Finally, the PLACE to settle, connect and learn.

“Unfortunately, modern man has become so focused on harnessing nature's resources that he has forgotten how to learn from them. If you let them, however, the elements of nature will teach you as they have taught me.”

― The Seven Paths: Changing One's Way of Walking in the World

Finally the place is ours. I thought it would never happen. It took more than six months for the purchase to go through. It was end of July 2021 when I saw another add on an international real estate website that looked promising. I had previously visited more than eight properties and had been disappointed by how the impressions mediated by pictures compared to the onsite reality. Then this add came up for an old farm in the Commune of Belaye. It was this picture of the bench that intrigued me. It reminded me of "les Gonies", the farm where I had done an internship and that convinced me that farming was the right path for me to pursue and in this geographic area. My search area had been quite large. I had been searching within a radius of about 50 km around Villefranche-du-Périgord. Only a week before this add came up, Kimoni, Papi and I had visited the "ferme de l'origan" where I intended to do another internship. That farm was only about 4 km from the place advertised. So we had a sense of the area.

But when the add was published we very were far away. We had just gotten back to Mirabel aux Baronnies in the South-East of France where I had done my training to become a farmer. We came to pack up all our belongings and to move them back to Switzerland. So I had to rely on a friend to go and visit the property. I asked Ben. He was first not going to be available, but his schedule change and he went for a visit. Ben did feel like Rouziès was the right place. But he was also scared of having to judge it for me, knowing that now I had to take a trip to come and see for myself. He sent me some video footage. He also made one when driving out of Rouziès. He was driving past trees and trees and trees...yes, it did seem the right place for me. I called the real estate agent again. He said that if I was interested I would need to confirm immediately because he had already others wanting the property. I did confirm that I wanted the place. Two days later, just when leaving Mirabel with a fully packed car to go back to Switzerland, the agent called me back and said "the owner wants to sell to you. I am going the prepare the sales agreement". I was so excited! But clearly, I could not sign an agreement for a place without having seen it and felt it, and this I could not tell the sales agent. So I had to act quick and go and see the place before receving the sales agrement. Thus two days after unloading in Switzerland, I boarded a plane to Bordeaux where I rented a car and drove straight to "Rouziès". I arrived there when the night was falling. It was very rainy. But that did not matter. There was no doubt. This was the place for me.

I thought that I was going to sign the compromis de vente the next week. I could not know that it was going to take two months just for the compromis de vente to be signed and then another four months for the sale to go through. It was a long waiting time, fully of insecurity about the final outcome....but on February 14th 2022 Rouziès was transeferred to me. And now the building of a farm live can really begin and I this journey I would like to share with anyone interested.