French Living: Back on Skis

The 19th December 2014 is a day I will remember for a long time, long after the aches have faded that's for sure! One year and three days previously I had been to the doctor on the start of a journey through Lyme disease and on to full-on rheumatoid arthritis. Through pain relief treatment building from paracetamol to opiates, a fortnight of antibiotics for the Lyme infection, buckets of steroids at various doses for months and then finally starting a potentially life-long course of methotrexate, I have tried to focus on the thought of skiing again.

Powder Eights in 2012-13  Will I do this ever again?

Self-Building in France: Tiny Budget & Even Less Electricity

Welcome to another blog from a British expat in France.  Cue pictures of beautiful villages, bustling markets, fields of sunflowers or lavender and our very own elegant recently restored country house on several floors with mature orchards and a hen or three competing for space with the ducks, goats and cats.  Isn't that what we all dream of?

Well, we looked at the idyllic, looked at our bank account, jiggled the budget, flexed the bank account, lowered our expectations, looked at tiny houses rather than grand, then at barns, then at derelict barns.  And finally bought a field.  We designed what we needed: main house with four beds, workshops, gite/annexe.  Gulped at the cost.  Jiggled the budget, flexed the bank account and then predictably (it's 2008) failed to sell our house in the UK and had just the outer shell of a single story two bed, two study house built in 2009. Literally a shell. Open the front door, step down onto the sub floor and enjoy the vista of the entire space from wall to wall to roof tile, with just the odd pipe poking out of the floor for the plumbing.  The rest would be down to us.  And the budget.

We finally arrived for good in January 2010.  It was cold.  Well, it would be.  There was no insulation and only external walls, albeit built from efficient thermic blocks.  And we are in the foothills of the mountains. Two years after moving in we finally achieved an electricity grid connection.  Thank goodness for solar panels (bought) and the salvaged inverters and batteries that gave us light, TV and power tools over those two years.  And two generators bought for peanuts because they didn't work.  Hardly surprising as they are both older than us.