Spring Has Arrived in France (and So Has Our To-Do List)

House Update: Spring on the Property

Spring in the Dordogne does not ease in. It just announces itself with all the lush foliage you can imagine. One week, the trees are bare, the next, the yard is green, and the grass is growing faster than we can keep up with it. (We purchased a new lawn mower for this very reason. Reveal coming soon.)

We've spent the past few weeks in full yard prep mode. That means clearing winter dead branches and leaves, cutting back overgrowth that crept in while we were focused on indoor projects, and prepping garden beds for the season. Dylan has been mapping out what goes where, and we're planning to grow more herbs and vegetables this year than we will know what to do with, or that’s the plan at least. Tomatoes, basil, zucchini, the basics that actually thrive here without too much of a fight.

The bigger project: we're getting bee hives for the property!! Beekeeping is surprisingly common in this part of France, and some neighbors already keep hives. We're still in the phase where we are trying to figure out the right location to place them on the farm. We have connected with a great apiary nearby that we plan to meet with to get our new hives in mid-May. More on this as it develops.

And the light. If you've never experienced a French spring evening, the daylight now stretches almost past 9:00 PM. After a winter where the sun was nowhere to be seen before 5:00 PM, having those long golden evenings back changes everything. We eat outside on the patio. We walk Lincoln through the village at 8:30 PM, and it's still bright! It rewires your whole mood.

The Car Search Continues

We've been renting on a monthly basis since we arrived, and it's time for an upgrade. The car search is officially in full swing and in the home stretch.

We've narrowed it down to two brands: Peugeot and Renault. The deciding factor isn't horsepower or design (though both make solid options). It's proximity to a dealer. Living in rural France means you need a brand with a local dealer you can actually reach without a two-hour drive. If something breaks or needs service, you don't want to plan a day trip just to get it looked at.

The process itself has been an education. We're using a courtier automobile (car broker), which is a common option here for getting better pricing on new or near-new vehicles. I did the same thing back in Los Angeles, with Car Hunter, a small firm run by my friend Hunter. If you are on the search for a new, used, or leased vehicle in Los Angeles, hit him up. We saved a ton monthly and got a dream car to boot.

But back to the search here in France, we've also been emailing dealerships directly to compare offers. Some respond in hours. Some never respond at all.

The brokers are interesting because they source cars from across the EU, often at lower prices than what a local dealer will quote. The tradeoff is that you sometimes wait longer for delivery, and the warranty service still runs through a local dealer, so brand choice matters even more.

No decision yet, but we're close. We'll share the full breakdown (brand, model, price, and the broker process) once we pull the trigger. Leaning towards the Renault to be transparent, tell us if you have thoughts on our choice. 🙂

Lincoln is Adjusting… A little too well.

Lincoln turned 12 this year, which for a German Shepherd is honestly kind of wild. He came to us from Out of the Cage rescue in Los Angeles and has somehow, in the span of a few months, turned into a full French country dog. He walks through the village like he's been doing it his whole life. The neighbors know his name before they know ours. (We're okay with this.)

Watching him settle in here has been one of the best parts of this whole move. He has the farm to patrol, a yard to stretch out in, and actual grass under his feet every day.

New on YouTube: Why We Quit the United States

We finally made the video. The one everyone's been asking about since we moved. Why did we actually leave the US?

People assume they already know. Politics. Cost of living. The headlines. And those things were real, part of the overall vibe for a move. But they weren't the reason. Not even close.

The truth is more personal than that, and it goes back years. We fell in love in Paris. We got engaged in France. We got married near Bordeaux. This country has been part of our story long before we packed a single box.

The video gets into all of it: my career breaking point, Dylan's lifelong connection to French language and culture, the moment everything shifted during a 2:30 AM phone call in Paris, and what actually pushed us from "someday" to "now."

Watch it here.

It's the most honest thing we've put out. We hope it answers some questions and maybe gives you permission to ask your own.

✍️ Personal Note

There's a moment every evening now, around 8:45 PM, when the light turns this specific shade of amber, and the whole property goes quiet except for the birds. Lincoln is stretched out in the grass. Dylan is doing something in the yard or editing a video on his computer on the back patio. And I think: this is why we came.

It took a full winter of dark nights, frozen pipes, and power outages to get here. But spring in France is the payoff. The countryside is alive, the projects feel exciting instead of urgent, and the days are long enough to actually enjoy them.