This short blog starts from Paris, France to Eugene, Oregon and then back.

David and Marie lived in Eugene, Oregon for about two years. Eugene is about two hours south of Portland. Marie was a full-time Physical Therapist / Physiotherapist.  David was a full-time auto-mechanic. They first met at a vegan rock climbing event in Eugene. From there, short story, things fell nicely into place for them.

Before Marie met David, she use to live close to Paris, France. While she lived in Eugene she travelled back to France six times within a two year period. That’s about 63,000 miles travelled in a two year period!  Even though Marie is Canadian,  France is like home for her and she clearly can’t get enough of it!  Since David and Marie have been together they knew they were going to move back to France one day.

When 2018 started, Marie was exhausted with working ten patient per day schedules. She was feeling a lot of aches and pains in her own body.  Have you ever felt that you were living “groundhog* day” and that maybe your quality of life could be better if you just changed something in your life?  So Marie decided to move back to France with David in May 2018.  Shipping all of their possessions from Oregon to France via boat was a long, tedious process (5217 miles!) which required much patience.  Not a lot of people would go out of their way to change their “groundhog* day” lives!  Nonetheless, David and Marie are determined to promote veganism as a healthy lifestyle despite the challenges ahead.

Marie wishes to persevere her long-standing dream of opening a Vegan B&B in France. David and Marie are aware that there are other lovely vegetarian B&B’s in France. But their vision is not to be just an ordinary vegan B&B… but to be the first vegan B&B in France! It would also be a place where their guests would feel some sense of healing. They would like to offer well-being services like pilates, yoga, personal training, physiotherapy / kinesiotherapy and massage in the Fontainebleau area. Also, they would like to offer optional fun outdoor tours in the Fontainebleau forest which would integrate hiking, climbing / bouldering and cycling. Marie and David would also offer delicious vegan / plant-based breakfasts with optional lunch and dinner options. Their property would be open to special workshops about vegan nutrition, cooking classes, lectures from vegan athletes, pilates/yoga workshops and hosting non-profit events! Now who’s excited about this project?!

David and Marie tried launching a 30 day kickstarter campaign in June 2018 but they didn’t achieve their campaign goal. Nonetheless, they are not giving up on their dream!  During their first kickstarter campaign, they learned a lot about what works and what doesn’t with promoting their vegan project. They love learning! It was an excellent opportunity for them to introduce their project to the the world : A Vegan B&B and Health Retreat in France.

In May 2018, they spent the whole month searching for a house in the Fontainebleau area.  After they viewed the third house, they found the perfect house with the perfect property to run their Vegan B&B. They couldn’t believe that they found their dream home so quickly.  So, they continued their house search and viewed about 20 more houses. Not surprisingly, Marie and David were still sold on the third house! Now, they are in the waiting phase for the property to be officially theirs. If all goes well, they can start having guests in Autumn 2018 in the Fontainebleau area near Valpuiseaux, France.

Fontainebleau is about 1 hour south from Paris (about 40 miles).  You can also take direct trains to the area which makes it convenient to have a petite vacation.  Then you can inhale nature for a few days. The forest of Fontainebleau is pretty spectactular!  You can rock climb, boulder, hike or cycle and explore dozens of quaint villages like Milly-la-Forêt or Barbizon.

I’ll end with a quote :

“I go for a walk in the forest of Fontainebleau. I get ‘green’ indigestion. I must get rid of this sensation into a picture. Green rules it. A painter paints to unload himself of feelings and visions.”  ~ Pablo Picasso

* Definition. Groundhog day : The same day over and over. Doing the same things repetitively. A situation in which a series of unwelcome or tedious events appear to be recurring in exactly the same way.