When I was 6 months pregnant, we decided to move from Bordeaux to north of Caen so that we could live near my husband’s family. After nine months of living in the cold, gray, damp environment, we found out that our house had black mold and that was too much for me… we moved to Provence.
Traveling 10 to 13 hours to Caen has been rough with a baby. She is great on the way up, but restless on the way back. Our trips are between two to three weeks long because there’s no sense going so far to only return home right away, and we are only able to make such a trip twice a year. Add in traveling to the US and us going on at least one big vacation (outside of seeing our families), that is four big trips a year – which is a lot for a baby.
While vacationing in Caen last week, I found a house for rent about four hours south of his mother’s house. It was little expensive but large, gorgeous, and furnished. We took a look at it on the way home and were not disappointed. The only reason we did not sign a lease was because we could not imagine us in Saint-Maixent-l’École. It was dead. Buildings were not maintained, many stores were closed down (for good), and we rarely ever saw anyone in the street. It was a town of 7,500 people, yet it was quieter than our village of 1,000 people. I don’t want to live in a bustling city, but a little activity would be nice. We debated the house for the rest of the nine hour drive and even called the landlord to offer him a lower rent… if the deal was too good, we would not refuse. The landlord was okay with the price, his wife was not. Oh well, we tried.
Lower-Normandy and Brittany are too cold and gray for me. I’ve been trying to debate it in my head because large houses up there are so affordable. However, I am an outdoors person and love my long walks with Juliana. I don’t mind having a cold winter, or even a cold winter and spring… but cold year-round without a real break is tough. If we find a house that is furnished and very cheap, we could move there for a year to live closer to family and save money for a nicer place later. For instance, I saw a 4 bedroom house that is 180 sq meters, furnished, large yard, short walk to commerce, and absolutely adorable for only 500 euros/month! Maybe I could deal with the rain if that means mamma can buy an amazing mattress when she gets her house on the ocean the following year 😉
Right now we are mainly looking around the southern border of Brittany, yet north of Bordeaux. We are hoping for a house within 30 minutes of the ocean, but it can be about an hour if we are near a river, lake, large park, or forest. I am hesitant of living in a large city, so we are hoping for a charming village/town/small city of around 2,000 to 20,000 people so that we can be near commerce. The house has to be within 30 minutes of a hospital and maternité, and hopefully a sage-femme libèrale. We are going to try for baby #2 after we are settled in our new home… so I need to be situated somewhere that will not require us to pay a small fortune in gas for all the obligatoire appointments.
So when are we moving? Our lease requires us to give a 3 months notice, so we need to find a house by December 1. We’re at least nine hours away, so we can’t easily go look at houses. We’re hoping to find a furnished house with a month-to-month lease so that we can get in the area and jump on a good deal. However, if we see an unfurnished house that we love, we may just leap on it. We rented all our other houses in France without seeing them first and had good luck. The part that worries me is not so much the house, but the village or city.
Most days my husband takes our daughter on an hour walk down a quiet road that has an amazing view of the fields and rolling hills. Yesterday when he returned, he began having second thoughts of moving. We have a wonderful life in Provence. We love the lifestyle, people, weather, and this charming village. We have never been so sad to leave a place, and the only comfort we have is that if we truly don’t like it up there, we can always return. Without a doubt, we will be retiring here one day.
I feel so fortunate to have had the opportunity to experience life in a small provincial village. Now, time to start preparing for our next grand adventure!
molly says
Good luck!
If you find a furnished place and have stuff to sell, please think of me!
I m in Provence.
Biz
French Mamma says
Will do! I’m not sure if we really will have much, if anything. The house we’re renting now is furnished because we were supposed to only live in it for a few months while searching for somewhere to live long-term. We ended up falling in love with the house and village, so we stayed here. Since we are planning on having a baby next year, we’ll be holding on to all our baby stuff. When I start packing, if find things that I don’t want to trek across country, I’ll definitely let you know. This will be our 5th place in 28 months (lived in all furnished homes)… looking forward to finally settling down somewhere and staying for at least a few years.
molly says
We live so close & are from the same région in the states-
Hope you find what you need, best wishes!
Christy says
Good luck with your new adventures. I too am looking for a month to month furnished rental. What resources are you using to find furnished short term rentals?
French Mamma says
We’ve always had the best luck with leboncoin.fr. Once in a while I check vivastreet.fr, but it does not have as many listings (many are several months old).
For leboncoin.fr, go to “locations,” and type “gite” in the search box as one of your preferences. Sometimes we type “meuble” or “meublée,” but those are typically furnished houses that want a one year contract. If you really get stuck, I believe all 1 yr contracts for a furnished home allow you to provide the landlord with only a month’s notice if you want to cut out early. We’re finding that you need to call within a day or two of the really good deals or else they get swiped up quick. One house was listed Tuesday evening, we called Wednesday, but he didn’t respond. Called again this morning and it was taken.
FrenchNad says
Good luck with the move! I am disappointed, I thought you were moving to the NorthEAST of France, which is where I come from (the Alsace), but it looks like NW and I know nothing of life there although Brittany and Normandy are beautiful!
Bon déménagement!
Jack says
Great to know that you have shifted back. We also had recently shifted from Dublin to Cork and I think this was really a good decision we made. We were having many problems there and my husband’s business was also not doing well so we decided to move. I miss my old mattress and Mattress Pad that we could not bring with us.