Month: June 2019

Travels with Ringo is meant to be an apolitical blog about our experiences living in different parts of Europe with Ringo. I will try to do that as much as possible. But. I occasionally have a thought. And since, as Americans, we are immersed in a world of non-Americans, occasionally geopolitical concerns infect those more…

Sunday afternoon, long after we had decided to select the Contessa’s Villa to live in for the next year I received an email from the realtor.  She was very apologetic for both herself and the Contessa. She said that the British woman that lived in the apartment below ours with her precious Cocker found out…

You know that feeling you get when things fall into place and you could relax? Until last night we were not certain what we were going to do. It was so hot yesterday in Florence that we were not sure if we wanted to come back to Italy. But last night, Greve in Chianti, it…

Unlike in the USA, realtors take the weekends off. So we have Saturday and Sunday on our own. Today we set off for Florence but about halfway there I became so angry and frustrated at how bad the car they gave me was that I turned left and drove the hour and a half to…

We flew from Nantes to Pisa yesterday. Other than the unexpected hour of sitting in stopped traffic, and not knowing which terminal the plane was supposed to be, and neither did the airport since they kept moving the gate numbers, and the fact that the plane was 90 minutes late due to safety concerns, and…

The reason why Napoleon invaded Tuscany, according to the historically accurate Saga “Time Bandits” by Terry Gilliam. My reasons are a bit different from those of the Great Little Man.  We are off to Tuscany today to look at a few potential places to live. We will be there for a few days and when…

I love the house that I showed yesterday but with a little thought I have started finding flaws. It is a big house. The entire downstairs is one large room, which is great in the summer. In the winter, however, that entire space must be heated to a comfortable level along with the upstairs because…

Alice fancies herself close to being almost, nearly fluent in Italian. At a beginners level. Almost. But it’s better than her French. So she would prefer to move back to Italy. I wouldn’t mind either because although my French is so perfect that the french can’t understand it, I do get along better in Italian…

Nice and the surrounding area was Nice and all, but it did not click all the necessary boxes. Although apartments were available, the ones that we could afford were in the city of Nice. Basically working apartments of working people. Places you go to after a day at work. Since we are no longer working…

These are the important figures to keep in mind. The city of Rennes and its airport are a two hour drive from Saint Pierre Quiberon, where we are currently living. The city of Vannes is on the route to Rennes and it is a 45 minute drive to Saint Pierre Quiberon.  We left Nice this…