The adventure continues...

In our first visit to the house in Le Bic, we found that the house and furniture are more amazing than we could have imagined.  And the garden has been cleaned up and tidied — perfect for new gardeners to arrive to put their own imprint on the landscape. It’s lovely, too.

We had gone by yesterday late afternoon (in a bit of a drizzle) as we arrived,  just to look (of course, the owner and his helpers were out cleaning up the garden), so we waved.  We’re rather obvious with the kayaks on top and the bike in back, not to mention the NC plates.  There are no U.S. tourists here yet.

We thought the house looked so much smaller, and the garden, too (that was a good thing), but then we were thinking the traffic was louder than we thought it would be — and what’s that daytime train that just rumbled by?

Today, we visited, after 4 months of looking at the web photos and “talking” with Daniel via Google Translate. To our amazement this morning, Daniel, the owner, speaks quite decent English, so he took us through the house and garden (we arrived much earlier than we expected — in 2 and 1/2 days).

The house is remarkable and the antiques are exceptional. He’d collected them over 30 years and used his house in the last 12 years or so as a way to display some things that he then would swap out. The pieces he’s leaving for us (we added them as an addition to the house price) are beautiful, along with all of the decorative and household items that he's also leaving.

An unexpected addition is the rooster and 5 hens in the small animal shed and compound; they can go back to the neighbors at the end of summer.

Tomorrow will be site details.  But we’re buying this house; it will be finalized on Wednesday. For practical people, this is a serendipitous and happy circumstance, in a part of the world that’s wonderful.

We'll enjoy being here.  We're delighted to be stewards of such a wonderful house and garden.