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...

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...

There is no goodbye Not everyone is happy with our decision to move to France and this affects us too. How do we deal with this? This aspect becomes an important part of our process, even if you can't see it from the outside. Looking back, we can see that, in addition to a great deal of motivation, it takes a lot of courage to take the step abroad after having lived in the same house for 25 years. We loved our house in Hapert. I had never imagined that a move could be such a tangible, physical...

The ultimate teamwork begins Based on our decision to go to France for our 'mission', the obvious choice was to look for a house in the Cathar region, near Rennes-le-Chateau and Carcassonne. No sooner said than done. We soon found a house we liked: big enough, in a residential area, so no tractor needed. We made an offer, but there were more interested people and the party didn't go ahead. Were we frustrated, sad or angry? Yes, and it lasted 5 minutes! But we know that if it did not go ahead,...

How the decision was made to emigrate to France For those who have known us for some time, our move to France did not come as a complete surprise. Rob had been working in France for years: first for a French company in the Benelux and since 2007 for a Dutch company in France. He drove an average of 60,000 km a year to tirelessly visit his French customers. Year after year, you could find us on the Autoroute du Soleil in the summer for a caravan holiday in... France. He would regularly throw...