I missed this when it first came out, but it couldn't be more pertinent to me now.

I'm sitting in a house I just bought in the south of France. It's a Sunday which means everything - EVERYTHING - is closed. I moved to the Mediterranean, below the tomato-potato line, for this reason, at least in part. Southern Europeans seem to know how to enjoy life better.

But when you own an old house, you're reliant on trades and other businesses doing their jobs. It's baffling and frustrating to someone born and raised in the Anglosphere, but people here will happily turn down money that's offered to them. For example, the town I live in is about half an hour from two bigger cities. Trying to get items like a mattress delivered from either of those towns? Impossible! They'll let a $1000 + sale walk out of the door rather than drive half an hour.

That is what I came here for, and I'll get used to it. I did before when I lived on the Med. But right now, I'm having plenty of my own Emily in Paris moments.