39 Beds and Counting..

My brother Joe calls and always asks "where are you today?'

It’s comforting to hear my brothers voice. It also brings up a thought, “no one knows where we are most days.“ Should we send a message to loved ones when we ramble out on long hikes, rafting, hang gliding or bicycle trips?

The bank asks “what is your address” in France”? We give our friend's address “in care of” and try to explain why we have no address.

• Are you rich, the South Korean student asks on the train?

• Are you on the run, the phone company employee jokes?

• Are you “sans abri” (homeless) the couple inquires at the tiny restaurant we are sharing personal space?

How do we explain that we don't have a home where we have bookshelves, photo albums, linens, cooking utensils, chairs, children's art work, dishes and sporting equipment. That would be in our storage unit in CA.

We are untethered balloons, floating through France looking for a place to anchor for a longer stay.

Our favorite "home away from home" in France

We make a stop at friend's Dean and Kaly, the "in care of address", to scratch Courgette and newest addition Riley's heads. Our lunch date was so high up in the mountains that UFO's appeared above Dean and Kaly's heads or possibly dust on the camera lens, your choice.

A visit to celebrate their neighbor Jake's 72 years young birthday is in order with Dean playing the honors on his trumpet in his tour de France ensemble.

Dogs are always in order as are a few chores to harvest plums, clean dishes, fix patio covers and sweep out the dust. Agritourism at its best and an opportunity to contribute and feel like a home owner amongst friends.

We have laid our heads on 39 pillows and their brotherhood of beds in the last 5 months during our travels. Getting off the train of meandering around Europe and on the bus bound for a permanent pillow sets up another paradigm. The paradigm shifts from exploration for the sake of travel to the quest to find a place we would like to hang up our hats.

Youssef states it well: “There are incredible places to visit and incredible places to live”. I have been very fortunate to have lived in many incredible places: Minnesota, California, Hawaii, Paris, France and Bath, United Kingdom. Now it's time for a new hat hook.

Fine Tuning and Getting Serious

Securing a residence in France still requires fine tuning, a car was needed, car insurance and eventually a driver’s license. As much as I wish I didn’t have to take a driver’s test here in France in French, ugh…. I do!

We haven’t owned a car in over 6 years so a deep dive on the newest flying cars lands on Youssef’s to-do list. Used flying cars don't materialize but a used hybrid Kia Niro does. We call our like-new car “Mia Kia”.

Dorian handing the keys to Youssef

I was 14 when I got my drivers license in Minnesota. Farm kids get licenses early to be able to drive John Deere tractors and big-wheely equipment. French driver's licenses have your original license date on the license, a requirement for insurance. I would have to search records from 54 years ago to locate the date and proof of it.

I called up Minnesota department of driving and was told they can’t find me. My presence doesn’t exist in the driving world there. Erase erase. Odd. I ask them to look for any Stottrup in their records to see if the whole pack has been eliminated but all others remain. Eventually my California driving record fits the square peg in the round hole for French rules.

We start our journey rediscovering Toulouse, SW France, to get a better feel of the 4th largest French city. We have been here before on a casual dating trip but now it's more serious dating, getting ready to make a commitment.

Exploring Toulouse's many artistic sides

Once a former convent for Augustine monks, now the beautiful Augustine Museum exhibits historical sculptures and incredible works of art.

The LEGO exhibit "Art of the Brick" by Nathan Sawaya at Toulouse hydroelectric plant EDF Bazacle showcases an artist who thinks out of the lego box. As a side note I learned that the US is the only country that pluralizes Lego to Legos. Everywhere else it remains LEGO.

Lego exhibits have always been buildings, street scenes, historic reenactments but this one is very different. The art ranges from portraits, recreations of works of art, sculptures invoking self examination, exhibiting a more exploratory art form. I can't wait to get ahold of our LEGO collection in storage.

