Even with the best laid plans, things change.

Beziers, France

17 March 2024, Happy St. Patrick’s Day

Dear Family and Friends,

I told myself and many of you that I would not make any life decisions in my first year here. That lasted about six weeks. There are many confounding factors, but essentially it comes down to what makes the most sense financially with regard to investing in real estate here. Factoring in exchange rates, real estate market, stock markets, changing landscapes, investments that are being made in Beziers that will affect the real estate market and so on, and so on, I’ve decided to start looking. And of course, the plan is to close on my Chicago apartment a week from tomorrow.

That’s really where the funny bits of story begin. Closing on a property in Chicago while in France in some ways is not as complicated as it might sound, but of course it is more complicated than being there. The first thing is you need to negotiate the deal. A seven-hour time difference during the process does tend to slow things down a bit. If I go to bed at 10:00-10:30, which is and has been common for me for many years, it’s 3:00-3:30 in the afternoon in Chicago. So, one thing I learned was not to check my email in the middle of the night. It can make for a very bad night’s sleep. Real estate is an emotional business, and it is also a major investment and getting bad news or just frustrating news at 3 am can really suck the life out of you. So, I stopped looking at my phone when I got up at 3 in the morning to do you know what.

Just an aside, the one toilette in the apartment is quite a journey, in the dark, at 3 am, through a construction site with two cats following you. You really shouldn’t try that while you're looking at your cell phone anyway. I did not hurt myself, but there were a few close calls.

After what seemed like forever to me, we have a deal and we’re nearing the close. I got the email from my attorney’s office with the documents that I needed to sign in front of a notary. The first thing to note is I need to sign them in front of a notary. That notary part isn’t a huge deal, I just needed a video conference with my attorney to sign the documents while she watch me, but it does means I need to print them. It also means I need to send them back to the United States in an expeditious way. First task, figure out how to print them. In Chicago I would have tons of options, well let’s be honest, I had a printer! But even if I didn’t have a printer, I knew people with printers, or if I wasn’t feeling like imposing on anyone I could go to a copy shop or any number of office stores and get them printed. Here, I don't know the copy shops, and there are no big office stores, or at least in the area I’m in.

Luckily this part of the story was really easy. I had noticed a shop about a half a block away that does lots of things, like keys, graphics, t-shirt printing, copying and happily printing. For a little over 50 cents a page (yeah, that’s not cheap) I had my closing papers in hand.

Finding a time with the attorney wasn’t going to be difficult but I knew that the shipping part was going to be a little bit tricky.

I was fortunate that I had noticed an international expedited shipping company around Beziers that I knew was in Chicago and figured that would be my best bet. Iwas able to quickly find them online; however, I’ve also noticed that you need to physically verify what you find on the internet. I may have told you about a certain morning that we tramped about Beziers looking for antique shops at addresses that we had found online, with open hours that were posted online as well. That morning had not gone well, some of them didn’t seem to exist when we found the address and others had posted hours but the posted hours were more of a suggestion that they might be open at the time, not a promise.

I knew that this process could have surprises and I was determined to verify that the location was correct and that the hours were correct before I needed to ship the documents. I found the store. I went inside, I had something like a conversation with the store owner and verified that they had the means to send the documents in an expeditious fashion to my attorney.

From experience, I was still a little skeptical that all will go as planned. I found time with my attorney that would allow me to get the documents signed and shipped with plenty of leeway. I signed the documents in the early evening of Friday. I got up Saturday and decided to attempt the shipment. I walked to the store that I had located about a half mile from the apartment. After a short wait for a couple of customers purchasing cigarettes and liquid nicotine for their vapes, it was my turn to attempt to communicate with the owner. He recognized me from my reconnaissance visit. His face suddenly became animated in a bad way. “No, no, I’m sorry not today.” As it turns out, there isn’t really a pick up on Saturday as the internet indicates, and he goes on holiday on Monday and will be gone for a week. The shop will be closed. The next location is in a neighboring village. I left the store and laughed to myself. This is why I started early, even though I thought I had carefully verified the plan, I knew there would be bumps along the road.

The internet was helpful in identifying the location and it was helpful in making it clear that it was either a 2 hour walk, a bus ride that wouldn’t cut the time very much, or a ride share that was going to cost me as much as the shipment. Knowing that there can still be more bumps along the road, I chose the ride share figuring that I would still be able to do my planned afternoon activities and if things didn't work out I could make bus plans for Monday. This also means that now I’ve met both of Beziers’ Uber drivers.

I made it to the small village, found the tobacco and magazine store, used my limited French and the package will be picked up on Monday and according to the paperwork I have in hand the package should be in the hands of my attorney’s office on Wednesday, two days in advance of the deadline. Still happy for the two days of grace because, you really don’t know what will happen between now and then.

Much of the life administration that I’ve mentioned in previous posts has been this type of interaction. I think I’ve figured out how, or where, or when I am going to do something and then I close my computer and go see if that’s really the way it’s going to work.

That’s a little bit the way of the real estate market as well. I start online and find some things that I think are interesting, and then I go and see IRL (in real life.) IRL things are often not what they seemed like online. There are two things I am quite certain about. First, if I start now, I may be in my own place about a year from now. Sooner would be tremendous luck. Second, I will learn so many things along the way. Already, I’m understanding the strength and weakness of the dollar in ways that I have never understood before.

It's true that I have broken a few of the promises that I’ve made to myself over the years. Like, I promised myself I would never live in a construction site again. I promised myself I would not be without a washer and dryer again. I promised myself I wouldn’t make any life changing decisions for a year… oh well, here I am.

None of these things are horrible and I cannot complain about any of them. I’m very lucky to be where I am and I’m enjoying the journey... most of the time. I’m not going to say there aren’t days… but really, don’t we all have those days? I’m feeling incredibly fortunate and learning new things every day. What more could I ask for?

If you’re following my Instagram account linked on this website, you know that we’ve had some beautiful weather this week and I got back to the locks and took some more pictures. Still amazed by the canal, the locks and the aqua duct.