Green

Last night I had a chat with an old friend from Arnside days i.e. pre-2000. She & her husband have recently bought a property in France. Her husband loves a project &, now he’s retired, he has plenty of time to take something on. The property they bought is little more than a shell of a building but that won’t stop him. He built a two storey extension to their house in Arnside when their sons were growing older & they needed more space.

 

La Rochelle

It turned out the property is near La Rochelle. Memories came flooding back. I couldn’t help commenting if we’d ever moved to France, of all the areas we’ve visited I think that would have been the place I would have chosen to live. The city is fabulous. The seafood so fresh. The air clean. The people friendly.

Not far away, around Coulon, you get to the Green Venice, an area with no roads, just water. Here teenagers aspire to their own boat rather than a car. It is so peaceful. Even cattle are transferred from one field to another by boat.

Green Venice

Moving cattle, Green Venice

I felt greener by the minute. In my case green with envy. We had hoped at one time to move to France when we retired. Then between my health problems & the government moving my retirement age to 65 going 66, it just became impractical. The Fox is now nearly 70 & just feels too old to cope with such a drastic change of lifestyle now. Instead, we’ve settled for Morecambe, which has many good things going for it. But that doesn’t stop us wanting to at least visit France again & feeling nostalgic about the country, its people & culture.