News | Le Charaix

Why your inner voice doesn’t shout

by Anita Weststrate | Jan 14, 2026 | The house

But whispers It's New Year's Day 2026 and we're enjoying the peace and tranquillity. No visitors, just silence and time for ourselves. It is quite cold, but we can still do some odd jobs outside. Rob is looking forward to it! We are working at a leisurely pace on the new mezzanine. It will be a sturdy wooden floor, which will serve as a private entrance to the guest house, and also be an outdoor terrace for our guests with a beautiful view. Leonardo Da Vinci Just before Christmas, we spent two...

On water and wellness

by Anita Weststrate | Nov 17, 2025 | General, The house

And even more water. In the Drôme des Collines in general, but especially on our spot, there is a lot of water in the ground. It can rain heavily here. The rainwater then flows down the hills into the valley in huge quantities over the compact, heavy clay soil. And afterwards, we are often treated to a rainbow! The picture below is not tricked. Water from below But the water on our plot comes up from the Earth and there is also a spring. Hard to believe, but during the two hottest weeks of the...

The comfort of pavement

by Anita Weststrate | Nov 16, 2025 | The house

And about mud. After our experience with the roof (read this blog), we were ready for a project that runs smoothly. The next item on our list, though, was the paving on our property. Even though this house is from the 19th century, no resident had yet built a proper path around the house. In the covered area near the front door, where we park our car, it was still the original clay-like earth, with some very old dried-up cow pat. In front of the house, it was paved with some kind of graval....

Settling in, how?

by Anita Weststrate | Oct 28, 2025 | General

Taking the initiative It is winter. I now live in a village of 425 inhabitants , 37 inhabitants per km2, where I don't know anyone. Where do I start to build my new network? On a walk, we greeted our neighbour 'next door' (500 metres away). Turns out he is Belgian, married to a French woman. OK, so 33% of our hamlet (9 inhabitants) is not French! Quite international hamlet! At the mayor's New Year's speech in January, we would get to know many people, was our estimation. But we were a bit lost...

Letting go

by Anita Weststrate | Sep 16, 2025 | General

What is that really? How many times in my life did I get the comment, ‘Anita, let go!’ Except from developing allergic reactions to that sentence, nothing else happened.I am still good at planning, controlling, adjusting, and so on. Actually, I'm quite happy with that too, because it keeps unpleasant surprises away as much as possible. Right? Drive to develop a competence Every one experiences something with impact in the first 25 years of life . Sometimes, especially at a very young age, we...

“I’m leaving”-point

by Anita Weststrate | Jul 16, 2025 | The house

When things don't go smoothly. When we bought the house, we knew that the roof of the outbuilding needed to be renovated. We had asked for advice and he said that it would be sufficient to replace the roof tiles and a few rafters. A considerable expense, but there was no way around it. And yes, it was urgent, because a good roof is the starting point for building our guest house. Still, it took two more months before someone visited us and made a quote. Panic! The roof is about to collapse!...

Living as a farmer in France

by Anita Weststrate | May 4, 2025 | General, The house

and saved by the neighbour. With a father who, as a farmer's son, chose a career as a teacher at an agricultural college, three uncles and aunts who owned large farms in the United States and the Flevopolder(NL), and a younger cousin who runs the “family farm”, Rob has it in his genes. He talks about it all the time: “And then I'll drive a little tractor all day long, vroom vroom”. Yes, his inner child is awakening now that retirement is in sight. Finally, the day arrived: on 25 April, we...

Tax season has begun!

by Anita Weststrate | Apr 22, 2025 | Work

Wrapping up in the Netherlands and starting up in France. We all pay taxes several times a week, even if it's just VAT on our purchases. You even continue to pay taxes on things you've already bought, such as property tax. And there's also tax on something you've already paid tax on. With the new world on the horizon, this form of sowing poverty will hopefully be abolished soon. Until then, declaring your income is an annual ritual that leaves 99% of the population feeling less than cheerful....

Importing my car:

by Anita Weststrate | Apr 22, 2025 | General

stuck between France and the Netherlands. My little white car came with us to France and has served us well. But it would rather go back to the Netherlands. At least, that's what it seems like, judging by the agony of importing it. How can I make a long story short? Before we left, Rob had already arranged a number of documents required to import a car into France. On 22 November 2024, the car passed the French inspection with flying colours. After a bit of insistence, the dealer where I...

Starting a micro-enterprise in France

by Anita Weststrate | Apr 22, 2025 | General, Work

is a big job. In the Netherlands, I had been self-employed under the name Sparko since October 2014. One month after celebrating my 10th anniversary, and one day before our move to France, I dissolved Sparko at the Chamber of Commerce. I want to continue in France, so I am registering myself via the appropriate platform (inpi.fr). There is quite a lot involved, even a marriage certificate, so I started early. Yes, at the end of October 2024. I can broadly describe my activity as ‘communication...

The big move

by Anita Weststrate | Nov 29, 2024 | General

Sliding wheels For the big move, we looked for a removal company and found a local French firm with a good price-quality ratio: loading in Horst on Wednesday morning and unloading in Le Charaix on Friday. It was November 2024. That Wednesday morning we had set the alarm clock to be ready at 8am, as they would arrive during the morning. They finally arrived around half past twelve, and the two young men worked hard to load everything. They were worthy of their company's slogan 'Gentlemen...

The key and the first week

by Anita Weststrate | Nov 29, 2024 | General

Integration from day one On 15 October 2024, it was finally time to go to the notary and get the keys. When we signed the preliminary deed of sale in July, we spent almost 3 hours at the notary’s office, and this time it took ‘only’ an hour and a half. Both times we were not offered coffee, tea or water: something unthinkable in the Netherlands. The transfer tax in France is very high and the notary had an explanation for this: in France you are sure that the property is really yours because...

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