Happy New Year from our house to yours

Et bonne année ! It was 22 years ago — Dec. 2002) that we first saw this house. I don't know what kind of house we expected to find in France when we started our search. As it turned out, we saw and considered 15 houses in four days back then. But we knew immediately that this house was the one we wanted. We hadn't even decided whether or not we would move to France once we bought it. We hadn't yet put our house in San Francisco on the market.

At that point, it only took us a few days to figure out that it was time for us to get out of California. By mid-March, our SF house was sold. In April '02, we paid cash for our house in Saint-Aignan. It didn't hurt that we sold the SF place for nearly seven times more than we paid for the St-Aignan place. In June '02, we got on a plane and, well, here we were, visas in hand. By July, we were all moved in, and by August we had bought a car, a used Peugeot that we still have. We were on our way. The two photos above show the back side of the house, which faces the yard.

You can vaguely see our house despite the fog we've been living with for the last week. It's at the end of the dirt road that runs through a vineyard. A paved road takes us to Saint-Aignan, all of 2 miles away. Today's weather forecast says to expect wind and rain now for a few days. We don't need the rain, but at least it will be a little warmer outside.

Coming to the house on the paved road that ends near our back gate, this is what you see.The photo on the right just above is our garden shed.

 

Citroën cars, a greenhouse, and two wood piles

These are the last of my sunshine pictures. It was sunny for one day: last Thursday. On the next three days it was damp, misty, foggy, and cloudy. Today's predictions: more of the same miserable weather in northern France, including Saint-Aignan, for the rest of the week.

The top three cars sold until recently in France have been (1) Renaults, (2) Peugeots, and (3) Citroëns. Now German cars like Audis, VWs, and Mercedes are getting more popular, especially among younger people. French cars used to have a bad reputation for reliability. Well, I'm still driving a 24-year-old Peugeot that runs great and is fun to drive. And I also drive a 2007 Citroën, which looks like a new car and is very comfortable. I see so many Citroëns on the road these days. And they don't look or ride like the old 2CV cars.

(Above) three Citroëns, ours on the right under the carport (we also have a garage where we park our other car); one greenhouse that needs to be emptied out and re-organized (when the weather gets warmer and drier); two piles of oak logs that gradually get fed into our wood-burning stove (we also have central heat — a boiler and radiators).

It's wood-burning season. We ordered and stacked a truckload of firewood a month or two ago (Walt did most of the stacking). We had a scare with the wood-burning stove around that time, but we found a company that could send us the replacement part we needed. It took them a month to get it to us, but it only cost 50 euros and fit perfectly. Having a wood fire nearly every day as a heating supplement is very nice and atmospheric. Besides, wood is much less expensive than the fuel oil we have to buy to run the boiler.

Other news: the dollar is soaring. Right now the U.S. dollar will get you 96 eurocents. That means $1,000 U.S.will get you €960.00 (euros). That's almost parity. The dollar hasn't been this strong in 20 years. Also, let me say that according to a French weather site I track, we have had about 28 hours of sunshine this month. That would be about 4 days with sunshine out of 31. Tomorrow I'll post some pictures I've taken on our foggy days.

Winter around the house and yard

   Sunny wintertime pictures. Some of what you see: our wisteria plant needs a good pruning. A lot of raking or leaf-blowing needs to be done too. It's just been too wet and/or too cold. Maybe in spring we'll be able to get some plants potted up... At least the inside of the house is warm and comfortable.

Hamlet houses (1)

These are just a few more sunshine pictures that I took last week. The first three show our house out in the country near Saint-Aignan (just two miles away). We bought the house in 2002 and moved to France in 2003. In the third picture above is our dog Natasha, a Shetland sheepdog that we've had since 2017. We've had only one bright sunny day this December. Early in the month, we had a lot of rain. Since before Christmas we've had thick fog most days. It's been dreary for a while now. For almost a year, really.

There are nine houses in the little settlement where we live. Five of them, including ours, are lived in year-round. The two in the pictures above are the two that are closest to ours. They are not lived in by the people who own them and who come here from the big towns of Blois (less than an hour north) and Nevers (about three hours east) only once in a while to spend a weekend or a few days in the hamlet.