. . . et pourquoi La Rochelle?

" . . . et pourquoi La Rochelle?" everyone asks us. ". . . et pourquoi pas ?" we reply since the Rochelais all seem to be very proud of their city. So far, we have had only a few occasions to ask ourselves not only “pourquoi La Rochelle?” but even why bother to have uprooted our lives, packed up our home and gone through various bureaucratic nightmares to live here? It all began over two years ago in our small house in Canada. We began to wonder what we would do together when I retired. Of course, everyone who knew us expected us to travel, something we both have done extensively and for long periods of time all over the world. And that is what we expected to do too. We talked about going to Africa, revisiting countries in Asia or South America. We talked about going somewhere for a few months as volunteers and then one day David said:”What if we went to just one place for a long time and tried to fit into that place, become part of the life of that place?” The more we thought about it, the more intriguing it became. We decided that we were looking for a challenge, something to turn us on our ears, take us out of our comfort zone but also an experience that would be fun and would offer us time to learn, to exercise our brains. At first I was of the opinion we should go to somewhere completely different—Viet Nam, China or Chile. David thought we should test ourselves in a somewhat more familiar environment. Then if it worked, we could go on to more challenging places. And so we kept coming back to France: somewhere different, with the challenge of language, a rich cultural life and close to England so we could visit our dear friends who live there. Somewhat influenced by Peter Mayle and the notion of having a winter away from snow and ice, we began our search in Provence. As we watched the temperatures rise higher and higher in the early spring and realized the high cost of living there, we began to move a bit west and a bit north. We wanted a small city—big enough to have a cultural life, good libraries and a variety of other activities but small enough that it would be easy to get around without a car, get to know it well quite quickly and perhaps find friends. University town, we thought. So we made our way north, following the weather map to Poitou-Charentes. Here we discovered the weather is nearly as good as the moderate times in the south but isn't as hot in the spring and summer. Finally, we saw La Rochelle—by the sea (I have always wanted to live by the sea), a small university, a link to Canada (Champlain came from a village just south of here) and great weather—lots of days of sun, some rain in winter but nothing serious and no boiling heat in the summer. As well, because of its thriving tourist trade in July and August there was lots of available accommodation during the months we wanted to be here—September to June. And that is how we come to find ourselves in Rue des Bonnes Femmes, La Rochelle, France.