After our year in the USA, we thought that we would stay for a while in St André, near Lille, because that’s the place we call home. At some point though, we started to realise that we were missing some things that we had started to enjoy: spending more time with the kids, hiking in the mountains, visiting places. Autumn was long, it started pissing rain in October, so even cycling on the weekend was not fun, then winter, and more rain. In November Cedric went visiting a friend in Cannes, and on the trip back stop at the Valence TGV station. The view over the Vercors mountain on one side and Ardèche on the other, at 2h30 from Paris, triggered a reflection… we brought the kids around on vacation, and we decided that we would sell the house and have a year around France. Cedric has travelled all around the world but doesn’t really know his own country, and it’s said to be beautiful. We would discover different places, different ways of living, different cultures, different landscapes. The destinations would be found along the way, we’ll be housesitting and taking care of the pets and gardens. That’s something we discovered through Fred and Vince who travelled this way with their family in the US: there are specialised websites like Nomador or Trusted Housesitters. Only issue to sort out was our two lovely cats again, and one more time the amazing Odile and Cyprien volunteered for taking care of them (thank you!!!!).

The CoVID lockdown didn’t quite impede the plan, we managed to sell the house, buy a van, find a couple of places to stay in and we’re now ready to go!