20.04 Day 216 . . . All Paid Up !!

Up again relatively early as we need to move some final monies - it’s been good getting these transactions done first thing and out of the way - the rest of the day is now cleared. That’s it all paid - Thursday 20th April 2023 - All Paid
What a feeling!!
We owe no-one anything, house bought, van owned, credit cards with zero balances, no debt - to anyone - and savings still in the bank!!
Boyed by our own little achievement we had breakfast and were ready and out of the door by 1030am.
We had decided to go to Sauze market - in all the months we have been here, we have never been to market day at Sauze, it being the closest town to us - go figure.
On the way we noticed that the fields are now so high with rapeseed and other crops that we can’t see across many fields now, even being in the van. We have lost some of our distant views.
We parked in the main square at Sauze and walked to the market, which to be fair was about seven stalls, not really much of a market, but all the stalls were selling good quality products, cheese, meat, vegetables, fish, speciality chicken and some other locals selling bedding plants. So as a villager you have pretty much choice of all your stable dietary foods.
The meat stall was our purpose for going, it had been recommended so many times to us, a Brit girl works the stall and is apparently married to a French Butcher. So the stall has some British products not often found in French butchers . . . Bacon!!
As well as bacon we got lamb and mint sausages and also some marinated pork strips. I can also order pig skin from her for my pork scratchings - noted!!
The vegetable stall also got our attention and some purchases, whilst the remaining stalls didn’t take any of our money.
From the market we went to Bricomon - which today was open where we saw again ‘Andy’ who works in there and we purchased a padlock and 1m of chain for the new house gate.
Then across to SuperU to buy a whole host of cleaning equipment for our move in day as well as some food shops bits and half a dozen or so of our favourite red, which was again on offer €1.90 a bottle.
As we loaded Roxvanné with our purchases, Tre suddenly said she fancied a bacon baguette at the Lemon Tree just down the road - she was never going to get an argument from me on that idea.
Five minutes later at just gone 1pm we were sat awaiting our bacon baguettes, mine with a fried egg in a crusty, Tre just bacon in a soft baguette.
Whilst sitting in the cafe we got an email from the estate agent saying one of the sellers of the Chenay house now wanted to be present at the completion signing, but wanted the date brought forward by a day at 2pm - could we be available? Err YES!!
Before answering we sent a quick check to our English notaire to ensure there was no issue with this that we hadn’t considered . . . and waited for the reply.
From the Lemon Tree we drove past the Chenay House again and noted some of the flower tubs had now been removed, so removals are still ongoing.
From the house we drove to Hope Furniture Barn - part of the Sauze charity shop. We just wanted to see what they had, as we need to find a bed frame, just for the short term, for the Chenay House. We currently have nothing here by way of furniture and most of what we had in the UK we threw away - this is a clean fresh start for us both. Anything furniture we buy over the next week or so will be for the short term just while we get settled.
That being said I didn’t envisage leaving Hope having bought a three piece suite (In Pink), a solid wood double bed frame and two small chairs! All to be delivered on the 2nd May free of charge.
The woman who run the barn (Ann) then let slip that her and her husband were ex police (BTP) and that she had a brother who was ex MET and NCS - small world. So as a result we stood chatting for longer than anticipated.
We were then driving home at about 3.45pm.
Indoors we had the email reply from our British notaire that a day earlier was no problem. We emailed the estate agent to say 2pm on 26th was fine and could she confirm it was now fixed. Half an hour later she came back that 26th was fixed but could we do 4pm . . . We’d be really pleased if they could make their minds up!! Anyhow we replied YES to 4pm on the 26th. So we are now another day closer.
We had stripped all the covers of the newly acquired pink three piece before we had left the barn and so Tre was on opération laundry with those once we had sorted the email to the estate agent.
Another email from the French notaire informed us they had received all payments we had made other than the final one which we knew would credit with them tomorrow.
So after quite a busy little day we sat to watch some TV with a snack tea of wine, cheese, chorizo, crisps and haribo sweets . . . so, so healthy!
Bit or a landmark day for Tre and I . . . We seem to be almost there!!

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