Another impressive art exhibit at the photography gallery in Toulouse, Chateau d'Eau, was a fantastic photo exploration of the work of Mous Lamrabat, Moroccan-Belgian photographer whose surrealist photographs cause the viewer to examine our concepts of consumerism, tradition and fashion.

La vie en Bleu

We decide to take art into our own creative hands and discover the secret of Toulouse's blue-gold pastel tinting process. Pastel means "paste" in the Occitanie language. There are 13 shades of Occitanie blue. Toulouse's wealth and beautiful Renaissance architecture came as a result of the woad plant.

Our teacher, Susan, walked us through the history and process of harvesting and transforming the Woad plant into the paste which is left to ferment and dry then formed into balls called "Cocagne".

Even with all we learned, many parts of the secret process and formula weren't divulged by our host as I had hoped, because she doesn't know it. It is a tightly held secret by a very small artisanal group who still grow the plant and create the paste.

We had fun making our own "tie dyed" bags with cocagne which is resistant to running and fading. Watching the colors change from yellow/green to blue, after being submerged in the color vat, when air modifies the structure of the coloring agent was miraculous.

La Vie en Bleu!

Toulouse is a fantastic city full of surprises and opportunities but too big a city for us. We crave a smaller less bustling home town.

Musketeering

SW France is the territory of the Three Musketeers, not to be confused with the American candy bar or the Mouseketeers of Disney fame.

Alexander Dumas wrote a novel in 1844 called Les Trois Mousquetaires (The Three Musketeers) inspired by real characters woven into an adventure story.

I found my musketeers and dedicate this to my 4 brothers + me. "All for one and one for all" the Musketeer and Stottrup motto.

The Musketeers were a real military unit in 1622 under the reign of Louis XIII and Cardinal Richelieu formerly named for the musket (mousquet) they used.

There were 3 originally, Athos, Porthos and Aramis. D'Artagnan joined them later to form the 4th member. Auch is the city of D'Artagnan and his statue along with the Cathedral define the city. The whole region is rich in history and gorgeous views.

If common sense tells us not to shop when we are hungry, should we not shop for a home when we need one?

We quickly learn that house hunting is very different in France than in the US.

• Buyers work with the property sellers agent. If a buyer wants to bring in their own agent, they pay the additional agent's fee.

• Most properties aren’t exclusive.

• There is no French Multiple Listing Service, searches are made through each individual site or through an online website listing several brokers.

• Addresses are never listed for fear of competition rarely showing the true location.

• Comps aren’t required by the bank. You can ask whatever price you want and the bank doesn’t require a nearby comparable sale.

• Properties are rarely staged, sometimes not even organized in photos.

• The listing agent represents both buyer and seller but it’s the notary that does the real work.

We miss Amy Caves, our realtor in Irvine, CA.

France is made up of small towns quite often grouped into communes. We pass through gorgeous small remote villages from 100-1,000 inhabitants, some are cities of potters, painters and artists perched high on hill tops inviting us. Nice places to visit but could we live there?

Country roads curving by delightful sunflower fields with horizons, clouds and views that take the breath away.

We have driven 1,000 miles to fine tune the area we would like our "maison de charme" to magically appear. Somewhere in the Haute-Garonne, Haute-Pyrenees touching the Gers Departments.

Our criteria seems to be on most ex-pats list, old home with character, not too far from a town a highway a train station, beautiful view, big enough but not too big, 3 bedrooms with room to grow, friends nearby, not too hot, friendly neighbors, low taxes, etc. etc.

Show Dogs and Friends

Heading south to the Pyrenees for our next stay, we stop at Dolores' Dalmatian filled house for party time. Dolores and Paul are wonderful hosts and these lovely creatures are their Show Dogs with long fancy names, shortened for us. These spotted dogs know how to influence the judges.

Reflections

Herding instincts didn't work with the last dog at our airbnb. He remained fascinated watching Ms. Hen for hours circling her. She had no fears, ignored the posturing and did her own thing. Bravo!

Bed #40 coming up soon.