Well, well, well. It has certainly been a busy few weeks since Easter. The main change is that we have moved to a new flat, and unfortunately this time we moved ourselves which is every bit as awful as I remembered! However, I did drive the moving truck, which was really quite the experience. We hired a huge camion with a liftgate and that certainly helped with much of the heavier stuff, but the first time I climbed into the cabin was a little nerve-wracking. I haven’t driven in around 3 years and on top of that I have never driven on the wrong (errr, right?) side of the road. It was fine, of course! Even a little bit fun, if I’m honest.

So, here we are now in a little village just outside the main city of Montpellier. I miss our neighbour’s friendly cat, whom we christened ‘Jonçy’.

I now ride my bike to the bus in the mornings and from the bus stop home in the evenings. I had almost forgotten just how great it is to ride/exercise before and after work – it makes such a difference to your outlook! I even rode all the way in (about 80 minutes) last Wednesday and hope to do that again this coming week if it’s not too hot. It might not be the most direct route, but we ride through some local vineyards which is really nice – especially right now when they are coming into the growing season.

We are still unpacking and putting away boxes, but we only have a few left to go. We have a garage now, so there’s a little less clutter around the place as all the bike-related gear can stay down there. The best thing about the new flat though is that the kitchen is much more spacious which means we are both much happier to cook more often – it’s less of a chore than in the other flat.

We are still working through getting services connected or disconnected – as usual, everything takes twice as long because we’ve filled out the wrong form or contacted the wrong office, but we are getting there!

Lastly, we’ve been flat out planning a couple of trips over summer. Firstly, my lovely friend Nicole is going to be in Spain in May so we are going to meet up for a week and take a relaxing bike tour along part of the Pirinexus Ruta. The following weekend we’ll be in Barcelona to see Micah P Hinson. In June we’re heading over to Porto, Portugal for NOS Primavera Sound. Then in July, we’ll be in Vienna  where I will be relaxing and eating Turkish food all day while Tom attends a conference!

The future is bright and exciting!