How all this started

It was Uzes. A small town in the Languedoc region, which I discovered by doing some research on the internet. I was looking for a village that had a busy outdoor market, very "French-looking," homes, lots of shops and restaurants and other places to see beyond the town. And here it was, in a charming rented house, last December, fully living up to all my expectations of Frenchness and quaintness with great food and a market square full of farmers selling their colorful, perfectly formed and stacked products under a flutter of umbrellas. It was in those first few moments after we arrived that I was hooked. I thought at first I was just swept up in all the promise of a romantic vacation, but no, it has become so much more than that. It's become a vision that guides my future and is with me in every decision I make.

For years I have looked at Real Estate websites, collected magazines from immos in places I've visited, watched strings of episodes of House Hunters International on TV. Always just a hobby. But now that I have discovered France and it has so thoroughly gotten under my skin, this hobby has become a full-blown obsession. 

Knowing we were coming to Europe in October, I made plans after our trip to Spain to join Linda in Tuscany for a week at language school. Then I found a potential property in the Loire Valley on the web. I saw that it was roomy, fully furnished, in a village with a market and had a large outdoor terrace. The owners, I discovered, were American, professors at Yale. I called to inquire and the answers I got sounded pretty good. I asked if I could see it.

Then a few weeks later, on the France Property Shop website I came across the cutest cottage--yellow with white shutters and a walled garden, right in the middle of a market town in the Dordogne. My heart raced. I'm sure my face flushed and I felt a rush of energy that told me I was on to something good. So I wrote to the agent and received more information and then made plans to see it.  

So now, I had made plans to see two homes in France and I had no plans to visit France. A small problem. I fixed it and told Joe what I was up to. He wasn't exactly thrilled that I would be away for another week, but he asked me what I thought his advice to me would be and I told him "You'd tell me to follow my dream." 

And that's just what I am doing.