Wow. We’ve been in France 10 years. That’s the longest I’ve spent in a single place my entire life and the longest I’ve lived in any one abode. Will and I have been together 17 years, 7 of it in London, which feels longer than our time here. We’re very settled here and don’t have any plans to move. In the early days, finding work was the biggest threat to our existence here but happily, that’s no longer an issue. This year was our best by far in terms of combined revenue and we’re slowly finding slightly larger clients, some of them French.
The only potential problem on the horizon is the wind farm they’re still hoping to build less than 1Km from our house. The worst part is the uncertainty it brings, and isn’t likely to be resolved for a few more years. We’d love to do some major renovations on the house, but it would be money down the drain if the project goes ahead. There is another project in a neighbouring town that’s further along, and we should know if that’s approved in a number of months. Then there would be some time for appeals. But if that one goes ahead, it’s far more likely that ours will too.
There’s been a fair bit of change on the social front, mostly for the good. We’ve now got Anne & Andrew just down the road, which has been really great. It’s nice to have family nearby, especially when you all get along so well. We’ve had Francoise back with us for the past 18 months, although that’s coming to end in January when she’s moving to Nice. Bryan & Carol sold their place and have moved back to England permanently, and Marie & Christian moved, although they’ll be closer wherever they end up settling. We’ve yet to meet the two new Mazeroux arrivals: the one who bought B&C’s place and the one who built a new place and has a daughter / son-in-law / granddaughter who also live nearby. We’ve asked Paul & Nat to arrange a dinner for us, so we hope to remedy that soon.
I don’t have much else to say on the subject, so will close with an announcement concerning the blog. Blogging has become a chore, and with the decline in our readership, we have even less motivation to keep it going. We’ll still post when something interesting happens, or when the mood takes us, but don’t expect regular updates from here on out.
Cryptic closer – another milestone: BNL 1, 14.