This time next week, Mick and I will be on a Qantas flight from Brisbane to Rome via Dubai, hopefully enjoying a few red wines and successfully balancing our dinner on our trays.

Yes, if you’ve followed this blog before, we did fly to Rome earlier this year in April when we took Kath to Sicily for three weeks. That was a ‘practice run’.

Normally, our budget limits us to one overseas trip per year, but this trip is costing us very little. There are two reasons for that.

Firstly, our son Thomas gave us a huge bundle of Qantas points, for being great parents I think, and our flights are fully funded by those.

Secondly, we will be doing two house sitting assignments while we’re away; actually 43 of the 53 days will be spent caring for the animals and homes of others.

But not in Italy.

Mick keeps telling me he wants to live in France, but I’m not sure I’m ready for that ……. yet.

Instead, I found us an assignment outside the small village of Seillans, in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region. We’ve not spent much time in this part of France before, except for two day trips to Nice. We will spend just over three weeks in Seillans caring for a variety of animals before making our way to England where we will spend two weeks in Bourn, a village 8 miles from Cambridge.

I have spent many hours brushing up on my French, even enrolling in an online course, and enjoying every minute of it. But I’m unsure what improvements I’ve made, if any. Time will tell.

My plan is to document our experiences while we’re away and to keep you posted on my progress with French.

I hope you’re as excited as we are.