In my previous blog post, I wrote about winding up our extended visit to our family in Southern California, and what would turn into a pandemic. I continue below with our arrival back in France in February 2020. Preparing for our arrival back to France in February, Steve and I had arranged to stay overnight […]
Spring in South of France – Coming Full Circle
We have all heard the saying “Time Flies” and we are really finding that to be true, now more than ever. This is our second spring in our new house in the South of France and the first full year for the garden. We had just started planting the garden last spring. Besides the warmer […]
Opening a Bank Account in France
Long before moving to France, Steve and I were customers of a worldwide bank, which simplified having accounts in the USA and the UK. As we began to look ahead to retiring to France, we asked the bank to open an account for us at their French affiliate. This turned out to be very easy, and […]
A Big Birthday
I LOVE celebrating Birthdays – especially mine. I have always felt that a birthday is an important day of the year. When everyone in our family lived close by, we always celebrated our birthdays together. But how do we do that now that Steve and I live in the South of France, and our sons, […]
Retiring in France
There I was on Facebook, staying in touch with my friends in the USA, England and France. As I was scrolling through the different posts I stopped at a post from one of my friends in Southern California who shared a link to the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s Light the Night Walk. This fundraising event […]
Where’s My POUBELLE?
“Poubelle” in France – “Rubbish” in England – “Trash” in America In any language, it is a necessary component to running a household. The past three months we have had the luxury of putting our household trash in the large trash bin planted on the construction site affectionately known as ‘home’. This has proven to […]
A Walk on the Wild Side
We were back in England for a few weeks to visit relatives and friends, attend a few events and for a few doctors appointments. As it turns out we were able to spend a few days with my cousins in Sheffield (where my mom was from). They live in a village called Apperknowle in Derbyshire, […]
You’ve Got Mail!
Things we take for granted – such as receiving a letter. The first time we realised that we did not have a mailing address was when we went to Darty, a major appliance retailer, to order a washing machine. The salesman asked us for our address, a simple enough question in any language. Steve looked […]
Leaving England for France – A Long Holiday
It has only been four weeks since we left England and drove to France to stay at our new holiday home for a long visit, although it feels like months ago when we were packing up things to take to France. After the movers came to pick up our stuff, Steve and I set out […]
Packing Up for the Move to Our Holiday Home in the South of France
I have been very busy helping Steve pack for our move to our holiday home in South of France. Let me tell you this was not an easy task as we had to sift and sort through many boxes of stuff from California as well as go through our stuff in England to decide what […]
Meeting in France and in the Yorkshire Dales
While in France last month, we stayed at the De Fleurus Bed & Breakfast in Pezenas. We met a wonderful couple Jo & Ken. We had breakfast together each day and as we talked about our move to South of France, we realized how much we had in common with them, as they are also […]
Scotland at its Best – Part 2
After a good night’s sleep in Edinburgh, we got up early, even though it was Sunday, to have a relaxing breakfast and pack our suitcases, ready for our three-hour drive to Lossiemouth, Scotland. We were looking forward to our first trip through the Scottish Highlands. As promised, the drive to Lossiemouth was filled with beautiful […]
Scotland at its Best – Part 1
Having just returned from Southern California a week ago (much more about that later…), and here we are on our way to Scotland. Steve has work to do at RAF Lossiemouth for the week. After a very stressful and emotional three weeks in California taking care of my parents and having some quality time with […]
A Couple of Special Anniversaries
5 year Anniversary Living in the UK Steve’s 35 Year Work Anniversary at the Same Company It is hard to believe that it was 5 years ago today that Steve & I boarded an American Airlines plane in Los Angeles, California, for London, England. Steve’s work brought us here for what was meant to be […]
Happy New Year – It’s 2013!
I am a little late in writing the third part of this story due to the fact that I was in California again taking care of my elderly parents. I am there for up to a month, every three months due to their deteriorating health. This throws me off with my writing, as I write […]
Heading North
The next leg of our European Vacation with the kids took us to Lincoln, where we live. Jonathan and Joshua visited us three and a half years ago and stayed with us in Lincoln. We took them to our favourite restaurants, the Lincoln Cathedral, Lincoln Castle, Jew’s Court and the High Street. We also had […]
European Vacation – The Kids Are Here!
The excitement surrounding this day had been building up for weeks. It was the boys’ second visit to our Lincoln home in the UK and Liz’s first trip to Europe. Steve and I arrived at the airport with plenty of time to find out which terminal they would be arriving at. Most international flights come […]
Back in the South of France to Reserve Our Property – We Found a House!
We arrived at Carcassonne Airport, a small and convenient airport, only a twenty minute drive to our friends Muriel and Richard’s house. They were very generous in offering us their house for the week. They knew that we had been house hunting in the area, only about forty-five minutes from them. They are excited to […]
When Blogs Cross Paths
My husband Steve introduced me to the French Word-A-Day blog by Kristin Espinasse about a year ago. He found it while searching on the internet for life in France. Both Steve and I love France and are planning to retire there in the next few years. After reading a few of Kristin’s blog posts, Steve […]
Property Shopping in South of France
Steve and I love France and have visited the different regions of the country many times over the years. We always seem to go back to the Cote D’Azur region – Nice, Cannes, Monte Carlo and the surrounding areas. We have even considered retiring to the South of France and talked about it for the […]
Old Home Week – In Cyprus
After an exciting five days in the South of France, the Cote D’Azur, looking at properties – a story for another day – we are back in Cyprus. Steve’s work brought us here just two months ago for three weeks. During that time we met a lot of people and made a lot of new […]
An Audience with the Pope
You heard it right – Steve & I had an audience with the Pope in Rome, Italy this past April, 2011. Well we and a few thousand other visitors had an audience with the Pope. It was a public audience that the Pope has a on a Wednesday morning. What makes it so different from […]
Painting Byzantine Icons in the Old Port
While walking through the streets of the Old Port, a beautiful shop window caught our attention. We entered the shop to look at all of the beautiful art pieces, and were greeted by Myrianthi, a woman sitting in front of an easel surrounded by a rainbow of paints. She held a special brush and was […]
The Lost City of Troodos
Several people recommended that we go to Troodos, which is up in a mountain range north of Limassol. We felt the B8 road out of Limassol begin to climb right from the start. The signs weren’t too bad – something we couldn’t say about most places in Cyprus. We continued to follow the signs to […]
Two Servers – Two Countries – One Dream
Maria is a server at what has become one of our favorite pizza and salad restaurants just across the street from our hotel. Maria was born in Bulgaria and now lives and works in Limassol, Cyprus. She is a single mom. She has a five year old son. He is visiting his grandma (her mom) […]
Are You Happy?
That is what I asked the Front Door Man at our hotel when we all happened to get into the same elevator. He looked at me and said, “Of course I’m happy.” I asked, “Then why aren’t you smiling?” We have passed by him in the lobby for a week now, and I smile at […]
Catch of the Day
On Sunday we woke up to more beautiful weather – sunshine, warm bordering on hot temperatures and blue skies. We had not been out of Limassol since our arrival a week before, so we decided that a scenic drive was on the menu. We headed west out of town on the B6 road that winds […]
Authentic Cypriot Food
Another Day in Paradise – Limassol, Cyprus We started the day off by a visit to the Tourist Information Office just down the street from our hotel. We walked into this little building where there were three ladies behind a desk ready to help the next people who walked in – that was us. The […]
Father’s Day in Cyprus
Steve ‘s work has brought us to Cyprus. About six weeks ago Steve came home from work and said that they asked him if he would go to Cyprus in mid-June for a three week rotation. He waited to see what my reaction would be to this news as he knows that we had agreed […]