On to Plan C . . . or is it D or . . .

     "The best laid schemes of mice and men do often go awry", wrote the Scottish poet Robert Burns.  It seems that is just as true today as it was over 200 years ago when he wrote the lovely poem called "To a Mouse".  I am certainly closer to my goal of moving to France, but I have had to change the move date a couple of times as I have changed my thoughts about the move.
     The idea of living in France came to me about 20 years ago.  After many years of touring France with students, I was ready to see the "other" France, the areas outside of the usual tour companies' itineraries.  So, that summer of 1996 after the tour ended and the students and adults were on their way back to the States, I rented a car and Andy and I took off on our own.  I had made a rough itinerary with towns designated as overnights, but I made no hotel reservations and had no GPS or any of today's necessities for travel.   For the most part it all worked out just as I had planned.
     What I had not planned on was falling completely in love with the southwest area of France.  I had always thought I wanted to spend time in the northwest region of Brittany.  That area appealed to me in a somewhat romantic sense in that the Bretons have their own language and roots to the ancient Celts who have always fascinated me.  Their land is almost a separate country being a peninsula jutting into the English Channel.  Andy and I did visit Brittany and were enchanted with the standing stones and the rugged coastline and, of course, the mystical island monastery of Mont Saint Michel on the English Channel.

Mont St Michel

     But it was the Dordogne region of ancient Aquitaine that grabbed my attention and didn't let go.  I have never seen so many shades of green - the forests, the fields, the land.  And then there's all those caves like Lascaux and Peche Merle which were used by prehistoric man as art galleries.  It's the land of the Hundred Years War with castles on either side of the rivers - one side English and the other side French.  It's the land of Eleanor of Aquitaine, one of the most famous, powerful, and influential women of medieval history (or perhaps ever!)  The land of knights and poetry of courtly love, of jousting tournaments and music.  The land of foie gras and Bordeaux wines, of walnut cakes and macarons.

In the Dordogne area of SW France

The cliff houses near the Dordogne river

A tapestry of the "Spotted Ponies" painting in the Peche Merle cave

  
   So that was Plan A, I guess, all those years back.  I wanted to buy a house in the Dordogne region - not Provence, as Peter Mayle did which was beginning to be overrun by Brits and Americans.  But, unfortunately, that is now true of the Dordogne.  However, that is not why I decided on the region further south from there.
     Five years ago, I left Colorado Springs and moved to Liberal, Kansas to help care for my mom.  I was there for two years before she offered to move in with me here in the Springs (I never stopped thanking her for that!!!)  It was while I was in Kansas that I realized I NEED the mountains, almost like needing to breath or eat.  I grew up with Pikes Peak in my backyard and I love everything about  the mountains - the clear air the clean water, the trees, and rocks - the "purple mountains' majesty", a sky so blue that it's indescribable.  And so, I decided to look further south towards the Pyrenees Mountains and Spain.

My "backyard" in Colorado Springs

     Now, I was on to Plan B.  A year ago Andy and I went on an exploration of the area close to the Pyrenees in ancient Gascony (that's where D'Artagnan, the Musketeer, came from) - a region of tiny villages and lots of streams and valleys and more caves and great food and wine  - and mountains!!!  I fell in love with a little valley where the Neste river runs.  We had such a grand time seeing so much alpine beauty.  Yes, here is where I could live!   I came home and started looking online at houses in this area.

The Neste valley

A view of the Pyrenees

     Then, I read an article in my "International Living" publication about house sitting.  That changed my perspective on moving to France.  Wouldn't it be wonderful to not pay a cent (or centime) for rent or mortgage?  Wouldn't it be wonderful to experience living in France without the stress of finding and buying a property?  Wouldn't it be wonderful to live in different villages all around the area where I think I want to buy?  Like test driving a car for a month or so before you decide if that's really the one you want!  So, with that in mind I began some serious plans for moving myself to France.
     When I began this blog in January of this year (can't believe this is blog post #50!), my plan was to have all my renovations finished, house sold, and everything in place to be moved to France by January of 2016.  Well, as we all know, that happens this week!  But, that's how it goes when your journey has bumps and bends, and whose doesn't, right?
     And thus I am now on Plan C or perhaps beyond that, but I'm going with "Plan C."  Realizing that houses do not sell quickly in the winter months and that I still have painting inside and cleaning up outside to do, I now plan to put the house on the market the first part of March.  That gives me two months to finish the renovations and do all the other things that need to be done before I'm actually ready to start looking for house sitting jobs in France.  I will be in Delaware the weekend of April 23 for the wedding of two very dear friends.  That may be my last stopover in the States before I head overseas.  Hopefully, CoCo's training will prove to be helpful for her to make the ten hour plane ride in her little carrier.  We're playing the "in crate" game and also going to unfamiliar places to help her get over her anxiety issues.  There's still much to be done before now and April - for both CoCo and me!  Wish us luck!

CoCo, my travel companion

     So that, my dearest friends and family, is my newest Plan for moving, barring any further bumps and bends along the way!  But I won't rule those out as I am now quite used to them cropping up in front of me.  And every time they do, I think of my dad and all those unexpected, and usually quite memorable, bends on our family vacations of long ago.  And that makes me smile.