Hello hello g’day! Sorry I was even tagged and still was late replying! I’m Tory. I spent very early years in Sydney then grew up on a farm on the Lachlan river in central west NSW. Left Oz at 21 for ‘a year or 2’ to spend time with my UK family. Hated the grey winter and ended up working for Keycamp in the Gers where I met my hybrid (Frenck / UK) hubby. After a ski season in Italy and some time in Spain we bought our first house in the Aude in '99. Had our first 2 kids there, and a second house. Headed back to Oz in 2008. Did my nursing degree in Hervey Bay then moved to Kiama where I did my midwifery degree at Wollongong hospital / uni. Fell pregnant with our 3rd and decided to have a year back in France, arrived in mid 2015 and still here 
I’m now working as an English teacher in a lycée pro as hadn’t done enough time working post graduation to swap my quals to here 
as a midwife. I’m mid Dordogne.
Hello and welcome!! I’m near Toulouse, we’ve been here for 12 years, during which time all but one of our kids have grown up and moved away but we’re still very happy here, despite the summer heat. Originally I’m from the UK, although I haven’t lived full time there since 1998 so am very aware that I’m out of touch.
I wish all you the luck in this new life, it sounds as though you have the tools to have a wonderful and successful time here. This site I’ve found to have a fund of good information, I was drawn here thanks to suspected Japanese knotweed in our garden but have stayed for the knowledge, humour, and good conversation - and you have a woodturner, so what could possibly go wrong!! (that is a joke, just in case I sound snarky!!)
Thanks for replying Tory! What an amazing international journey you’ve had! I’m hoping to get some work in a gallery or museum but also may have to fall back on teaching, which I did in Australia. As most people, we are learning as we go here in France, and appreciate any advice given! Good to meet you and stay warm! R
Hi Caroline, yes, we certainly could use advice on heaps of things (like woodworm, moss on the roof, flues, replacing beams, changing licences and insurance), and I can see lots of great info on here as well as very friendly people and a lovely sense of online community! Great to meet another fellow Aussie, hope your knotweed issue is solved (we have creeping bamboo and a huge thorny hedge to deal with soon!) R
Good morning
Looks like you’re coming with all the things we have to when we follow our hearts and buy an old house with all the character beauty and nasty surprises that typically includes.
Our woodworm is in abeyance now but we did plenty of painting with smelly substances when we moved in. I’m definitely NOT an expert on any of the things you mention. Bravo if you’re tackling them yourselves I admire you.
I am now pretty sure that our knotweed is in fact Russian vine. Very rampent and looks almost the same but not as scary and persistent. I haven’t seen it for a few years anyway. Fingers crossed.
Last point. I’m not an Aussie (though OH spent two happy years there and bitterly regrets leaving) but English. In fact the only hundred percent English person in my immediate family. I come from Suffolk which is between Cambridge and the coast. An area famous for its flatness so I find it amazing that so many mountains have swung into view during the second half of my life. Never can tell what’s waiting in life!!
Again best of luck in your domestic adventure and welcome to the northern hémisphère Europe France and the forum.
Apologies for the lack of commas. Typing this on my phone.
We’re in Nanteuil en Vallee in 16700, we have a couple of kiwis over here. Welcome to France x
Bienvenue! Wish you lived in Amboise. Please tell me more about GRETA. Is it online? Face to face? I have lived here seven years and never heard of it. I too was a teacher. I once lived in the lovely land of Oz for a year.
Peche Merle. Google says it means fishing for blackbirds! Reminds me of Clochemerle. It was very funny. Is there such a place?
When I arrived I thought those lumps in the tres were nests. Mistletoe! In England I used to pay an arm and a leg for a bunch in the local market.
The GRETA stands for a collective of local public lycées which provide adult education, usually but not only vocational, and lots of people wanting to do a professional qualification also need to get the academic bit of them. Usually a lycée has a GRETA sign on it to indicate that’s where you get lessons. All subjects are taught by different EN teachers who may or may not be based in that school.
Edited to add
Peche Merle. Google says it means fishing for blackbirds!
It is Pech Merle without an ‘E’ at the end of pech. A pech is a hill 