Stresses and frets to fresh baguettes

Making the decision to leave Hong Kong was not a quick or easy one. It had been Ed’s home for over 15 years and mine for over 5. It’s fair to say I was readier, but nonetheless, leaving the first home we’d had together, wonderful friends and work colleagues, island life, the brunches, the xiaolongbao… you get the picture! In 2018, whilst on our mini-moon we met a couple who had left London to run a small boutique hotel (http://www.theinnatlochtummel.com/) in the Scottish Highlands – it got us thinking… maybe we could do that too. 12 months later we spent a wonderful 2 weeks in Europe with family and upon our return the HK protests were in full steam. That coupled with the sudden death of a dear friend and wonderful man, the conversations about what we wanted out of life started again. We had often talked about retiring in France because we loved the food, the lifestyle, the countryside – and then one day Ed said ‘why are we waiting until we retire if that’s the lifestyle we love’.

And so – on the 31st of August we locked the doors of 111 Wang Tong and waved goodbye to the wonderful community of Mui Wo with one last taxi ride with Kit – picking us up from the China Bear. 20 hours (and a very cheap upgrade to 1st class) later we arrived to our rental in Murviel-Les-Beziers. Why here? We’d landed on the Herault region as a starting off point and there was very little available to rent – seemed we weren’t the only people seeking a few months in the countryside. It was 1pm, we were emotionally drained, tired and hungry as we headed up the driveway of our home for the foreseeable – we were not disappointed. In fact, the place was even better than it had looked on the website. (have a look here if you’re interested).

The house is fabulous and after a dip in the pool it was time to enjoy the Rose that our hostess and kindly left us (a good tip for us to remember in the future) – we couldn’t quite believe we were actually here, and not on holiday. We’d frequently just say ‘blimey… we live in France now’ – almost 2 months in it’s still taking a bit of getting used to.

So – almost 2 months in (52 days to be exact) – what have we learnt so far?

1 – The French pace of life is VERY different. If you haven’t got your shit together by 12 you won’t be able to buy a baguette until 3, or eat out anywhere until the evening (because we’ve missed the lunchtime shift). This has taken some getting used to, especially with Ed working on his business whilst Asia is still awake in our morning. Having left a city where you could buy a Gucci handbag at midnight, we’ve needed to adjust.

2 – When you get things fresh from the farm, it is a gamechanger. I like tomatoes and Ed likes eggs – for those of you who know us, this is something of a miracle. They are COMPLETELY different here – especially when the eggs, tomatoes and salad comes from the farm we are staying on. I have eaten more tomatoes in the past 6 weeks than I have in my entire life, same goes for Ed with eggs. The fresh produce is definitely welcome and we are absolutely taking advantage of it. It’s also rather wonderful not to be paying 40 HKD for an Avocado anymore (sorry Hong Kong).

3 – Changing phone numbers is more problematic than we imagined – after our initial excitement of finally getting a bank account and therefore being able to get French phone numbers, we jumped at the chance to save some money by handing in our old phones and HK phone numbers. It was only when we went to pay for something a bit later, and got a ‘the security code has been sent to your registered phone number’ did the penny drop that we may have been too hasty. I am still trying to change my phone number with HSBC – ‘the world’s local bank’ who have required me to send them an actual letter in the post.

4 – Relaxing has been harder than expected – this may sound ridiculous but after months of planning and talking about all the books I would read, cooking I’d do and generally chilling, I have been useless at it. After nearly 20 years of doing the corporate thing, it has taken some getting used to that I have got the time to do those things and I shouldn’t feel guilty. Shame it’s taken this long. It’s now 12 degrees outside and the swimming pool has been covered! But we have been cooking and finally got this blog going. Ed has been doing much better and making great progress with his new business – although we are both finding it hard getting out of bed when it’s still dark. It doesn’t get light here until about 8am, so when the alarm goes off at 6am so Ed can take advantage of the Asia hours, it’s somewhat of a struggle.

5 – French drivers are mental. Fact. They drive fast, they are permanently in a rush to get everywhere (suspect this is motivated by the next meal) – in order to get there they overtake at any given opportunity, even if they are taking the next exit, and like to allow a very generous foot (maybe i’m being unfair – two feet) of space between your back bumper and their front bumper whilst driving at 110 km/h. So we are both learning not to buckle under the pressure and drive at our own pace (or behaving like slow lorries and pulling in at passing places to let people get on with their day!)

The wonderful thing about dealing with some of this with clearer and less stressed heads is that we are able to see the funny side of things, even when the French administrative system gets in the way of our ability to get car insurance – we got there in the end, after convincing someone that whilst we didn’t have any insurance history in France, or anywhere since about 2002, we weren’t in fact 19 year olds asking for insurance on our new, souped up Golf GTI – “I’m sorry Monsieur, but an Audi Q2 is too powerful for us to insure you…”

Thanks for reading. More soon – likely from our new rental which is nearer our new home (hopefully, fingers crossed – will share more when we’ve actually signed some paperwork but we are SO excited).

A bientot!