We live in a small house. I hadn’t really given it much thought until the other morning when Bill was loading the dishwasher…from his seat at the breakfast table. That’s also where we eat lunch and dinner and from my side of that same table I would be able to load the washing machine which is there in the kitchen too. In US real estate terms that would be called “cozy”.

Although we booked this house based solely on the photos we’d seen on the Internet, the owners insisted on our seeing it in-person before they would accept a deposit or any rent. They had initially bought it and totally renovated it for their daughter, who also lives in Carcassonne, but who found it to be too small. That was our good fortune since we figured that for their own child the parents would have picked a safe neighborhood and used top-grade materials for the repairs and furnishings.

We chose a rental for our first year in France for a couple of reasons: 1). to get a visa we had to have accommodation already lined up and this was easy, especially since it was totally furnished; and 2). we wanted to make sure that moving here was the right decision. We couldn’t leave the US without reason 1) checked off the list and we pretty much already knew by the time we arrived that we were in the right place to begin with, so what’s next? House hunting.

There are many advantages to living in a small place. Heather hates the vacuum cleaner so by the time I take her upstairs with me to brush my teeth, Bill is almost finished with the ground floor. Then we reverse the process and the house is soon clean with little stress for the dog. With reversible heating/cooling units for each bedroom plus the main floor, we can quickly make each area comfortable as we need it, using very little energy. Lest you think that we’re crammed on top of each other, for our daily French lesson Bill usually goes upstairs while I remain down and thanks to stone walls (the exterior ones are about a foot/30 cm. thick) we can’t hear each other practicing. I wonder if this house is for sale? It’s cozy.