Moving to France, selling everything off, cutting ties to financial institutions, and leaving friends and family behind; all have been learning experiences to say the least. Our experience hasn’t totally sunk in and is not completely comprehensible as of yet.
A word to the wise! Think long and hard before making a move of this magnitude! It is not for the weary or the week of heart. It will try every last once of endurance you have and it can break you in to pieces that will never fit together the same again! It can put strains on your family, your marriage, your friendships that you can’t foresee. And it can keep you up at night, asking yourself, ‘How exactly are we going to make our dreams come true?’
It can also give light and hope to a mundane life; the routine life we get up for day after day. Planning your dream can give you a positive and hopefully yet reachable goal that brings a sense of accomplishment with each tick off your list as you approach success. It rings true to me that anything is possible if you believe. If you make up your mind that this is the answer to your happiness and then you take that giant leap of faith.
Why would god, our creator or aliens make such a big beautiful world if not for us to explore. Wouldn’t he have made our eyes dim to see the beauty of life if we were supposed to be stuck in traffic to and from work, in cubicles looking at grey walls or stuck in a job that gives you the worst possible shifts to make your life difficult? Or does he have a sense of humor? I’m right, right? He has a sense of humor! Hah! I figured out the secret to life. Ok maybe not.
With everything ticked off our list except the ‘2 suit cases each’ item left, we are left with the hardest item for last. Each airline has different rules as to what is allowed for weight, carry-on bags and extra luggage. After a few long days looking online for ticket sales, tickets began being snatched up faster than free samples at Costco. We started to think we wouldn’t be getting a flight with less than a six-hour over-lay anywhere in Europe to catch our connector flight to Budapest.
Lufthansa was our first choice, an efficient German airline we love to use. They had recently changed the rules with travel luggage and any additional piece of luggage was going to cost $5/pound! That’s $500 for a loaded suitcase and times that by four, shit I may as well take two friends along for fun and they can ride back on our return tickets we never plan on using anyway! (Okay Grace you can come)
So our German favorites were out! The best deal we found was with British Airlines. $75 per extra piece of luggage, and the most carry-on items allowable at 51 kilos divided between two handbags. Sold! We leave Aug 2nd, through Heathrow and a 3-hour overlay before our Hungarian connection.
Using our Aeroplan miles was another play in the dark. Never done before, Alfonz was upward of three hours on the phone conversing with a rewards rep the first day, and another two hours the second day. They had their computer systems fail 1/2 way through our transaction, a transaction I might add that is 100% non refundable.
With all said and done, we got our tickets for less than 1/2 price! Not bad at all. And they upgraded us to Business class for free.
Alfonz still has to renew his passport, and I still need to have my lobotomy for agreeing to this, and then we should be back on track.
I wrote a quick post on why the langudoc region. I do have a little blurb why under our pages, but you are right, a more thorough explanation was in order! Thanks Jillian
Hi, just read your blog, very interesting…we’ve holidayed in Languedoc often and love the area – last September stayed in St.Cyprian, near to Spanish Border. People very friendly and the scenery and countryside are beautiful. Lots of luck to you all, I’ll follow your blogs with interest.
We picked the area of Languedoc basically on price. We wanted a coastal lifestyle like the one we enjoy here on the West Coast of BC. Most French real estate listings in our range more often than not ended up in this region. It has great weather, B&B’s in our price range, close to the Spanish boarder and the sea, and the mountains. But we really won’t know until we get there. I have never been so on the net this area seems good. We will see:)
Hopefully House Hunters will prompt a good result…
Tickets 1/2 price, excellent! Any insight into how you chose where to live in France? (Is it here and I missed it?) Would love knowing how you narrowed down your location!
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