May the 4th be with us....

I'm starting to think I've started, or more likely become a member of a secret society rather like the Free Masons but more cheese and wine orientated. Before you think I've bought a new pinny, I'm at pains to point out that it's a club of people who've moved to France or who are contemplating it in secret. People keep coming up to me in places like the coffee queue at work and letting me know they're thinking about it, they've got French property websites squirreled away in their favourites. Other people stop me whilst out walking the dogs to tell me about their friends who've done it and who are enjoying it massively. I am collecting names, numbers and email addresses. There seems to be common themes to the gallic exodus. "They wanted a different pace of life", "they wanted to downsize and enjoy the countryside" - no one seems to be moving to large city France. No-one seems to be doing workwise what they did in the UK. The "truth" which is spoken through innuendo, metaphor and occasionally body language in the form of Les Dawson-esque expressive lip movements is that the escapees were seeking a more values based existence. They were seeking some kind of spiritual re-energising .One in which agriculture, eating a local harvest and being content with less material goods is the norm. It's a bit like going back to the 1950's without the ricketts, spam and smog.

Forget whether the destination for all of these people is France. What is it we're all running from and what are we all seeking that we're not getting where we are? Maybe we're the new hippies and France is the new commune. Ipad the new tambourine. Armagnac the new wacky backy.

My bit of the commune will still have a dishwasher. I asked my electrician this week whether we can take British appliances to France.. "just change the plug mate"..

Well thereby lies a problem. Plug fitting is my Star Wars. I've never done it. Never envisaged it either. I know Alec Guinness was in it but I cannot do it. And in the same vein I will have a house full of adaptors you buy at the airport... 23 at the latest count.... the Empire does strike back, three pins rule....

By the way we have an initial completion date of May the 4th....