I have a funny adventure story about finding a house for five months in the middle of the French countryside. It sounded idyllic and just what I and my then-girlfriend, who were just starting out as digital nomads, needed.

In point of fact, it was anything but idyllic as depicted. The absence of internet was the most pressing issue; something that was supposed to be installed when we got there. But we managed. We bought French sim cards that gave us each 3 GB of internet, which was the most we could get at the time. We promised ourselves that we wouldn’t watch YouTube or anything else that would use a lot of data for the entire five months.

All was going well until one day, when two French policemen from the area knocked on the door and stood there. They started enquiring about our activities on the property and where the owners were. I tried to explain the idea of house sitting in my best French, but I could tell it wasn’t going over well.