Mike Owen's blog: Climbing in the Verdon Gorge and at Mollans sur Ouveze

I have a very low opinion of people who work in certain professions, for example politicians and French taxi drivers. Estate agents also come in this category, especially les agences immobilieres Francaises (sorry, but I can't put in the accents with my qwerty key pad). Long story short: we've been trying to sell our house since the beginning of the year. Unfortunately its a bad time to be selling a house right now; lots of people are looking but very few are actually buying. Basically the estate agents have done sweet FA. Elaine's advert on leboncoin is much better than any of theirs.

Why are we trying to sell our house? We're ready for the next chapter in our lives which involves finishing teaching and spending more time travelling, climbing and having fun together doing what we want to do when we want to do it. We are most definitely not fed up of our jobs or the amazing school where we work, it's just that we're ready for a change. However, no job means no salary and that means we can't afford to keep our house. So we need to move to a cheaper part of France. We're pretty sad about that because we love it here and we have so many fantastic friends and we have so many great memories from the seventeen years we've been here. Top of the list of places to move to is the Vaison/Buis area (lots of climbing, great scenery, lovely climate despite the mistral and excellent wine). However, I'd be happy to be closer to the Verdon at the moment. We assumed that we'd have sold our house by now and that we'd be finishing school this summer. It's not going to happen. That's just the way it is. So we'll be back at school in September and moving whenever the house is sold....

Meanwhile, we've been active on the crags. During the Easter hols we were at Mollans and we have spent the recent long weekends at Chasteuil and Petit Eycharme, in the Verdon. We'd forgotten how beautiful it is there; the scenery is simply stunning and the place invokes fantastic memories from previous visits with some wonderful friends over the years (there's definitely going to be a future blog on that one).

One last thing before I finish. If you're a climber and you haven't read Andy Pollitt's autobiography "Punk in the gym" do so. It is a fantastic read. Andy's writing style is very honest and very funny and he tells it just how it was in the 80's and early 90's. He asked me to write a few words and it turns out that he put it in as the foreword. I'm deeply honoured. Thanks Andy.