Where to live after the “Domaine du Bac”…..? Fifteen years spent in de large, wide, silent, idyllic and green paradise make it kind of complicated to find something similar, where one can live as comfortably.
We knew the following for sure:
- We wouldn’t return to Holland: it’s simply too full, too noisy and to hectic for us;
- We had often been considering moving further South, but with the heat moving North we’re not certain this has been a good idea anymore;
- The new house had to be SMALLER, more sustainable, and more comfortable, preferably with less stairs and less grass to mow;
- The quiet and tranquility, those we’d rather keep.
After six months of searching in vain, we signed the lease for a newly-built flat in the centre of Nîmes on 14 November: further to the South (and therefore perhaps too hot in summer), smaller (110 instead of 450 m2) and without a lawn, but with a lift (and two palm trees on the balcony)! There was some peace and quiet, but of course less than in the Domaine du Bac: traffic noise, rumbling motorbikes whizzing by, noises from neighbours, it was all there….
Eventually the noise from the neighbours made us move again. We rented a quaint little house in Barjac, near where the Gard département meets the Ardèche. Since the 22nd of November, we live there happily…