Herding cats

Yes, we did bring Dimitri and Anya, our 13 year old cats. There were hurdles to jump through but we made it here without too much difficulty. As our veterinarian in Tucson, Dr. Sally Rademaker said, "it'll be harder on you than them." I'll post later about the requirements and forms needed, and especially the timing of everything, but suffice it to say United Airlines was great, the cats went as our carry on bags under the seat. Of course, there was a fee. We flew out of Phoenix (where the TSA agent had to come over and give them a scratch). We did this so we could make it in two flights, one to Dulles in Washington, DC, and then on to Geneva. So now the cats have their "Pet Passports" and are settling in just fine on the barge. They've found some favorite sun spots and today are enjoying the warmer weather. We've had cool rainy days since our arrival but that gave us time to work down below getting Alouette ready. Summer returned today.

As for us, its a challenge to get things done in a new town whenever you move - throw in the language barrier and jet lag, and everything we want to get done seems to take twice as much time. But the French people we've met are so helpful, we both understand more than we can speak, but they guide us through with smiles and charm and offer a lot of help. And of course it pays to have a good sense of humor. After all, this is a country of people who love Jerry Lewis, and I'm sure we must at times appear just as silly.

You can do anything, but you can't do everything.

Timing is everything, but the timing wasn't right for us to shove off sailing in the 1990's - careers and other responsibilities pushed that thought to the back burner, and then somewhat off the list. Five years ago we were fortunate to retire early from our careers and move to Arizona, in part for the climate, but primarily to be closer to scuba diving and sailing in the Sea of Cortez. Our many driving trips through Mexico led to exploring the possibility of living there, first in the beautiful colonial town of Alamos, and then in the magical Baja town of Todos Santos on the Pacific coast. But over our years of travel we had also fallen in love with France - the scenery, the food, the culture, the easy connections to exploring the rest of Europe - the thought of spending a few years immersed in another culture appealed to both of us, so in the fall of 2009, we started to explore the possibility of combining boating and seeing the sites. We stayed on board a barge in Burgundy, hopped a ride on a barge going through some canals, looked at several barges on the market, and we were hooked.

We returned to the states, decided to put our house on the market, downsize once again and find a barge to be our home in Europe for the next oh, 5-10 years or so. Given the current real estate market, we expected it would take 6 months to a year to get going. Well, the house went on the market in March and quickly sold. We scrambled to find a little place in Tucson (a 906 square foot loft), closed on both properties and moved in late April!

In early May, we traveled to France, first to attend a barge handling class in Cambrai, where we received our RYA Inland Waterways certification. We then set out shopping for a barge, but returned home empty handed, and somewhat discouraged. But obviously there is a happy ending. More later, Captain Deborah.