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Receipt of Compromise & Diagnostics Reports (Feb 2018)

I'm still building this blog, setting up the 'Retrospective' pages which describe our activities between first embarking on this adventure  and finally deciding to create this blog. However, I've decided to create the first blog post as we've hit the first major milestone to occur since I started blogging - the receipt of the Compromise and the Diagnostic Reports. The Compromise is the first of two contractual documents and commits both parties to the sale of the property. The other contract is the main contract at the end of the process. Rather than travel to France we had decided to give the notaire (similar to a solicitor but working for the State rather than the two parties) power of attorney  to sign the Compromise on our behalf. This seemed seemed sensible as it involved no additional fees and saved us the journey. We would still have a 10-day cooling off period and, even if we had traveled there, the chances of understanding even a small part of what we w
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A Night at the Chateau. 4-5 July

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 Up at 05:30 and on the road, as planned, shortly after 06:00. Nice clear run to the Eurotunnel terminal, as a result of which we were offered the 10:20 crossing (we were booked on the 11:50). Great result! Except we then queued and queued as traffic crawled through the customs and security checks. Eventually we found ourselves on the 11:20 crossing - still 30 minutes ahead of schedule. Anecdotally, the return delays are currently even worse. Isn't Brexit bliss 😒. We had booked a night at the Chateau de la Bucherie, just to the west of Paris. And French leg of the journey from the terminal was a s smooth as the journey to the terminal. I can highly recommend the chateau. The price was very reasonable, the room spacious (all be it in the roof with only a moderate sized Velux window).  The staff were delightful and friendly and the grounds (with impressive flora and fauna) were exceptional.  The kitchen garden was well stocked and we weren't surprised to see its produce feature
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Baking Bread without an Oven & Accosting Strangers - 28 & 29 June.

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  On Sunday we tried, unsuccessfully, to find the workshop of the bicycle repairman that had a stall on the market the previous year. He'd told us he was opening a shop but we failed to find it  – perhaps it didn’t survive the pandemic; perhaps we simply were looking in the wrong place. We more groceries (we can only buy a few provisions each visit due to transport being limited to the push bikes) and ordered a full size fridge-freezer. Sally reckoned it was a good price and we’ve been managing with a small fridge for long enough – especially as we’ll be visiting for longer periods now (hopefully). Delivery was only €10 so we arranged for it to be delivered the next day. In the evening we looked for hotels in Paris and, having booked three-nights there, changed our return train ticket; a surprisingly simple process. Up at a more reasonable time (07:45) on Monday – thanks to setting the alarm. We needed to be sure to be up in time for the fridge-freezer delivery (scheduled for s
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