Thought I would tap a little bit on how I ended up in the Aude of Languedoc-Roussillon in France. With lots of pretty pictures of course!
Before France I was bouncing around everywhere in a really jetset style of living. Bali one month, Tuscany the next, Germany the next. I was based in Glasgow at the time, with a nice flat in Speirs Wharf overlooking the boats. After deciding to build and live on a boat, my boat was initially going to be built for Scotland, and all of its dimensions are designed to the cm to allow it through the Falkirk Wheel (a very cool thing, look it up if you're not familiar!)
Anyways, by chance, I went to Bordeaux and utterly fell in love with the place. Over coffee on the morning of my second day I decided to live there. The boat was already mid build, so I let them know it was now bound for France, not Scotland. This changed a lot of things as it would need to do big European locks and rivers now, so the engine power was increased from 50 to 90hp, a large automated anchor was added, a generator was built in, and lots of other adjustments. The builders cursed me.
I was still jetting around while this build was happening, although I had already got rid of my Glasgow flat and put all of my stuff (too much stuff) in storage ready to move onto the boat, and was in Cambodia when the first Covid cases began popping up in Vietnam. I flew back to Scotland as the crisis developed, but without a real place to call mine, I decided to go to France. Lock down confinement came.
The first French lockdown was the big one. restricted to a few hundred metres from the property. I had rented a Chateau on a vineyard, still clomping around in my Cambodian pantaloons, with most of my things still in storage in Scotland. I was the only guest, and month followed month of isolation. But eventually it lifted and I moved to Blaye, a small town North of Bordeaux.
(my chateau home for a few months)
After almost a year in France, my boat was ready and arrived in the Garonne canal. I was terrified of driving it, and after a few nervous trips I spent my first winter on it in Castets en Dorthe, not far from Bordeaux.
In the spring I left for the long journey from Bordeaux to Toulouse to go into dry dock. In the UK they do not black the bottom of the boats, which is seen as madness in France as it just rusts otherwise, so I drydocked to do this, with the idea of returning to Bordeaux.
It was a 6 week beautiful journey to Toulouse. I love the Gironde part of France.
It is much quieter than the Midi where I live now, with so many more trees. I may well end up back there I think. Eventually, maybe. But after drydock I felt like a coward not at least seeing and exploring the Midi and more of the French canals. So I carried on. After many months I ended up down in Narbonne with my second winter fast approaching. I had adopted some chickens by this point that lived on my increasingly messy roof. I was not planning on making this area home, but did not think I could make it all the way back to Bordeaux in time for winter.... I was tired. So, I rented a mooring from the canal authority outside a tiny village called Le Somail, north of Narbonne.
And here I remain, now in my third winter on board. I don't know if this is my forever spot. Or my forever region, or even if I will ever have a fixed spot. I have changed so much over these years, and the jetsetting me and the boat hermit me are like different people. So life goes. I feel done with writing for now. But, I sometimes get asked how I ended up here, and I usually fob off with a lazy semi answer. But, this is the brief outline of it, for anyone who might be interested. Signing off. Adi.
Any chance we'll ever hear about the before times (before jet-setter). I see glimpses every so often, something academic? Quite a journey in any case. Cheers!