Military service records - Les matricules militaires Yeah. I know. I didn't think it would be relevant either at first. I was well into my search for clues regarding the history of our watermill in France and had seen the link to Les matricules militaires, registers of military service, whenever I visited the website of … Continue reading Tracing the history of our French home – Part 3
Using the births, deaths and marriages registers If you read my last post about how I used the census returns in the online departmental archives to make a start on tracing the owners of our mill, you’ll know just how useful they are. But as a census is only conducted once every few years I … Continue reading Tracing the history of our french home – Part 2
Using census records When I ponder about the history of our French water mill, I guess one of the things that immediately comes to mind is the people who lived and worked here. One of the old post cards that I had managed to find shows a couple standing outside the mill. The figures are … Continue reading Tracing the history of our french home – Part 1
From the initial exploration of the fabric of the building, it didn’t look as if our home was more than a couple of hundred years old. However, one quite important thing to know if you own a water mill in France is what droits d’eau, water rights you have, if any. As Colin was quite … Continue reading Mapping the past
When we bought our mill I was hoping to receive a sizeable pile of old deeds which I could study when whiling away the grey winter hours by the log fire with a glass of wine. I was rather disappointed therefore when it appeared that the old documentation had somehow been ‘discarded’ during the most recent changes of ownership. So I'm on the hunt...
One of the things on our long list of 'things to get organised' when we first moved over permanently was exchanging our driving licences. Now, up until the unholy mess that is Brexit happened, this wasn't even something I needed to worry my head about. The UK was part of the EU, we both had … Continue reading Getting a French Driving Licence – another saga
We really did think we had cracked this whole vehicle import thing. We had sorted the insurance, passed the controle technique, obtained the quitus fiscal and submitted all the necessary paperwork via the ANTS website. Now all we had to do was wait...
While I won’t say that I have particularly relished being confined to our home for weeks during the COVID-19 pandemic, it has meant that I have been finally forced to look at all the unfinished jobs around the house and have actually got round to finishing some of them. Years ago, when I worked for … Continue reading The corridor of time
Life ambles along in our little corner of rural France, and although I don't usually pay much attention to what is happening in the outside world I had been aware of the outbreak of a new virus, Coronavirus COVID-19, in Wuhan and heard accounts of more reported cases in Europe. But I don't think anyone … Continue reading The new normal
When we moved over to France we registered as freelance 'micro-entrepreneurs' (self-employed). We both work from home, at the mill, working for clients via the internet. The daily commute consists of falling out of bed and, after a leisurely breakfast, looking out over the river, either from the kitchen (in inclement weather) or (more often) … Continue reading Makeover of bedroom #3
