Solar Power?
No brainer.
The sun graphic I stuck on the front of the van, styled on a neolithic pictograph, is like a magical talisman, pulling us South towards hotter climes. The van loves the sun as the interior is solar-powered from the roof panel, running two auxiliary batteries that power a fridge, lights and whatever devices we need to charge. I am a sun worshipper, not literally, but the recent weeks of upper 30’s here in South-West France were fascinating and I loved every minute of it. Sitting directly in it until I poured in sweat, glugging water, like an inner-cleansing, then nipping into the cool stone cottage, occasionally putting my head inside the freezer or rubbing an ice-cube over my body, was a lot of fun and stopped me thinking (the no-brainer reference). I rarely get burned but once I did fall asleep, through the alarm, on a sun-lounger and had a bit of the nasty heatstroke headache and sick for the rest of the day and a sore forehead.
Beetles & meetles
It’s been a really interesting week and the highlight was a surprise when I interviewed Jacob Kishere for an ‘In Dialogue’ podcast and discovered he was staying up the road in Bergerac’s Life Itself centre, so naturally, we met up for coffee and chocolate spread pasties... Another incident to note was hearing the cat’s paper plate of food being moved and looking round to see her sat watching a 2” black beetle excitedly pushing it along. Helping it out of the back door, I see a 2ft snake slither under the house, so I closed the door tightly to tend to a new mosquito bite. We’re in the countryside, for sure.
But I love the tropical vibe and winter in France hasn’t been as exciting a prospect as another summer. At the back of my mind as we look for somewhere else to semi-settle, I know it is cheaper here, but not that much. However, AirBnB in Spain threw up some interesting options.
Energy prices have shot up in the UK, driven by a spike in demand with pandemic lockdown lifted and Russia's invasion of Ukraine leading to decrease in oil and natural gas exports to Europe, is pushing prices even higher. Energy consultancies are predicting that a typical household's energy bill will be well over £3,000 a year for the next 15 months. France seems quite stable but the hold on prices (diesel is £1.62 litre today) and current government subsidies on oil and gas, is said to be “like drinking champagne while the ship goes down” and there’s some big shocks coming next year.
But for now, for almost the price of a year’s fuel in Britain, I can rent a 3-bedroom cottage in Spain, including fuel and all other bills.
Seems a no brainer, do you think?
