Our first house-hunting expedition is coming together nicely. It isn't by any means a traditional tourist itinerary but it serves our purpose of checking out regions, geography, the feel of the countryside.
I can imagine not being from the US and looking at pictures of rural Tennessee, Kentucky or West Virginia and thinking, "How beautiful, how tranquil, how green!" But knowing them, it's clear that none of those places would be right for me, and likewise, I want to explore and learn something about rural France before making a big commitment.
Here's our route:
Land in Lyon - stay a couple of days, rent a car. First night there, having dinner at a brand-new Michelin-star awardee: Maison Clovis.
Drive to Limoges. See where Renoir began his career decorating porcelain. Spend two days.
Head to Clermont-Ferrand in the Auvergne region. Lots of cheese around here.
North to Bourges. A big church is there.
On to Auxerre, in the northwestern tip of Burgundy. From here we take a taxi to our big dining splurge of the trip, in Joigny. La Côte Saint Jacques is one of only 26 three-star restaurants in France and we're very excited about going.
Here's a sample of their current menus:
http://www.cotesaintjacques.com/restaurant/Les-Menus
While in Auxerre we'll spend a day bicycling through the Chablis vineyards.
From there we head to Dijon. I expect to buy some mustard, and if you're a friend and I bring some home to you, act surprised.
The next stop is Beaune, in the heart of Burgundy. Another bicycling day is on the agenda - this time southward through some of the most famous names in the world of wine. With an easy day's pedaling, we'll make our way through Pommard, Volnay, Meursault, Puligny-Montrachet.
Our second night in Beaune is the beginning of their jazz festival, and we already have tickets. A wine tasting in a church followed by Le Jazz Hot. (Guest artist: a great American saxophonist named Ricky Ford.)
From Burgundy we head past the Jura mountains to Besançon, nestled in a little nook of France that's north of Geneva and South of Alsace.
In Besançon we give up our rental car and take le train to Zurich. Our friend Anna and her daughter (Calvin's goddaughter) live there and we're looking forward to seeing them.
Dinner that night at Brasserie Lipp. In January 1999 we had lunch there, and the waiter, learning that we lived in Chicago, trotted away in a hurry. He returned with a copy of the local newspaper, whose lead story was a terrible blizzard back home. They had good food, too.
This should be a great trip!
25 July 2010
09 July 2010
Going to France
Calvin and I have booked our first househunting trip...two glorious weeks at the very end of August and early September!
We'll fly directly to Lyon, rent a car, then follow a circular route through the northern Rhone, Auvergne, Limousin, Burgundy and the Jura. We'll end up in Zurich to visit friends and come home from there.
This will be an adventure. While we're both seasoned independent travelers, neither of us has ever spent time driving in a foreign country (except Canada and Mexico).
NEWS FLASH
(from the "Who Knew?" file)
I love researching airfares online and spent probably six hours looking for good routes and prices for our air tickets. Just for kicks, though, I went to an old-school travel agent to see what she could do. What do you know - in about two minutes she found a great deal for some great flights and saved us over $200 each. Los Angeles-London-Lyon and Zurich-New York-Los Angeles. Next time you travel, folks, let your local American Express agent give it a try!
We'll fly directly to Lyon, rent a car, then follow a circular route through the northern Rhone, Auvergne, Limousin, Burgundy and the Jura. We'll end up in Zurich to visit friends and come home from there.
This will be an adventure. While we're both seasoned independent travelers, neither of us has ever spent time driving in a foreign country (except Canada and Mexico).
NEWS FLASH
(from the "Who Knew?" file)
I love researching airfares online and spent probably six hours looking for good routes and prices for our air tickets. Just for kicks, though, I went to an old-school travel agent to see what she could do. What do you know - in about two minutes she found a great deal for some great flights and saved us over $200 each. Los Angeles-London-Lyon and Zurich-New York-Los Angeles. Next time you travel, folks, let your local American Express agent give it a try!
Warnings
My friend John wrote in about my idea of buying and renovating a house in France. I won't publish his comments because much of what he says is personal, but he certainly knows whereof he speaks: He's American, operates a business in Paris, and is renovating a ruin in Brittany. He provided the valuable service of reality-checker and warned me about all the many challenges I'll face. The famous French bureaucracy, different attitudes about work and customer service than I'm used to, high taxes...these are just a few potential sources of frustration. It's important to know as much gritty detail as possible about a process such as this, and I appreciate the time he took to lay everything out for me.
It occurred to me that John's e-mail and my response to it might provide a useful outline for my blog, and I'll share some of it here.
1) "I would in most cases agree with your commenter Randy above, but when it comes to France, I would caution you to expect--depending on the region where you choose to buy--nothing but delays, frustration and eventual grief."
So I've read. I know that the countryside is littered with half-finished and never-started renovation projects. It brings to mind, though, the incredibly bad odds that restaurants face. Yes, 90-some percent of restaurants don't survive a year, and 90-some percent of those that do don't survive a second year. But people with varying combinations of money, talent and grit keep jumping into the pool and paddling. I look at it that way.
I moved with a friend from Chicago to LA in the Fall of 1989. It was whimsy, mainly; I was restless and it seemed like a good enough idea. In fact it didn't turn out to be a good experience at all. As I saw it, the chemistry just wasn't right between the city and me, and I left after about six months. Years later, though, at a different stage of life, circumstances brought me back, and I loved LA!
The point is that every place and time and experience - and relationship - is different for every person, and this France Project of mine simply feels right. Further, I've never been terribly goal-driven even for the short term, much less ten or twenty years down the road, so it requires some effort.
2) "The longer I am here, the more I question my decision to be here."
