Six excellent reasons to travel from south to south in July

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For the good people of the south of Africa – well, Cape Town in particular – July is not the year’s best month. If you’re lucky, it rains. A lot. Which is good, since water is scarce. Also, it’s cold, which requires layers of clothing, thermal underwear, raincoats, scarves, gloves and hurricane-resistant umbrellas. Let’s face it, unlike balmy February, July doesn’t scream holiday with sunscreen and swim stuff  – the days are short and the nights are long.

What to do, you may wonder? We know: head to the other south – the south of France – and here are six compelling reasons why you should pack (lightly, because it’s summer there) and leave on a jet plane. 

1/ The sun is warm, really warm

Granted, there’s nothing quite like a sunny winter’s day in Cape Town. No wind, no rain, blue sky … and a thick jersey for the bits in the shade. In the south of France, July is hot, hot, hot, perfect for relaxing by the pool, in a river or on the beach. Also perfect for going home with a glowing golden tan! Nothing says oh-the-fun-we-had-in-Europe quite like a tan in winter that isn’t sprayed on or generated in a salon.

2/ The days are long, very long

It’s summer, so the days stretch late into the night. You can have those three-hour barbeques under the stars, in your bikini, ready to briefly think of winter at home before you splash into the cool pool water.

3/ It’s not as expensive as you think

A quick search on Air France’s site for a July flight from Cape Town to Montpellier (yes, it takes forever because you go via Joburg and Paris) came up with a R7 505 price tag if you book well in advance (like today). We found a BA July flight from CT to JHB for R3 736. That’s for two hours of flying and you end up in, well, Joburg which is nice and all, but not in July when it’s dry and dusty and all the shades of brown.

4/ The wine is good, ridiculously good

Yes, I know CT has some of the best wine in the known world, but seriously, you just have to put the wines of Languedoc to the test. Red, white and rosés for every taste, with some delicious bubbly for your aperitif on the terrace.  You can walk, cycle or drive to a long list of wine farms in our immediate area and stock up on some tipple in whatever your budget bracket is. What you probably don’t know is that Languedoc is the biggest wine region in France, with something like 2,800 km2 under vines. Oh wait, I just read that it’s actually the single biggest wine-producing region in the world and is responsible for more than a third of France’s total wine production.  Bigger isn’t always better, except when it comes to the wine from this region that was underrated for many years before it found it’s voice and started producing some ridiculously good vin.  

5/ The food is good, fabulously good

It’s French. It’s good. We have a fabulous kitchen where you can don your chef’s hat and put the fresh produce you bought at the market to good use. We’ll throw in a recipe or two for you to try, and a few polite French words to weave into your dinner table chats. And if cooking isn’t on the cards, there are restaurants within a muffin’s throw that will get you salivating. Pick from home style French cooking, to contemporary foodie fare, to Michelin star fine dining tucked away in small villages. Lest we forget, start your day with the real deal: authentic croissants, baguettes and those fabulously delicious chocolate pastries that should be declared a recreational drug because they’re so addictive.

Hold your chef’s hat! We’ve got some hot from the oven news: We are going to collaborate with French chef who will cook for you in our kitchen! That must be pure holiday bliss. Visit our website for details. We’re super excited …

6/ You can run and you can hide

Early morning hikes in the surrounding vineyards just sound so much more appealing when compared to early morning traffic jams in the dark and rain as you make your to work.  There are so many country lanes to walk along that you could lose yourself in the peace and tranquillity that is the French countryside. Whether you roll out of bed for your daily stroll, or drive to the nearest beach, forest, or city, you will find plenty nooks and crannies in natural surroundings, or centuries-old architecture where you can recharge. And when you don’t want to walk, we have bikes you can rent.

There are a gazillion more reasons why you should travel from south to south in July but none as pressing as this one: we want to meet you and open our home for you to get respite from cold, wet winter weather. In July, nogal!

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All packed up

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We did it – packed up our whole house into a container, that is about to be loaded onto a ship and taken across the ocean to France. Then we packed up our clothes and our dogs and flew across dry land and sea to Switzerland.

It’s complicated.

While we get our lovely house in Caux ready to welcome visitors to the south of France, its people, beauty, wine and food, we ourselves are spending a year in Switzerland. In a village called Unterägeri, to be precise (it’s about 20 minutes outside Zug, which is about 30 minutes outside Zurich).

Moving your furniture and other creature comforts, including your favourite art pieces and your own sculptures to one country while you move yourself to yet another one, is not for the faint-hearted.

If you’re tempted to do something similar, here are a few things to consider:

• Find the best relocation company you can afford. Ask others who have moved to another country about their experience, search online for reviews and references, compare prices and don’t fall for the cheapest quote. Try a website like Hellopeter to find reviews, both good and bad, that can help you make an informed decision. We went with Execu-Move in South Africa and so far, so good. Their service in the run-up to the move, as well as on the day, was fabulous. They responded very quickly to queries and went out of their way to allay any fears we had. Also, they didn’t just respond to emails, they initiated communication to keep us in the loop. Their packing team was professional, courteous and willing to respond to our concerns. I had a few sculptures that I was very nervous about moving, but they handled them with great care (we wait to see if they survived the journey!).

