The Plan

Never been to France before, truth be told, it was Alfonz's idea. I blamed him during the last year whenever there was a bump in the road and I found myself rocking back and forth like a baby, thumb in mouth. Of course these moments often arise. You can not go through change and not have regrets. On the road with two kids for months on end, you have moments of What am I doing here?!


Alfonz and his best friend travelled through Europe on their motorbikes, and Montpellier for what ever reason was where they spent the most time.


Side note: To all the women Before Eva (BE) that see this and decide you also have a few 'shared memories' of Alfonz & Adrian's 'European Tour', this is not your opportunity to say hi. Save it for Facebook girls!


And I had a good paying union job for 20 years at Canada Safeway. Alfonz owned and operated his own Auto-Wrecker in Surrey, making a lucrative income, but it was never his passion. He had also been at it for 20 years. There we were having the income most of friends envied but absolutely did not suit our attributes.


Day after dat he would show up after work, mentally and physically drained. He was the guy that kept everything in his giant brain, and he had no one to relieve him, not for a vacation, not for a day off. It was him or the business would sink.


Although I tried to offer my equally as large head (but not from having a giant brain, my cranium happens to be larger than his), he would get frustrated at my lack of even basic car knowledge. For a girl, I know a thing or two, to run a business to help Alfonz out, is laughable.


Then of course we also had two fab-dab-ulous children to factor into the equation. Daniel was then 7 and Angelina 5 when we decided to change our lives.


It was January, and we were in the middle of a huge renovation project on our house, and had an offer in on our dream house at the beach. A big direction change to drop it all and move away, leaving our friends with great concern.


Why not live your life now? What were we waiting for anyway. I had just lost, my step dad and uncle before 60 years old, both saving for the retirement they never reached. It jolted us awake. Why were we taking on another huge mortgage, so we can work harder to look fabulous at our parties. What's the point if you are exhausted at those parties, working like madmen!


This was our pre-depature tick off list


Sell House √Sell the Furniture-√


Find Short Term Accommodations close to the kid’s school-√
Set the kids up with Home Schooling come June-√
Pick landing destination-√
Pick a region in France-√
Pick a business in France-√
Start telling our friends and family-√√


Down size to 2 suit cases each
Sell Business√
Departure (approximate date) August last year.




Looks like we are about three hours Northeast of you. Watched the episode. We chose #3 which may give you an indication of how crazy we are. Looking forward to the next bits of information when you're ready to share.

persistence is the key in France. We arrived with a German Viano van and had to transfer the plates to French. Alfonz was there the last time and the lady said, 'Are there no Viano Vans in France?' What do you mean he asked. 'Well you keep bringing them in from Germany.' 'Look lady, this is the same van! I have been here 12 times for the same van!' She then pushed the paperwork through promptly!

I was lucky that Canada finally aloud BC on the reciprocity driver's licence program, and thankfully that was a breeze to get a French licence. Also buying a house here was easy, as we had a fabulous realtor.

I hope you see our little episode. I will tell you more about it once you see it. :)

Nice to meet you all!

We auditioned for International House Hunters as well, but they had just done an episode in the area = probably yours! Good luck and will be following your blog. I'm hoping at some point we can overcome our visa issues and open our business as well as we own the only Bar and Restaurant in a village of 350 and have not been able to open. It's a shame for the residents more than ourselves.

We are very lucky to have both Hungarian and Canadian citizenship. Alfonz was born in Budapest, and I in Surrey, but both Hungarian decent. I have heard France is strict on the 1 year visa issue, but there are ways around it.

We started two failed businesses here, and ended up running a chambre d'hote and gite out of our house. It was the easiest way to make money right off the bat. Now we are restructuring the business plan and seeing the accountant next week, cross our fingers, it all works out for us. And of course you too.

I just got a job cleaning canal boats and started today. I feel grateful to have a contract when so many are unemployed.

We also did the house hunters International show, the link is on our website.

Will post again tomorrow. :)

Now i am going to visit that Blog. Curious how that story played out.

http://theceliachusband.blogspot.fr/

Hi Eva, I'm curious how you dealt with Visa issues? Or are you and or your partner EU citizens I arrived right about the same time as you and I have been consumed with Visa issues since arrival and have been completely unable to start our business after a full year of effort.