La chasse commence, part un

It is now “hunting season” in this part of France.  Sundays and Wednesdays (go figure), the sound of gun fire echoes out from the fields (vineyards, orchards, farm land) and forests.  And hunting has begun in earnest for Sallie and I…house hunting.  This will be the first of many posts about la chases de la maison–the house hunting.

We’ve been looking since before we moved here.  Online house hunting is one of our current obsessions.  But nothing compares to the thrill of the hunt on the ground.  Our search covers a pretty large area geographically (we want to make sure we see many places before we commit to planting ourselves somewhere) and it is great to have Sallie plotting (literally on a map) and planning, as well as driving a lot.

Here are a couple of photos from last week’s excursions.  We checked off La Reole (nice place to visit, including an amazing lunch at L’Echoppe (galletes and crepes in a small space on a cobblestone street)

and Thenac (a village and surrounding area that is home to the Plum Village hamlets, mindfulness practice centers lead by Thich That Hang) where we shared the road with Buddhist monks and nuns on bicycles and looked at a way too-big, way too much work ancient ferme (farm) house compound.

So far, we’ve visited 6 properties since our landing (three weeks ago) and have 3 scheduled next…and a “short list” of 31(!) properties we plan to see…which is in a constant state of revision.  Oy! (that’s French for “this is going to be FUN!!!).