Over the past 9 months our move to France has become part of London folklore (ok, well maybe not, but if you know us it has been the increasingly tepid topic for what feels like an eternity). With our offer accepted 11 February we were looking at the Tour de France in July and wondering if we might get a few rooms ready in time…

Oops, maybe not – COVID!! Anyway, all of that will keep for another time. Let’s jump back to the present and we are almost ready to go with a planned completion date of 16 November.

Last night was pretty late, around 2:30am, we were trying to get the final packing done which had been going on for weeks – you’d think we’d have been living in a house in Sussex for 10 years, not in a flat in London for four (I was maybe also eking out my last hours before the inevitable).

Matt was up with the larks, 7am,  vigorously trying to do all those last checks. I was checking the inside of my eyelids. I was up by 8:10 so pleasantly surprised him being washed and dressed before my promised time of 8:30.

Another drizzly day in London but we made it to King’s Cross

Check in was easy, no worries about the random cutlery in our bag (obviously a butter knife is dangerous on a plane but trains rely on tracks so was good). Quick through both borders – for the Eurostar they are about 60m apart. Once you are on the train there is only one way out. I wonder why they don’t have more of those big movie moments at the Eurostar rather than the airport?! It would be far more realistic. I guess a lot of them are shot in the States though.

Boarding – all very organised, with one train a day we were all safely distanced and then boarded by random (although probably massively considered) cars. Didn’t get a table seat – bummer!

Rang mum. Seems that having a child emigrate (even only a 1.5 hr flight away, even though she lives 2 hours drive from London) is stressful. Can’t imagine what it was like for Muma Camp when Matt left for the other side of the planet!

Caught up on some accounting to get stuff in order before we join the French system and another layer of awesome. I love accounting (I love Jeff more for doing most of it for me).

Ok, the photo doesn’t give you much but it was symbolic and certainly during Covid, it’s our first foray out of the country this year and part of a much bigger story – well this one. I rang mum again. She was very pleased and made me promise to call at every opportunity.

• 

• 

Attestation – Every time we leave the house we have to have a form completed about why we are out and about or could get fined by the Gendarmerie (Police). First one completed and on our way.

Uber works in Paris. Time to go pick up the first of our hire cars. Not as comfortable and relaxing as the planned trains but pandemics keep their own timetable and we are just happy that we are able to get there at all.

Picked up the first car, a Peugeot 108. Matt was offered a slightly larger car for only 10EUR more and I could tell from the look on his face that he was tempted (and worried our luggage wouldn’t fit). I appropriately brushed them off in French and a Gallic wave, I would fit those bags in no matter what.

It was a bit of a squeeze but comfortable enough. I did have a moment of concern about driving for 7hrs and Matt being uncomfortable but it was just about big enough. This golf cart would serve its purpose for one day.

First stop, the mall – We needed to get a French SIM card and a router (you can’t get a French number outside France) and some food, with lockdown everything would be closed by the time we arrived in Toulouse and a hungry Matt is a grumpy Matt.

Drive was largely in the dark, long and boring. The French however did think about their discerning, and somewhat bored passengers, when they put together the first ‘brown tourist signs’ (More info here: [http://www.followthebrownsigns.com/2012/09/brown-signs-en-france-mes-petites-amies/]). It may seem trivial and boring but was the only entertainment we had, apart from checking the nationality of the trucks we passed on the way, which also wasn’t that exciting – they were mostly Polish but with a few Spanish, Czech, French and Portugese, there was also one from Lithuania, one from Latvia and maybe one from the Netherlands (yes, it was that boring).

We finally arrived. A small but functional Air BnB with overly confusing entry pictures and (or course) 3 flights of stairs. After dragging everything up it was time for Matt to see if our new router worked – at least I got him a glass of wine!

• 

• 

Bon Nuit!