OUR KIDS LIFE IN FRANCE, AND OURS - another big move

This time we didn't have far to move, mum lived just 30 minutes from the village where we bought the house. Fortunately for us, my sister and family had arrived to stay at mums the day before we moved in. Perfect now we had a whole removal team, so everybody pitched in. We travelled in convoy, me with 2 of our kids and a stack load of whatever we could fit in the car, my hubby with the eldest in a large hire van packed to the hilt, and my sister and my mum packed up with whatever they could fit in too. My parents-in-law were already at the house, they had parked up their motor home in the garden where they would stay until there was sufficient comfortable living space for them too. Although my husband did have to make more than 1 trip. We had booked a local farmer, with his tractor, in to cut the grass in the back gardens as it was too long to do even with a drive on mower, and he was their ready and waiting. Before we started the un-loading, we all sat and watched the tractor. Our jaws dropped open when we started seeing, not just a garden, it was more like a football pitch!! We knew it was large as the deeds had the amount of land on them, but when you actually saw it in real life....WOW!! We had a wander round after and discovered plum trees, 3 sorts, fig trees, apple trees, blackberries all sorts, a real jam makers heaven.

The un-loading didn't take that long really, probably quicker than the packing up, and we all worked as a team to get the job done. Even the kids helped, in between running round the huge garden in sheer delight. It was a beautiful day, and when we'd finished we cracked open a bottle of win and some beers and sat outside with a picnic we had prepared. We all had great fun discussing the house and the project, particularly my brother-in-law who is a quantity surveyor.

There were 3 most important things to get set up or unpacked that day; 1. Beds and making them, 2. the hob & oven for dinner and 3. the TV & satellite dish, all of which the men were instructed to do first, if, of course, they wanted their dinner! I remember it was a very simple and quick dinner, we didn't have much food as we couldn't fir it in the car, and of course then came the problem of finding the utensils and Knives & forks in amongst what seemed like a hundred boxes!!

My parents-in-law went to bed early that night, it had been a busy day, so they bid good night and retired to their motor home. We then put the children to bed who were equally as shattered, must have been all that country air. We then lay in bed, contented, listening to owls in the night sky and wondering what the next day would bring.....................