Only 4 days left...

That's right, there is only 4 days left to vote in the current poll about where in Europe you would like to live. As it stands the result will be the following;

France 7

Spain 6

United Kingdom 2

Other 1

Only you have the chance to change this, so if you think differently to the above please let us know.

The search begins...

So over the past week or so we have been looking at different properties to both rent and also buy. This way we get to know what we are looking for now and in the future. It has been an interesting time as some of the properties that we have seen, both online and in magazines, have ranged from just bare walls to fully renovated beautiful homes.

What are you looking for, I hear you cry out loud!? As I said in the last post, we want a place to rent for a year. As long as the house has plenty of room for us and also our friends to visit then that is great. This will give us the chance to look around for a long term property.

Well when we buy we would like an old house, something with a bit of character; we have seen plenty! We would also like somewhere that needs some TLC. Nothing too crazy. Somewhere that has space for us to live while other parts of the house are updated/repaired. This way we can make the house truly our family home.

I would like to thank everyone for their messages of encouragement, we all really appreciate it! Please feel free to make comments and also don't forget to look at the poll.

Adam

Every adventure has a start...

We are at the start of a new chapter in our lives. As a family we have lived in both Canada and England and now we are looking to move again. It isn't because we have been unhappy in any one place, in fact there are parts of our lives in both Canada and England that have been great and we have had some wonderful times in both places. However, since I work at sea, it means that we can live anywhere we like. We firmly believe that we can enhance the lives of everyone in the family if we experience different cultures.

Since Laura is fluent in French and there are also a number of airlines (including the budget ones!) who fly between Scotland (where I work every other 3 weeks) and France we have decided that this would be a great place to start looking. We are thinking towards the south, probably South-East. The likely area is a triangle between Toulouse, Perpignan and Montpellier. This is a large area, but we are keen to make sure that we find the right place and right area.

At the moment we want to move over and rent for about one year so that we know that we are going to the right place and that the whole family settle in. This will also give us the chance to get all our french bank credit sorted out.

As with any big move like this, we are looking into it with great detail and believe me, there is a hugh amount of difference between the two countries even though we are both part of the EU. Renting, mortgages, healthcare, utilities, general living all seem to have a slightly different twist to the way it is done here in England so there is a lot of research to be done. The more we read and learn about France, the more excited we are to experience the culture. We will keep you posted as we go along!

Adam.