We're headed for France...
Say What?
We’ve been dreaming of moving to France for several years, and we hope to make that a reality in 2022. Unfortunately, that means leaving behind our family and many, many friends in Philly and beyond.
Instead of trying to stay connected via Facebook, we’re going to try something different with a newsletter hosted on Substack. It’s a way for us to write about our travels, with photos and news about life in France. We’ll share it all with an email newsletter.
Of course, we have a lot of work ahead of ourselves. First order of business: Finding new digs.
This week, we’re off on a whirlwind Tour de France to explore several cities, including Tours, Nantes, Vannes, Rennes, Rouen, Nancy and Strasbourg. We hope you enjoy our reports!
So why are we going?
It would not be inaccurate to blame it on Ira Einhorn, the 1960s hippie guru who murdered his girlfriend in West Philly. Or maybe the Daily News editor who sent Theresa after the stinky fugitive when he turned up years later in an abandoned windmill in the south of France.
But to be fair, you should really credit Le Café de la Place, a typical spot at the end of Rue Delambre in Montparnasse, where countless hours spent idly watching people over a single demitasse, lost in thought and loving conversation, made us realize that France was our happy place.
After that fateful news assignment 25 years ago, Theresa decided to dive back into the French language that she had begun to learn in high school. When she suggested a vacation a year or so later, Don was all in. One visit was followed by another, and another. The baguettes and stinky cheese and Notre Dame Cathedral and Pont Alexandre III and dinner at Monsieur Lapin just reeled us in. And eventually, Don even learned how to read a menu.
We’ve made a good home here in Roxborough, and we cherish our families and the friendships we’ve made. But as we near full retirement from long careers, we feel it’s time to move on to new challenges, new experiences, a new home.
Paris, it turns out, is way more than our Daily News pensions can accommodate. We’ve already explored France beyond the Seine – from Normandy to the Pyrenees, from Burgundy to Bordeaux. In March and April, we’re going to continue that exploration, with visits to the Loire, Brittany and Alsace.
Then, we envision one of those House Hunters International moments, when we sit down over a good bottle of wine, eliminate the also-rans and settle on a town where we want to live.
When we return, we’ll sell our house and cars, and finish off that last bottle of imperial stout that’s been aging in our cellar. We expect to say goodbye in a meaningful way – a game of Hearts, a yoga class, a round of drinks.
And then we hope to stay connected through this private email newsletter. It’s intended only for our family and closest friends, so we ask that you don’t share it without our permission. We promise we won’t bore you, but if you’re not interested, please feel free to unsubscribe.
Ultimately, we know we’ll find just the right place for us – a town that checks off all the right boxes: A place to walk near water; a café on a square; a local brewery or two; a food market with olives and cut flowers. A town that is our happy place.
By the way, you can keep up to date with our travels on our Substack page.