... and so to France

I've lived abroad for most of the past thirty years, but ten years ago my husband and I thought we’d finally found somewhere to settle for good. We’ve moved country three times since then, but, at the time, we truly did believe we’d cracked it back in 1999.

This is how the story began:

“What is it with you and Derek?” my daughter, Michelle, demanded, justly incensed. “Other people go on holiday and bring back some tee shirts and a bottle of dodgy liqueur, but not you two! Oh no, you bring back details of properties for sale.”

She had a point. It did seem as though we couldn’t go on holiday without thinking of moving country yet again.

“You’ve only been back in the UK five minutes. What happened to settling down for good this time?”

We had said, on returning to our homeland from the island of Gozo two years earlier, that we were finally going to put down some roots. And we’d tried, we really had, but every holiday reawakened our barely dormant itchy feet.

When Derek and I married in Cape Town it was a match made in wanderlust heaven, although neither of us realised it straight away. By the time we met, we’d notched up five international moves between us and lost count of the relocations within countries. Even though I’d already perfected the art of moving, I had no idea that marriage to Derek would mean living in three more countries and slotting in a few years in the UK as well.

Everywhere I’ve ever visited has seduced me into wanting to take up residency. From our first holiday as newlyweds in Mauritius and through much of Europe on subsequent trips, I’d look longingly in estate agents windows and imagine what it must be like to live in the country.

There were only two things stopping us from upping sticks and taking off. The first was that my children needed to complete their education in South Africa and the second was that Derek was still involved in business. When both children left home, the urge to move country grew, not just for me, but within Derek as well, so it was really no surprise that he took early retirement and we set out on our journeys.

An idyllic island life in the Mediterranean held our interest for two years and living as returning expats to the UK lasted another two. A trip to the Canary Islands almost won us over, as did both Turkey and Madeira, but then we went on holiday to France and fell in love with the people, food and countryside – five months later we were packed up and ready to move.

We had intended to have a home of our own to move into, but the best laid plans of mice and men and all that ...

Tomorrow: Our trip to the Promised Land to search out a likely property to buy.

An adult lifetime of moving abroad and living abroad, brought to you by the author of The Greatest Moving Abroad Tips in the World