I Could Never Do That! Part 1

As we told friends of our plan to move to La Rochelle, we were met with one of two reactions: "How wonderful, what a great idea!" or "You are so brave. I could never do that." We were happy to have the support and excitement of the former. When we asked the latter what would constrain them, they usually wondered how they could leave their life and possessions behind and how they could ever afford to do such a thing. Having had our wonderful idea, we, too, wondered about the same things. We have two cars, a large trailer, a house and a garden that need maintenance. Thus began a long and laborious research project!  

House 
The house was the major consideration. Our goal was to find a way to cover the running and maintenance costs of the house in Toronto and therefore have money to pay rent in France. First, we investigated house exchanges which seemed the most likely and cheapest answer. However, it is rare to find one for a year. Too late, we thought of going through universities to find someone on sabbatical. We should have tried harder in this area. It might have required us to be more flexible in our choice of town. By the time, someone suggested it to us, we had already begun to fall in love with La Rochelle. We will definitely try this out in the future as we have heard only of positive experiences. The next logical solution was renting the house. Furnished or unfurnished? How to find a good tenant? Who would do the maintenance? Research on management companies uncovered a good one and we realized that we could still make a good profit if we left them in charge. Having decided to store our belongings, we then started the hunt for a storage unit. Luckily for us, our neighbour manages a very good one! Then fortune smiled. My daughter, a great traveller herself, decided to remain in Toronto for at least a year. The perfect answer. Someone we trust would be in charge and the expenses would be covered. We started a maintenance fund for any possible problems, put together a list of maintenance professionals and a month by month "manual" mainly for the garden. For those of you who may not have this lovely solution, the management company seems to us the best alternative if you are renting to a stranger.  

Vehicles 
This was relatively easy. We left our car in the driveway and the truck and trailer are stored in a parking lot north of the city. We took most of the insurance off the vehicles. If you were really organized and wanted to save more money, you could also remove the license plates. There is some good advice on the Internet about the care of a stored vehicle. Having someone run the engine every couple of months seems to be one of the main ones as well as putting a preservative into a full gas tank. 

Banking 
Finding an efficient and inexpensive method to transfer money from Canada to France on a regular basis is difficult. David spent many hours surfing the net and on the phone. The ease of internet banking in Canada perhaps gave us high expectations of what would be possible. There are many regulations, both national and international that impede transfers and make them expensive. The solution breaks down into a number of steps, the main one finding a company that transfers money easily and cheaply around the world. We found Currencies Direct, a UK firm recently set up in Canada. Then we needed an account in France to which the funds could be transferred. This can be done through international banks such as HSBC but they can be expensive. We were given the email address of an English speaking representative of a Banque Populaire branch in France. She has been unfailing helpful and thus has been christened "Patient Patricia". The next step was to find out how to transfer money from our bank account to Currencies Direct. This is where we realized Canadian banks are not very sophisticated in international money transfers. Paypal has  become expensive so we are using Telpay, recommended by Currencies Direct. We received a bank card from the French bank as soon as we had established residence in France which works well with merchants and withdrawing cash. Transferring money to our landlord's French bank account is possible as well although cheques are cheaper. We also have learned new banking jargon. For all this to work you need an international bank account that includes IBAN, BIC and in France, "le RIB".  

Airline tickets 
After researching Air Canada, Air France, KLM and British Airways, Air Canada proved to be the most efficient for one year tickets. None of the systems can take a one year return however Air Canada will book the ticket for the limit of their system and then give you one free change which allows you to book the return. You just have to remember to do it!