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If you have followed my blog for some time, you might have noticed a dramatic slowdown in my posting frequency over the last two years. Today I am returning to more active posting. What happened? Read on. Short attention span? Here’s the

TL;DR: Sold the House, Moved to France

2021: The Invitation
Our son moved to France in 2016, met the love of his life and decided to stay for good. In our first post-pandemic visit, he invited us to consider spending more than just one or two trips a year. Our daughter is well established in Minnesota, so we started to consider sharing our time between the US and France. Lots of people are snowbirds, we thought about becoming “Francebirds”. I had retired in 2019 and had finished my WSET Diploma in 2021. Julie retired in 2021. Time for change?

We decided we were ready for a change and new challenges. In early 2022, we

• Downsized. Painful! Get rid of a big houseful of stuff
• Moved into a rental apartment in the North Loop, downtown Minneapolis
• Significant updating to the house; decor, new furnace & A/C
• Sold the house, good timing!
• Applied for long stay French visas, 1st step to residence in France

Fall 2022: Establish Life in France
In fall 2022, we rented an Airbnb for 3 months, looking for a rental apartment in Dijon. With little rental stock, we ended up making the leap and buying! Tiny by American standards, our Dijon appartement is 75 m² (750 sq. ft). We are close to the train station (Gare de Dijon) and just outside the pedestrian zone.

Winter 2022/23: Purchase & Remodel Minneapolis Apartment
We found we love living in the North Loop downtown Minneapolis. A condo which met our needs went on the market in November, before we even left France. Taking a closer look, it did need a kitchen remodel and general redecorating. Well, why not? Renovations finished up just before we left for France in August. It seems that there is something we absolutely must do every single day. Ugh!

Life as France Birds
Our plan is to split our time equally between Minneapolis and Dijon. Our old life in the suburbs involved getting into the car for virtually everything. Now we can walk to the grocery/market, dozens of restaurants, historic sites, bits of greenspace in both Dijon and Minneapolis. We still have work ahead: developing our French language skills, maintaining connections with family and friends on both sides of the Atlantic, taxes, paperwork