
Making the move
I hope you enjoyed reading the first post. Thank you for all your lovely comments. It’s been very windy here this week, so plans to tidy up the garden didn’t make much headway. I did manage to make some jam and chutney from plums that a neighbour gave me, and plant some passion flower cuttings. I can’t quite believe that we moved everything over from the UK a year ago already. I have a lot to share with you, so let’s get started, but this week with a slight detour via tales of our rescue animals!
A plan hatched more than 30 years ago to live in France is now reality. Since completing on the house in March 2019, we had been back and forth checking on roof work and sorting things out for our permanent move, buying paint and starting to plan rooms, etc.
Finally in early October last year, we packed up our home in Wiltshire, waved good-bye to the removal truck and set off with our beloved cat Minnie for our new home in the Tarn. Thanks to copious quantities of Feliway, she managed to cope reasonably well with a pet friendly cabin on the ferry, and a day in a car. On the way, besides stopping for coffee and chocolatines at several Paul outlets, we had the bizarre experience of passing our removal company with all our worldly goods packed into a couple of trailers! Quite odd to look at a truck and realise that everything we own was right there!
This last year has been filled with ups and downs, things going right and wrong – burst water mains, a leaky roof, power cuts, but also meeting new friends, exploring beautiful places locally and lovely weather – lunches in the garden from February this year! For everyone the last 9 months have been bizarre and stressful as we all find ourselves living through a global pandemic. This has meant many changes and many plans on hold, living through lockdown and now for us, from tonight, curfews at night. A really sad event for us was Minnie becoming ill during lockdown and in spite of doing everything we could and lots of time at the vets, she lost her fight in late May. It is so hard saying goodbye to a pet. She was enjoying her new French life, exploring the house and garden, and beyond. She had even learned to deal with Bear, our rescue Pyrenean Mountain dog, who joined us out here in late October 2019, from Romania via Wiltshire!
Before I tell you more about our French home, I thought you might like to meet our increasing pet population. Bear, weighing in at a mere 42kg – the size of a Shetland pony almost, has settled in well. He is now 2, but spent the first year of his life in a rescue shelter in Romania, having been found abandoned at about 9 weeks, all alone. He is terrified of wind and thunder and can be found under the billiard table during storms. He is a little too enthusiastic about guarding us at the moment, tricky for visitors but with us is an absolute softy and likes to have his paw held! We do, however, have a lot of training still to do with him! From shelter to petit château – not a bad move for him.
Since Minnie died we have talked about getting a couple of kittens, when the time was right. I think a house needs cats, but also useful when the rodent population want to move in from the fields in winter. At the beginning of October our neighbour called to say she was rescuing 4 kittens from a farmer who was about to shoot them and were we still looking? They were about 4 weeks old, so what could we do – 2 became 4 and they have all been here for nearly 3 weeks now! Max built them a little home while they got used to us, as they were quite feral. Now all of them are purring and enjoying being stroked – it’s so hard not to spend all day with them. Not great for progress on the house and garden, or work, but quite therapeutic. Yesterday they had a check-up at the local vets, all good. We have 2 boys and 2 girls. We should probably only keep 2 as 4 cats will cost a fortune but it will be so hard to split them up. I worry we may turn into an animal refuge rather than a smart B&B!
Meet Bear, Raoul, Anya, Louka and Nina:



Next week, back to renovation on an even tighter budget as the kittens eat us out of house and home…and probably take over the house too!
I look forward to reading your comments.
A bientôt
Ali x


9 Comments
Sandra
Love the blog, are you sure you can’t keep them all.
It’s inspiring that a dream can come true. Look forward to reading more adventures and photos.
Ali
Thank you. We will have to see with the kittens. They are adorable.
Brigitte
Loving your blog, Ali, and looking forward to reading the next one. Great taking in the animals too. You certainly made the right decision moving and taking on that project.
Ali
Thank you Brigitte. It was a bit daunting starting the blog, but hopefully it will be entertaining. Lots more to come. Definitely the right decision! x
Susi
All sounds fabulous and can’t wait to hear more about the house. The kittens are adorable – do keep them!
Ali
Thank you Susi x
Rosheen Ryan
I love Bear…Inca would really love Bear too. Xx
Kittens are cute. X
Mark
Love the blog – Debs and I are really pleased for you both (and the menajerie). We also had the experience of introducing our new kitten (resembles Anya) to our established dog and it was much easier than we first thought. Hopefully we can come and pay you a visit in 2021!
Ali
Lovely to hear from you. It would be great to catch up one of these days, and yes come and visit!