more deliveries, and things are looking good. We have a folding table and chairs, camp chairs (more in the lounge chair genre than folding chairs) and mattresses with sheets, pillows, and blankets - ready for sleep.

Ready to Move In (kind of)

So 3 nights in the Airbnb, and 2 days of deliveries later, we are ready to move into Chez Nous for good. Sure it was sparse, but we’d figured out how to get water and heat (with a little help from the neighbor) and we had mattresses and chairs. And some picnic style plates and utensils. Enough? Mostly…

Stacy sitting at our table in the dining room in Cognac, France — Stacy trying out the new dining room table and chairs

Our bedroom with a ‘bed’ for me and Neal, and one for Maggie (and Neal’s ‘sleep fan’ bien sur!)

Time for Some Shopping

The next day we rented a car to go do some shopping. You know, the basic essentials that every home needs - dishes, forks, pots and pans, wastebaskets. ALL of it. I would cycle through feelings of excitement with being completely paralyzed from feeling overwhelmed and decision fatigued.

Stacy and Diane eating pastries in France — Luckily Stacy (my other angel) could guide me into action as I stood in the middle of the store looking like I might burst into tears any second.

She would just move me along, reassuring me that everything will be OK. We understand each other, so she knew exactly when I needed guidance and when I needed French pastries.

Time to Panic?

If I thought shopping was overwhelming, that was nothing compared to what came next. You see, the first day that we stayed at Chez Nous we took a shower - which you would. And the water ran right out of the shower and into the living room below. Not good. Pas du tout. Well that was my shower - Stacy’s shower seemed to work fine…or so we thought. Until the next day when we realized it was leaking into the garage, which was below that shower.

At this point I wanted to just lie on the floor and cry. Trying to speak French is exhausting. Making all the decisions about what to buy sounds fun, but it’s also exhausting. And now I needed to figure out how to repair a bathroom - in French. Did I mention my lack of home maintenance much less repair skills?

But here’s where the amazing part comes in. That angel neighbor I mentioned, Juliette? Well she is the daughter of the gentleman who sold us the house. They renovated our townhouse (originally intended for her father to live in) and hers at the same time. And I reached out to her to ask for a recommendation for a plumber and she was horrified that this was happening. She had been really generous in helping us up to this point, and now her generosity kicked into overdrive. She was determined to fix this - and some of the other issues that had come up as we were settling in.

Let me just pause to express just how grateful we are for Juliette - and her husband, Yohan. I cannot even imagine - and don’t want to, it’s just too stressful - how we could have figured out how to fix any of the things not working, much less scheduled a plumber to come. Merci mille fois to them both.

Was I stressed? Oh more than I have been in a really really really long time. But did I know I had help? Absolutely. Between Stacy’s fix-it skills, and Juliette’s determination (and French language skills), I knew that everything would get figured out.

Perfection Doesn’t Exist

Sure it would have been nice if everything worked perfectly. But when does that actually happen? To be in a foreign country sounds exciting and cool - and it is. But it’s also super stressful and scary. Because we aren’t fluent in French - not even close. And contrary to what many Americans believe, most French people don’t speak English. Why would they? It’s France for god’s sake! So when things aren’t perfect - and we’ve already established that they rarely are - that means even more stress and frustration when you’re in a foreign country.

And besides just the language, culturally things are just different here. I mean that’s why I want to move here, because I love their culture. But I also don’t completely understand it yet.

Now I personally believe that all of that extra stress and frustration is worth it. Because I don’t want to just coast with an easy life and not learn anything new…not be challenged. Being challenged makes us stronger, smarter, more resilient. I’ll definitely get that here, that’s for sure!

Amoureux de Chez Nous

After being here for about 10 days, I can say that I’m thrilled with our new home, even though there are some things that don’t quite work. I absolutely love her - and the neighborhood, and Cognac, and our closest boulangerie…

back yard and patio — Our jardin and patio behind the house

Time to Leave 🥺

I’m nearing the end of my time here, and then I return to the U.S. I won’t lie - I don’t want to go back. I miss my family immensely, but I really just want them to come here. I’ve seen on the French news some of the horrible things happening in the U.S. right now and I don’t even recognize it as a democracy any more. I’m disgusted and frankly, scared.

But I have 3 more months there. 3 more months to get visas, and finish the rest of my very long ‘move to France’ checklist.

Fast Forward…

To catch you up with real time events - we have packed up the remaining items that we are either shipping or getting rid of (Goodwill knows us by name at this point).

Oh and we got our visas!!!

That was the last factor in this complicated equation, and was definitely celebrated with some champagne.

Now we are getting ready to pack our bags and say ‘au revoir’ to Sacramento in a few days. But not ‘bonjour France’ - not quite yet. First is a cross-country road trip to say ‘au revoir’ to family. And then bonjour to France. Enfin. And I absolutely positively can’t wait!

Thanks for being here, and let me know in the comments - do you dream of moving to another country? Which one? Have you moved to another country? Which one? What challenges and amazing moments have you experienced?

À bientôt !