…It has taken me forever to get this second blog ready. Even longer than the first! There were technical details to smooth out, horses to feed, gardens to plant, eggs to collect, sheds to build, sheep to scratch, French administration to sort out… we’ll get to all that stuff in later blogs. For now, here is the end of the packing and moving. This is a long one, full of details that are meaningful to us. I’ve put them here because I want to remember the magic… Beautiful people showing up… for walks, for meals, for helping out, for celebrating, for laughs, for living a beautiful life. Here are the highlights. Enjoy...

As the packing continued, and we approached our Oct 15 moving out date, we had quite a few going away events…

Somewhere in here, we had a wonderful farewell party. I didn’t take photos. I do have lovely memories of saying good bye to many friends and neighbors. Thanks to all who came and graced us with your presence.
Meanwhile, we packed the van, plus a similar sized rental van, for our first trip Freneuse, France, 620km north of Groisy, where Benoit’s parents and aunt had kindly agreed to store some of our things.

One of the things that happened over and over during this phase, was that we would plan the next step, prepare for it, start into it organizing for a certain outcome, and then completely change it as we were doing it. I’d pack things in boxes with one thing in mind, we’d put them into the van in a certain order and then once we got there, we’d access the situation and realize that boxes we better in a totally different place. We got used to this kind of planning flexibility quickly. It was a fun challenge to have such extremely fluid expectations. I loved it.

We went through some of the boxes in Benoit’s childhood room, and we found his tennis trophies! That inspired the telling of a few family tales, especially from his mom who watched him win many of these. Big smiles. It was a pleasure to see his lifetime of dedication embodied in all these trophies. Allez, Benoit.

On the way back to Groisy, Benoit decided to take a nap in the back. We laughed as he’s probably the first living person to lay down in the van! :)
About 30 minutes after this photo, we had a really scary thing happen on the highway. Luckily, this one was only a near accident. I was going about 110km/h, passing an 18-wheeler (semi-remorque) when it started to veer into our lane, potentially penning us against the highway divider. It was terrifying.
Benoit was awakened abruptly, his body sliding forward as I braked hard, the horn blaring. His eyes flew open to the sight of a huge truck towering over us, just outside the window, all too close and coming closer.
Fortunately, I had just started to pass the truck, so we were still near the back and I could see immediately that we were slowing down fast enough that we were going to clear the truck. This was instant relief, but still, it was terrifying… If he had drifted over at a sharper angle, if I had been going faster (or he slower), or if the breaking hadn’t been as effective, we would have had a nasty, nasty accident. The angels were watching over all of us for that one. What a blessing.
I drove for another half an hour or so, but I noticed it took me days to pass a truck without feeling tense. Whuuf. Not fun.
I really hope that the truck driver got to his destination safely and had a big, long nap. I imagine he was just as scared as we were.

Not far down the road, I saw that we were approaching this rest stop. I have wanted to stop at it for years! I always look for it when we do this drive, but it’s never been the right moment to stop. And now it was the perfect moment. I wanted a rest.
And how fun that it arrived just after the truck incident! A gift. I received it gratefully.
It turned out to be a playground full of colorful mushrooms of all shapes and sizes… I climbed up one mushroom and down another… on top of, around, over, under… It was great! Someone(s) had a lot of fun making this park.
And we survived another day to play. Awesome.

Benoit took over at the wheel and some hours later we passed this! I couldn’t believe my eyes! Someone as zany as I am! :)
It was a guy driving a Smart car… pulling a trailer! Ha!
Who knew that was even possible?! The trailer was as big as the car! Most trailers are bigger than this car! How did he even find a trailer that small? Did he build it himself?! Who knew. I loved the improbableness of it all…
And to top it all off, he even had his bicycle on the back. A tiny foldable bike, of course. :))
This guy is awesome. Gold star for ingenuity. Made my day.

Romeric, one of our favorite people in the world, shows up and does his usual angel magic… he’s a magician at research, so he helped us sort out a storage place in St. Etienne, and after a fun day sharing wine, food and laughter, he helped us load up the van for our first trip there (220km). Thank you!
He also jump started another friend’s car, who happened to be visiting Benoit’s sister. It was great to see them and their new-to-us camper van! Arthur got a tour of the van’s sleeping quarters. I’m sure he can figure a way to get up to the top bunk. :)
We had a delightful visit with them all. So much serendipity.

