Have you ever fallen in love with a place...

[vivacian]

...and if so, did you do anything about it?

Recently I spent a couple of nights at the coast and the best way I can describe it is that my soul fell in love with the place. I’m seriously thinking of upping stocks and moving there. (I am in a bit of a midlife rethink place in general).

Has anyone else ever felt like this and what did you do about it?

I have lived all over the world and S.W Scotland is the place i made my home

Fell in love with Winchester when at sixth form in the 80s. Would need a lottery win to live there now.

The little village in Belgium we have just left (and the house). It was the place I was happiest in during my 13 years there.

Where I am now, back in Cornwall. Thoughts of moving back were what kept me sane whilst in Belgium.

Vienna, I just love it.

What a lovely thread, everyone waxing lyrical about places they love.

The comments about family tree connections made me remember something. After passing my driving test when I was eighteen, I borrowed my dm’s car (what was she thinking), filled it with friends and crossed over on the ferry to drive and camp round Ireland.

It was one of those late-teen, coming of age type trips and we had an amazing time. I really fell for the wild landscape of West Cork in particular; I could have stayed there forever. I can vividly remember sitting for hours staring out to sea on a cliff top, as the sun set, dreaming about coming back to live there.

More than two decades later, I was watching the episode of Victoria about the Irish potato famine, and the storyline of the clergyman who came over from Schull in West Cork (one of the worst affected parishes in the country) to petition the queen for help, and found it unaccountably moving. I really don’t normally sob at Sunday evening costume dramas!

By a bizarre coincidence, the very next day I was researching my family tree and discovered that my great great grandfather was born in Schull and had somehow escaped across the sea to England during the famine. I’d had absolutely no idea there was any connection.

I totally understand, we did it and ended up on the coast too, dh is now in the navy and I am a beach comber/artist/writer.
Sometimes it's worth it to just embrace the midlife crisis and run with it.

New Zealand. I was lucky enough to spend 6 months there 15 years ago. Even before I went I felt like I was going there for a 'trial run' at living there.

When I came back I tried everything to get there but just wasn't skilled enough to get in. Then had DCs and that was that. I'm not with their father anymore and there's no way I could move them so far from their dad now.

But I miss it desperately and still hope to revisit one day.

Berlin. I dont k ow what it was but I adored being there.

Yes, I immediately fell in love with this area of Norway when I first came here in 2003. I moved out here early in 2007 and have never looked back! I love my life here, it's amazing, I have not one single regret. Still wildly in love with the area, its beauty still stuns me on a regular basis.

* What a lovely thread, everyone waxing lyrical about places they love.*

I see it as a bit sad. All these posters with love for places that they don’t actually live in. Or even visit from one year to the next in some cases.

Madrid... I first visited when I was 18 and I wrote my mum a postcard sitting on my hotel balcony and I remember writing something like ‘I can just sense this is where I’m supposed to live, Ive never had a feeling like it’.

Ended up moving there. Back now but loved it so much.

Portugal - The Algarve . Love exploring there and got married there .

I feel like we could arrange a few house swaps on this thread - lots of posters living where others have fallen in love with!

I love where I live, but in the spirit of the thread and as naff as this will sound, I love Disney's EPCOT, especially at night.

Yes and after many holidays there and thinking we wished we lived somewhere like this, we moved and couldn’t be happier!

(@NorthEndGal from your post, I felt that you really got me).

I’ve spent a bit of time looking at houses and prices and they don’t match my desire for mortgage-free freedom. So for now it’s going to be a case of escaping there when I can. I’m lucky that my place is only two hours away.

It’s lovely to think about it, it feels like something precious that nobody can take from me.

I do get you! That's why I think you should do it. Doing what scares you sets you up for exhilaration, feeling fearful, but can energized in a way you wont believe.

Cornwall, pretty much anywhere there. We go as often as can on holidays and I cry every time we leave Plus my dog loves it down there too

Every time I sit on the shore at Plockton I am moved to tears.it touches my heart in a way nowhere else can. I can’t see me ever living there though but I visit a few times a year

My husband says I fall in love with everywhere
Everywhere except where I actually live -
He’s so sick of me trying to get him to move!

We met on a TEFL course where my ambitions were to teach all around the world

We lived in Oxford then Spain then Italy together and then we ended up in north London as he wanted to start a ‘proper career’
What does your husband think?
My whole family live in a coastal town in Scotland and their lives are so much healthier and more relaxed than ours down here’s oh and did I mention a lot cheaper too

The coast relieves my asthma and most coastal areas I go to I fall in love with; Brighton, Cornwall, Ayrshire, Edinburgh, many parts of Scotland
Thailand, Spanish coastal towns, Italian ones

You only live once - don’t live to regret 😍

What a great question. Not sure of an answer though.

Cyprus, I was determined after my first holiday there at 14 that I would live there, indeed I did - for 10 years, had 2 dc and loved every day. It was unfortunate circumstances that saw us move back however I'm very fond of the city I now live in too, it's certainly cropped up on this thread. It's just feeling when I step off the plane in to the muggy air, past the ever angry passport guys and on to the familiar highway I just feel a weight off my shoulders like I'm home. I go through phases where I feel terribly homesick and have never felt truly settled back here. I also love London and get a small fraction of that same feeling getting off the train at kings X and on to the underground.

I've had a few love affairs with places. Paris is where my heart beats the strongest, even now. I know, it's different, it's got its 'issues', it's changed. So have I. Still feel so at ease there. It was the first time I felt like I really belonged there. I come to life in that city. I lived there for several years, many moons ago. I regret not buying a flat there.

We summer at a farmhouse every year in a hamlet near Fontainebleau and my heart aches for that place all year long until our return. I feel like I've been there in another life. I feel that way very strongly about France in general.

As a South Londoner, Brighton also had a special appeal to me so a few years ago when we had money to invest we bought a little studio flat near the pier and spend about 20% of our time there. Hopefully when we retire and downsize our family home we will be able to make it our permanent home.

When it comes to just falling for a place, I spent a day in a suburb of Buenos Aires called Tigre . It’s a commuter town on an island crisscrossed by innumerable streams and rivers, smaller streams are crossed by homemade wooden bridges but most people travel to and from the ferries to the capital, shops, schools, doctors etc by small boat or kayak, instead of a bike shed the schools have canoe parks. It was beautiful and green and prosperous and peaceful and I just loved it. Of all the places in the world I have ever been it is the one place I longed to move to and years later I still hanker after it. The small matters of it being the other side of the world to my family, a culture I don’t know, a language I don’t speak, a climate I couldn’t tolerate ( imwilt in anything over 25 degrees) and an absolute mosquito haven are the only things stopping me moving there!

There's one little village in Devon we love - Aim to get there every 3 months (4hour drive each way) even if just for the weekend. We have our favourite bench and can sit there for hours watching the sunset. Also love the fact there's no phone signal and we can escape the world for a little while :)

Montreal. Every time I go I love it even more.