Oh how I hate the idea of moving house – and in particular moving house abroad. In our case we will be ‘downsizing’ – the reverse of what we did when we came here. We moved here to a bigger place and now we will be returning to a significantly smaller house. Our old house in fact.

But I’m excited about the move all the same – we have had our time here in France and even though it was not actually to our liking we will miss certain aspects of life here…few though they are.

It will be back to Belfast in January; back to better shopping, better education options for our kids and a much more normal way of life. No more infuriating red tape when we want to do something either.

Arnold is packing up the study as well as all the office supplies; I will take care of the family items. I was thinking about holding a garage sale to get rid of some of the surplus but even doing that is not a straightforward thing in France – you need permission!

Roll on January !