What news from Blighty?

Well we’re here and it feels like we have never been away, which is scary.

5 months ago we left Grimsby on a wet and windy December day, but our hearts were happy as we were starting our journey to our new life in France. So much has happened since then and it feels very strange to be back in Grimsby again, knowing that it isn’t home.

We came back for several reasons. Firstly to sell our English car, the Picasso. It’s done us proud, never really going wrong, never failing to start, and only once allegedly getting us into trouble. But sadly, although she is a French girl at heart, she has an English slant, being a right-hand drive which makes her a bit of a cripple when it comes to driving on the french roads. So we brought two cars up to England (leaving Chippie to have a well-earned break), me driving the Picasso and Lisa in the Zafira. The Picasso is 6 years old, but she did a cracking job on the drive up. Not a murmur from her for about 1100 kilometres. Then as we sped along the Lincoln bypass, with journey’s end in sight, my poor Picasso developed a very throaty noise. Yes, we had negotiated the hills and valleys of northern France, done battle with the M25, conquered the A1, but the A46 was just too much for it and the exhaust fell apart. Our triumphant return was not quite as spectacular as we had hoped, limping in sounding like something from world war 1. And now I have to try to sell the bloody thing! I had hoped that I would easily shift it, as it is in generally very good condition and everything else works, but a dodgy exhaust really gets you off on a bad footing with a dealer when he can hear you approaching from a mile away. Ah well, we’ll see how we get on and I’ll let you know.

Another reason for us coming back to the UK was for us all to see our family, and, perhaps more importantly, for the kids to see their friends. This was a difficult decision for us as we were unsure how much it would unsettle them. Although they are very happy in France and they all have really good friends from school, it is still a lot harder for them a they are still elarning the language and so cannot just chat with their mates, like they could in England. We all know that will come, but it must get very frustrating for them. So a return to England was very welcome for them so that they could have a few days of being able to hang out and natter with friends like they used to do. The danger is, will this then make them realise how hard it is back home in France and send them off the rails in terms of their settling down? I don’t know – It’s really tough to know what to do for the best. We will just have to cross that bridge when we come to it I think.

One thing is for certain. Upon reading the papers, watching the television, driving around and seeing the people here, we are all glad we made the move. It has been great to see our family and freinds while we are here and we wouldn’t have missed the opportunity to see them, but we know we could never move back here. France is our home and that’s where we will stay.