• If you’re taking your pets with you, then the above is even more relevant – go with the best you can afford. From our first enquiry, Global Paws were on the job. Let’s be clear, it’s expensive to take your dogs to another country. And it’s not just the initial quoted cost, but all the add-ons, like vaccinations and health certificates. But if you’re moving with your pets, you obviously love them – a lot –so make sure the company handling the logistics is responsive and keeps you informed every step of the way. It’s stressful for you, and it’s stressful for your pets, so don’t be surprised if they act up. Ours lost their appetite and started following us around like shadows, especially when our house was being packed up. Have a little more patience with them, and with yourself.

• On that note, keep in mind that moving is stressful, even if you initiated the move and are excited about it. Saying goodbye to all that is familiar to you isn’t easy. Saying goodbye to friends is a sad time. Saying goodbye to your children, even though they’re grown-up and married, is like ripping out your heart. So be nice to yourself and whoever is moving with you. Or at least try. At least try every now and then. If need be, ask your doctor for stress relief meds to help you through the move, and the adjustment on the other side. Even then, cry if you must. Ugly crying is a good thing, and you’re entitled to it. Then dry off your tears and make sure you have every form of digital communication tool and app available to mankind – you may even end up speaking “face to face” with family and friends more often from far away than you did when you were living within a muffin’s throw from one another!

• Keep the bigger picture in mind. You will more than likely have grave doubts about leaving your place and your people, you will wonder what possessed you to move to whichever country you picked out. But remember, it was probably all clear as daylight when you made the initial decision, so hold on to that as you ride the rollercoaster of change.

We’ve arrived in Switzerland, unpacked our dogs and our bags, and on the first morning we woke up to snow. That may not be newsworthy to you, but believe me, for someone born and raised in Africa, that was a most marvellous welcome to this European adventure!

 

We went from this (Bo-Kaap, Cape Town, South africa)…

We went from this (Bo-Kaap, Cape Town, South africa)…

…to this (unterageri, Switzerland)

…to this (unterageri, Switzerland)

So you think you can move…

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If there’s one thing you do a lot – as in a very, very lot – when you sell a house and buy one in a foreign country, then it’s pen your signature to documents. In fact, after a while, I was tempted to initial and sign the pages of magazines, books, newspapers – anything paper related. You get in the groove of initial, initial, initial, initial, full signature; initial, initial, initial, full signature (press repeat…).

When you also sign your life away in a language you don’t speak, understand or read, then it’s vital that you find yourself an estate agent you connect with well – and whose English is 200% better than your non-existent French – as well as a notary who is super serious about explaining every crossed t and dotted i.

In September 2017 we returned to Pézenas to see if it would be possible to buy a small apartment. In a two-week whirlwind that made House Hunter’s International look like a stroll in the park, we viewed a list of properties, gradually going from apartments to houses and even a farmhouse with a vineyard. We made an offer on a house, which was rejected, lost our hearts to another, which was way above our budget, and in the end, instead of a two-bedroom apartment, bought a three-bedroom house with three one-bedroom apartments on the property.

Downscaling? Not so much!

What we learned along the way is:

  • Always view a property more than once. The first time we viewed the house we eventually bought, we were underwhelmed. The second time it felt like home.
  • Make sure you hit it off with your estate agent, and if he or she can speak your language in addition to the language of the country where you’re buying, then you have a gem. Because there was an instant rapport, we could look past a well-intentioned warning that “sweet doesn’t get you a good deal” – as it turned out, our very sweet agent got us a very sweet deal.
  • Trust your instinct. We did and struck oil with both the property and the agent.
  • Walk around the neighbourhood and don’t be tempted to buy the best house in the worst area. We nearly bought a beautifully renovated house next to a wine distillery and a motor mechanic’s workshop. Blinded by the beauty of the house, we totally missed the surroundings.
  • Look beyond the obvious for the potential, but if you’re not a handyman and do-it-yourself specialist, don’t go for the bargain that can hardly keep itself together.
  • Don’t be scared. There are good people around and not everyone is out to swindle you.
  • Small villages are charming, but make sure the things that are important to you are within reach. Caux is close to Pézenas, which is much bigger, with more shopping and supermarkets. It’s the best of both worlds.
  • Keep the dream alive. Buying property long-distance is not easy. It’s doable, for sure, but it will test your sense of humour severely, so talk about the house and keep photos of it on your phone or tablet for easy access because back home, daily life will get in the way and push your dream to the edge of your mind.
  • Practice your signature for the documents that will pop up in your email on a daily basis: from loan generators, the seller, the agent, the bank.
  • Google translate will fuel your sense of humour. No, really, some of the translations from French to English may just as well have been Greek, but they were funny when they weren’t terrifying.
  • Don’t let age trick you into thinking an adventure is beyond your grasp. We’re in the 55-60 age group and are gearing up to move to and work in Switzerland for a year or so, and at the same time set up and run our home in Caux as a holiday let. It’s exciting and scary and we’re going to cry rivers when we leave our daughters and sons-in-law behind, but we also know we can’t let this opportunity go by to do something a little crazy.