In "Travels with Charley," Steinbeck talks about us Americans. With some exceptions (fewer in 1960, when the book was written, than now), we generally descend from Europeans. There are people in Europe whose families have been in the same town, sometimes even the same HOUSE, for generations. But we don't descend from those Europeans. Our ancestors are the Europeans whose families had lived in the same place for centuries, but who then decided to PACK UP AND LEAVE. There are lots of variables, of course, but I've always liked that take on what I accept is our nature. We don't have to be one place or another.
If we get a year or even ten years into a renovation project and decide it's not right, well...we'll skip it. We're not planning to go all-in moneywise, after all. Our stake will be fairly small, which is why we're looking at the bottom end of the market, i.e., less than 50,000 euros.
3) "Visit, but don't stay too long. Rent, don't buy."
I know that we'll never LIVE live there, mainly because of the visa issues. I've spoken with consular people and have a good handle on that. As old folks we won't be able to afford private health insurance, and without that we won't qualify for a long-term visa. 90 days at a time is it. Buying, though, is part of the commitment. Like a marriage. The ring is just a symbol but a very important one. Also, I'm not very disciplined and I know there will be times when that extra tie will keep me from throwing in the towel.
4) "...don't become one of them."
Maybe I already am one of them.
This might sound fanciful and silly but I seriously believe that a tiny piece of my attraction to France, of the connection I feel, comes from my heritage. My surname is a Scottish name but it was originally French and it came to Britain with the Norman invasion. Maybe my buying a little house in France, spending time renovating it and moving in (even part-time) will be the end of a 950-year-long odyssey.
It occurred to me that John's e-mail and my response to it might provide a useful outline for my blog, and I'll share some of it here.
1) "I would in most cases agree with your commenter Randy above, but when it comes to France, I would caution you to expect--depending on the region where you choose to buy--nothing but delays, frustration and eventual grief."
So I've read. I know that the countryside is littered with half-finished and never-started renovation projects. It brings to mind, though, the incredibly bad odds that restaurants face. Yes, 90-some percent of restaurants don't survive a year, and 90-some percent of those that do don't survive a second year. But people with varying combinations of money, talent and grit keep jumping into the pool and paddling. I look at it that way.
I moved with a friend from Chicago to LA in the Fall of 1989. It was whimsy, mainly; I was restless and it seemed like a good enough idea. In fact it didn't turn out to be a good experience at all. As I saw it, the chemistry just wasn't right between the city and me, and I left after about six months. Years later, though, at a different stage of life, circumstances brought me back, and I loved LA!
The point is that every place and time and experience - and relationship - is different for every person, and this France Project of mine simply feels right. Further, I've never been terribly goal-driven even for the short term, much less ten or twenty years down the road, so it requires some effort.
2) "The longer I am here, the more I question my decision to be here."
In "Travels with Charley," Steinbeck talks about us Americans. With some exceptions (fewer in 1960, when the book was written, than now), we generally descend from Europeans. There are people in Europe whose families have been in the same town, sometimes even the same HOUSE, for generations. But we don't descend from those Europeans. Our ancestors are the Europeans whose families had lived in the same place for centuries, but who then decided to PACK UP AND LEAVE. There are lots of variables, of course, but I've always liked that take on what I accept is our nature. We don't have to be one place or another.
If we get a year or even ten years into a renovation project and decide it's not right, well...we'll skip it. We're not planning to go all-in moneywise, after all. Our stake will be fairly small, which is why we're looking at the bottom end of the market, i.e., less than 50,000 euros.
3) "Visit, but don't stay too long. Rent, don't buy."
I know that we'll never LIVE live there, mainly because of the visa issues. I've spoken with consular people and have a good handle on that. As old folks we won't be able to afford private health insurance, and without that we won't qualify for a long-term visa. 90 days at a time is it. Buying, though, is part of the commitment. Like a marriage. The ring is just a symbol but a very important one. Also, I'm not very disciplined and I know there will be times when that extra tie will keep me from throwing in the towel.
4) "...don't become one of them."
Maybe I already am one of them.
This might sound fanciful and silly but I seriously believe that a tiny piece of my attraction to France, of the connection I feel, comes from my heritage. My surname is a Scottish name but it was originally French and it came to Britain with the Norman invasion. Maybe my buying a little house in France, spending time renovating it and moving in (even part-time) will be the end of a 950-year-long odyssey.
Bonjour!
Welcome to my blog. I want to own a house in France and I'm going to write about what I think and plan and do towards that end.
I expect to elaborate on this theme in the days and months and blog posts ahead, but for now, here is a rough rundown of what drove me to my current state:
1) After several vacations in France I identified an attraction more profound than, "I like France."
2) I started cooking seriously when I was about 10, and French food has consistently interested me more than that of any other country or culture.
3) The sound of the French language is pleasing to my ears.
4) I love do-it-yourself projects, and spending my time and energy on such a project overseas, over a long period of time, is an attractive prospect.
4) Finally, as several shrinks have said to me when I've expressed seemingly far-fetched wishes: "Why CAN'T you do it?"
I expect to elaborate on this theme in the days and months and blog posts ahead, but for now, here is a rough rundown of what drove me to my current state:
1) After several vacations in France I identified an attraction more profound than, "I like France."
2) I started cooking seriously when I was about 10, and French food has consistently interested me more than that of any other country or culture.
3) The sound of the French language is pleasing to my ears.
4) I love do-it-yourself projects, and spending my time and energy on such a project overseas, over a long period of time, is an attractive prospect.
4) Finally, as several shrinks have said to me when I've expressed seemingly far-fetched wishes: "Why CAN'T you do it?"
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