Bonjour et bienvenue à Breath of French Air ! Hello and welcome!

In my first two posts I gave you a little background as to why France - I’ll recap. Culture, architecture, art, cheese, bread, wine, landscape, kind and generous people, amazing and affordable healthcare, public transportation…OK I’ll stop there - I think you get the point. The main reason for my husband, Neal, is that France is so much more affordable than the U.S. Yes that’s true. That statement always seems to surprise my fellow Americans, but it’s very much true.

After deciding that France was the right next step for us, we had to decide where. Oh la la. What a process - there are SO many incredible and beautiful places to choose from! There were many ‘family meetings’, spreadsheets, blog posts read, podcasts listened to, and Facebook groups stalked.

From all of that research we developed our criteria. We wanted a medium sized town within a 1 ½ hour train ride from Bordeaux. The town had to have: a train station, river, cathedral (Neal says it’s just so French, not that we’ll actually attend mass or anything), vibrant market, at least a few good restaurants and boulangeries (bakeries - when in France!). And of course we wanted the town to have that old world French beauty with spectacular architecture, cobblestone streets, and surrounded by natural beauty. Asking too much? Possibly. Probably.

We love the city of Bordeaux - spectacular architecture, pedestrian friendly, vibrant…but we wanted a smaller town to live in

As much as our research consisted of checklists, it was also about the feeling I got when I visited. So that meant - research trips. I explored the Dordogne region, Agen, Niort, Saintes… And as lovely as a town was, sometimes there just wasn’t a connection. It could meet all the checklist items but just not ‘feel’ right. Kind of like dating.

The final research trip

In April I went on my final “which town should we live in” research trip - with my sister, Stacy. We explored the towns of Cognac, Jarnac, Saintes, and Saint-Savinien, visited houses for sale, and got to know the area.

The very first house we visited was in Cognac, and it really checked ALL the boxes. It was in centre ville, old but remodeled, room for guests, outdoor space, garage…and it felt right. But not wanting to be too impulsive, we went ahead and looked at 17 other houses too - no one can say I’m not thorough when it comes to my research. And yes, you did read that right - we visited a total of 18 houses.

So no, this trip wasn’t a ‘vacation’. Which is why I am incredibly grateful that my amazing sister agreed to come along. It was utterly exhausting and fun and overwhelming and interesting and delicious (it was France after all). We were both worn out and sometimes frazzled with figuring out where we were going, keeping track of appointments (another spreadsheet as you can imagine), keeping track of the houses we saw (thank you Stacy for the videos, and I photographed like a maniac), and trying to fit meals into the regulated French hours.

Most of the time, I was the one who was completely overwhelmed. But luckily Stacy knows me so well, and would skillfully talk me down from the ledge and into a state of calm - often while relaxing in the evenings over French pastries and some mindless American TV. Sometimes you just need a little dose of the familiar mixed in with all the French fabulousness.

And of course, during the entire trip, we checked in with Neal - sending photos, videos, and commentaries about each house we saw.

Now let’s talk about the town of Cognac.

It met all of our requirements for a place to live - beautiful, vibrant yet quiet, so many fabulous restaurants. I found the town to be enchanting - with its arched doorways, limestone facades, tranquil public garden. The Charente river moves quietly through town, and is home to a petit marina where Neal already imagines tying up his boat one day.

The more I was in Cognac, the more it felt like home - I could absolutely imagine our family living there. Je suis tombé amoureux (I fell in love). Here are some photos that might tell you why…

As far as the 18 houses we saw…all 3 of us agreed - the first house we saw was perfect for us. OK not ‘perfect’ - nothing is. But so close that we decided to make an offer on it.

This is when panic started to set in. Are we really buying a house in France??? In a town we’ve never lived in??? Have we lost our minds??? Possibly. Probably. But we did it anyway.

And the owner accepted our offer.

Then I returned to Sacramento. To begin the journey of moving to France.

That journey consists of: selling our house in Sacramento, finalizing the sale of the Cognac house (not a quick or easy process), selling most of what we own, getting visas, getting our dog ready for the flight, traveling across the country to say goodbye to family, and I’m sure that I’m missing about 147 other items.

Moving abroad is not exactly a fairy tale - in fact, it’s pretty darn stressful.

I’m certainly not complaining - I’m grateful every single day that we have the opportunity to do this (especially seeing what’s happening in this country every single day). I’m just saying that it’s not all fairies and rainbows. But there are some of those also, for sure - they come in the form of croissants and French cheese.

Have you ever connected with a place that you visited and thought “I could live here”? What did you do about it? Let me know in the comments, I’d love to hear from you!