Thanks cheska

Did you rent your house fully furnished or did you have to take everything out and store it somewhere? All I can see are the potential complications of renting out our place as I would rather rent it furnished but I guess that wouldn’t suit a lot of tenants.

Rented it unfurnished and definitely was a hassle getting everything out. Luckily we had a shed for storage. Landlord insurance is much higher if the place was furnished. Annoyed me that if we had to pay $4.000 for storage, those places accept no responsibility. By the time we got on the plane we were stressed and exhausted. Our daughter and son in law kept us sane during this time.
There were many times when packing up the house that we both thought we are bloody crazy. Worked out in the end. Forgot to say in the ACT agents take 9%

Thanks, Cheska - you've given me much food for thought!

Now I just have to explain it to the cat!

margo_oz we could only do this 12 months because we sadly became cat free.

Wow, renting our place unfurnished seems like too much trouble to me. I think we’ll probably only go for three months and lock and leave it as we usually do. We have an apartment these days so it’s less of a worry than a house when we go away. I think you can get over the 60 day insurance rule by having someone come and check on your place after 60 days. We had our son check when we still owned a house and went to Europe for over two months once.

jacooper An apartment may be different. We have left our place before for longer periods than the 60 days with neighbours checking etc, but couldn’t do that for 12 months. Yes it was very stressful, and to be honest the financial gain wasn’t the most important aspect. If we were in an apartment we definitely would have just locked up and left. More importantly you have to do what is right for you.

A fabulous weekend. Started off by being invited by the neighbours for aperitif on Saturday morning at11.30 am. After a bit of a panic as we had nothing in the house to take, and are not close to any shops we went along with smiles and handshakes.Probably the first time my husband has had Pastis with almond syrup at 11.30 am. I stuck to white wine. We had a great time as they were very hospitable, and with the help every now and then from google voice translate we could work out what each other meant. The neighbour did speak good English though. We will reciprocate in a few weeks. I was feeling very good when we left as the neighbour commented that my pronunciation was good. That was encouraging.

Today being November 11 and a public holiday we attended the Armistice Ceremony. The ceremony was moving and as fate would have it stood beside a Scot who explained a lot of the ceremony. It was sunny but cold.

After the ceremony we went for coffee, saw the same person who was so helpful and invited her her to join us for coffee. We had a lovely chat, and she was very informative about life in Nimes.

By then it was 1.30 and we needed to warm up and eat. I ordered a prawn risotto, and my husband had cuttlefish with parsley and garlic, and risotto infused with squid ink, Both pretty good. The 4 glasses of wine each started to warm us up.
Dessert for me was apple crumble, and my husband had this very unusual creme cheese ( like a yoghurt) that you added honey or a fruit syrup to. He enjoyed it. Being the loving wife that I am I shared half my apple crumble with him. Cost €70 euros

Then a beautiful walk home through Jardins de la Fontaine. A great weekend.

Didn't you feel today's 5.3 earthquake around noon based near Montelimar?

no we didn’t. We were so cold and were moving up and down on the spot to warm up. Hope no one was injured.

There were four injuries, one serious (a worker on scaffolding that collapsed), but there are quite a few less chimneys in the area this evening and a number of houses that are temporarily forbidden to their residents.

Tragic. Hope the people who are injured recover quickly and that the houses are fixed quickly too.

One possibly useful thing that you could do since you are here for awhile is turn on the evening television news at 20:00 on channels 1 or 2 (I prefer 2). Even without speaking the language, it is a window into the country and it is always interesting to see what you can decipher.

We try and do this most nights. We can generally work out what is happening by the pictures only.

Cheska, the creme cheese your husband had sounds like fromage blanc. We really like it and often buy a tub of it and a bottle of fruit puree which is in the canned aisle. It comes in a variety of flavours, and we like the apple/chestnut one or rhubarb or apricot. The fromage blanc comes in a 1 kilo tub for around 2 - 2.50 euro a tub. One brand, from memory Rians, comes with a basket in the tub to allow it to drain a little. I wish we could get it here in Australia. In some little restaurants in the country, I have seen it on the menu served with confiture.
It is still sounding wonderful. We just booked our car for April next year. Each step brings it a bit closer.

I have just read your report from the start. What a neat experience you are having, spending an entire year in France. Kind of like a modern day Peter Mayle. Can't wait to hear how the rest of your trip goes.

jtpj777 very cold in Nimes. We have been wearing our winter coats.