Toute suite.

My friend Loralyn didn't need to be too persuasive. Within days I was in negotiations speaking to bankers and notaires in French. They were very polite and long suffering since my French, while passible, does not extend to things legal. Eventually I bought the damn place and made arrangements to go, in the middle of February, (Loralyn said "Oh it's always beautiful here".) for a month. Hyéres is in the south of France. It has a climate like Florida. The city itself is known for the millions of palm trees it exports to the Middle East. So I went.

Here is Loralyn looking smug. Which may have more to do with the fact that she is having a beer in the middle of the day and not attending to her 3 children for a change.

I bought an apartment in France

A friend who lives in France called me one morning 5 years ago to tell me that she'd found an apartment I should buy. This was not such an outrageous thought since: A. I speak French. B. I've been there many times. C. I have thought about doing something like this for a long time, even going so far as to attempt to buy something on a French speaking island in the Caribbean. So she calls me to tell me that she'd found this perfect place that: A. I would love. B. Was not expensive, and C. She would buy it with me and manage it for me.

The apartment is in the city of Hyéres, a small town on the coast of the Mediterranean about half way between Nice and Marseilles. The address: 15ter rue Fenouillet.