Bonjour,
I hope you and yours are properly.
The previous couple of weeks for me have been all about lastly ending the final of the renovation of our outdated farmhouse right here in rural northern France. After we purchased it in 2004, we knew that a budget, rundown outdated hovel that I’d fallen head over heels for on a day journey to France from London to purchase wine with my dad and husband Mark (it took him a bit of longer to really feel the love for a uncared for barn with dust flooring, leaking roof, a wall held up with steel poles, and rats’ nests in each room) would take a whole lot of work to show into a comfortable residence.
My dad, a builder, was of the opinion it would by no means be completed, and although he wasn’t fairly proper, it has been a marathon effort, largely as a result of we’ve accomplished all of it ourselves with our naked fingers, studying the best way to do what was wanted from books and YouTube movies. The one factor we haven’t accomplished is the roof of the home which wanted repairing after a hail stone storm broken it (and the prices have been lined by insurance coverage). Every part else has been simply us two – from constructing the steps with wooden we present in a skip in London that had been chucked out of a Ministry of Defence constructing the place Winston Churchill had an workplace, to the kitchen cupboards we constructed from wooden salvaged from the staircase that was already in the home.
I’m typically requested if I’d do all of it once more. And sure, I’d. Constructing our own residence has been exhausting work, at instances a nightmare (suppose leaking loos, electrical shocks, damaged toes and fingers from falling blocks of concrete) and a life altering journey. It’s additionally the rationale I’m chatting to you proper now, because it’s what impressed me to start out running a blog virtually 13 years in the past to the day.
We’d been becoming home windows on a chilly and wet day, and the telephone saved ringing – it was pals calling for an replace on life in France. Mark had a “Eureka second” – he would construct me an internet site in order that I might share information with my family and friends at a extra appropriate time, and we might work longer hours on the home with out interruptions! Once I first got here to France, a good friend had mentioned “you’re like the great life couple – however in France” referring to a TV present a couple of clueless couple who gave up metropolis life to hunt rustic bliss (referred to as The Good Neighbours within the US). So, I referred to as the weblog The Good Life France. Very like Forrest Gump, I simply saved going and the weblog changed into a really huge web site, and {a magazine}, books, and a podcast adopted. It’s a grand ardour. And within the background, we Forrest Gump’d the home and backyard, we simply saved going, laying concrete flooring, placing in home windows and doorways, creating rooms, turning the hovel into a house.
And now we’re virtually accomplished, two home windows, one door and a wall to render.
Je ne regrette rien (although I’m joyful we’re virtually accomplished!).
Wherever you’re – I want you a really bon weekend.
Bisous,
Janine
Editor of The Good Life France Journal and web site
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Janine Marsh is Writer of My Good Life in France: In Pursuit of the Rural Dream, My 4 Seasons in France: A Yr of the Good Life and Toujours la France: Dwelling the Dream in Rural France all out there as book, print & audio, on Amazon in every single place & all good bookshops on-line. Her newest ebook Find out how to be French – is a celebration of the French way of life and artwork de vivre.
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Need extra France?
Uncover extra fabulous locations in France with our free journal The Good Life France
Love France? Have a take heed to our podcast – all the pieces you wish to learn about France and extra!
All rights reserved. This text is probably not printed, broadcast, rewritten (together with translated) or redistributed with out written permission.
