In big personal news, I moved about a month ago! I chose to leave my native Riviera for the (French) Far West. Still in the South. I haven’t changed jobs — I am still with W3C, I continue to work from home and it’s only “home” that is elsewhere.
The first phase was at the end of August 2026. I drove alone to close on an house and spent the rest of the week opening the boxes that professional movers had loaded the week before and delivered the day after I got the keys. Phase two at the beginning of September concluded with a round trip to close the other house, say goodbye to friends, neighbors and colleagues, and bring over my pets.
I seem to be 20 kilometers (about 12 miles) away from many landmarks: the Spanish border, Biarritz and Bayonne (the nearest big and known cities).
It’s a big change. I’m very happy with it.
The “why” is a dense mix of many reasons: My son is 18 years old and so doesn’t need both parents as much, I wanted change including a ground floor bedroom for my elderly dad for the (near) future, I’m 51 years old and single so I had better ask for loans sooner rather than later. But also, I couldn’t afford a non semidetached house on the Riviera and I really wanted the quiet. And no apartment. So I searched in the Pyrénées Atlantiques — a beautiful area that I had visited during holidays twice before, and that turned out to be slightly more affordable.
My son had zero interest in moving with me. So this move is sweet and sour at the same time. Same about my twin brother who used to live within a twenty-minute walk from my house. Same about my close friends.
The “how” is a bit boring, but it’s my blog so I make the rules, and the how is part of the story.
I started looking in February, prompted by the facts that 1) my dad had been with us for over two months, stuck with a lingering bronchitis that was sucking all energy from him, and it became clear that with all bedrooms upstairs, the days my dad could climb up and down with more and more difficulty were numbered; and 2) it is likely that two three-story buildings eventually rise from the ground right next to my house, thus driving its value down to the same ground!
By mid-March I had found my house. I didn’t look very much and I didn’t find much either. I mean, I found the house the second or third time I looked.
Early April I drove there to visit it, loved it in real life as much as I did on the web, so I made an offer and came back.
In early May, after the expected round of negotiations, I signed the paperwork where I committed to buying it, provided that loans were granted.
Boy did the bank take their sweet sweet time! It can be illustrated by a very wide inverted bell curve: I had all the required inspections done on my house, put that house on the market, I quickly “purchased” my dad’s share of the house so I would be solo on the loans request, the “dossier” for the bank was ready real quick (thanks to digital copies of almost everything necessary), health checks were minimal and therefore easily passed (thanks for the web because all it took me was filling out an online form, clicking submit and knowing instantly that it was fine), and then? Nothing. Nothing for months (two). The sellers were going crazy, the real estate agent was frantic, the loan broker I had contracted with was confident, and I was trying to keep my cool. Then, in the span of two weeks, everything came through almost all at once and in no logical order even! By the end of August, the scheduled appointment with the sellers’ notary was going to take place. This was finally on track.
It’s been about a month since I moved in. The cat and the dog seem to love it here. Obviously I do, too. I have completely warmed up to the idea of having a swimming pool and although I have always been a bit afraid of the water, I have enjoyed it every 3 days on average so far! I wonder how long I will keep that up given that Autumn just started in our hemisphere.
I drove my E-mountain bike a few times already and am in love with the landscapes. I started gardening to care for my flowers and trees, and even got new ones that are endemic to the area. The house is full of light because it has lots of big windows, including right in front of where I put my desk and the view is literally breathtaking. I met my neighbors who are very nice.
I haven’t yet really wandered too much outside of the house or far from the village. I feel like I am in a holiday rental house (probably reinforced by the fact that all my stuff were the right colors to integrate perfectly in this house, but also this house gives my stuff the appearance of being totally different — it’s hard to describe well). I wonder how long this “holiday rental” feeling is going to last. I do have plans to go places and do things, but I am in no hurry at all to set these plans in motion. One step at a time, and I “seize the day”.