More angles arrived… Aude & Pierre spent an entire day with us helping us do the final packing. We were excited to be doing the final move (or so we thought!). Aude volunteered to mop the entire house… no small feat!
Benoit and I packed up things inside…

… brought them outside…

… and Pierre tetris’ed things into the van, Benoit & I into the Punto.
Don’t worry the stuffed bears and lion had room to breathe and assured me they enjoyed the journey.

We paused midday to have our last meal in our beautiful home. It was lovely to be together in that space.

Finally! By late afternoon everything was out of the house! And while the guys continued packing the vehicles, Aude finished the gargantuan mopping task, and I attacked the kitchen. It was fairly clean, which was lucky because it still took several hours of elbow grease to get it ship shape. This was beginning to be a long day…

By days end, everything was out! The house was beautifully clean! …And we realized that first, it was pretty late to start a 6 hour drive north, and second, all of our stuff wasn’t fitting into the vehicles. Now what? Time for plan B.

Aude & Pierre offered to host us for the night so that we could start our drive north the next day at a more reasonable hour. We could have stayed on our house, but of course the beds were all dismantled and the linens packed up in boxes. For our extra stuff, we decided that on our return south to Portugal we’d detour through Groisy, pick up the stuff, and take it to storage in St. Etienne. This was a pretty big detour, but it meant that we could keep our things. Sorted!

The next day, we made a few final adjustments then treated ourselves to lunch at our favorite restaurant in Annecy, L’Heure Tourne. We said a fond farewell to the proprietors, Patrick and Alex and had a last meal by the fabulous lake. Blue sky, puffy clouds and swans. Life is good.

A final good-bye to our beloved home, our bedroom, the view that always amazed, the bright cheery spaces, the garden, the neighbor’s goats and chickens… Bye bye goats!
Bye Groisy! Thank you!
And we were off.

For more of this. :)

And some of this…

…with these beautiful people, Benoit’s parents.

And, of course, some of this scrumptiousness…

At Benoit’s aunt’s home.

After unpacking the van, and the Punto, and putting everything in Benoit’s parents and aunt’s house, we said a fond farewell and headed back to Groisy to pick up the last load. We drove the last few things to our storage unit in St Etienne and – at last! – we were officially done moving!!! HORRAY!!!
I felt a huge sense of accomplishment. And release. And freedom.
We’d done it!!! Now we were starting the next phase of our lives. Adventure awaited.

On the way to Portugal, we stopped over for a few days at Claire’s house, Benoit’s middle sister, who lives in Bordeaux with her husband and two boys. I always enjoy spending time with Claire and Alex. They’re fun to get to know and they like to play. The night we arrived, Alex happened to have a few friends over and was serving the most delightful champagne. What better way to celebrate than beautiful French champagne with friends and family?!!
The next day, Claire took us for a tour of the municipal recycling center she manages. It was great to see industrial scale composting in person! I geeked out a bit. The compost is in huge rows, several meters high and many, many meters long. The big green machine on the right is for turning the compost over. Impressive.

We had a great time at their local tennis club, which hosted a tournament and halloween party that weekend. Convivial, well lubricated and very welcoming. The ambiance was wonderful. (Note, the innocent have been protected. :))

Finally, we waved farewell, and off we drove to Serpa, Portugal.

We’d done a lot of driving in those 4 weeks… Starting with the drive across France to buy the van on 26 October, then all of the moving and finally arriving in Serpa on 26 October, we’d driven more than 8,250 km.
That’s all the way across the US… and back! Wow. I didn’t realize that until right now when I added it up.
It didn’t feel like a lot. We had big breaks in between each trip. We took the time to enjoy each one. We saw a lot of beautiful country, listened to podcasts, had deep conversations and knew we were living our dream. Inspiration is vital fuel.

So this was it. The definitive end of one chapter in our lives, and the beginning of another. We felt a big sense of release and change. A big sense of adventure.
What awaited us in Portugal? What amazing adventures would we live next? We were excited.
Portugal, here we come!