We didn’t wake up one morning and decide to move to France, it was much more gradual than that.
Around 6 years ago, we went on holiday to Concarneau, in Brittany, and had the most wonderful time. It was one of those holidays where everything just felt right; the place, the pace, the food, the atmosphere, and somewhere in the middle of it. probably over a coffee, a glass of wine or while wandering around the beautiful French streets, we said: ‘Wouldn’t it be lovely to live here one day?‘
At the timem it was just a conversation. My mum had lived and worked in France in her twenties and had always talked fondly about that time in her life. She had often said she would love to go back one day, so the idea of us all making a life there together didn’t seem completely ridiculous. Unlikelyl perhaps, but not ridiculous. Then we came home and almost as if the Universe was trying to plant the seed a little more firmly, we happened to switch on the TV one evening and see a TV programme called ‘Help! We’ve bought a village’, which is a reality TV show that follows people who have bought abandoned, derelict or forgotten properties in Europe and were slowly bringing them back to life.
We were fascinated. Could we do something like that? Should we? What if we actually did? Of course, life carried on; there were jobs, school runs, bills, responsibilities and all the usual things that make enormous life-changing ideas feel safely theoretical. But we kept going back to France. Year after year, it became the place where we felt happiest, and gradually the conversation changed. It stopped being “Wouldn’t it be lovely?” and became “Why couldn’t we?”
So, why France?
There isn’t one single reason. It’s lots of little things which, added together, have become something much bigger.
We love the food; not simply because French food is delicious, but because there seems to be a different relationship with it. Markets, seasonal produce, bakeries, local shops, and meals that are actually treated as part of the day rather than something squeezed between everything else.
We love the pace of life. Not necessarily a slower life. I’m not sure moving an entire family to another country could ever be described as taking the easy option, but a life that feels slightly differently balanced.
And a huge part of the decision is our children. We want them to experience growing up in another country, learning another language properly, and understanding a different culture from the inside rather than simply visiting it on holiday. We also feel that the French education system may suit the kind of childhood and education we would like them to have.
It won’t necessarily be easier. In fact, particularly at the beginning, it will probably be much harder: new schools, a new language, new friends, new systems, new everything! But sometimes the things that stretch you are also the things that give you the most.
And then there’s Mum
There is something wonderfully full-circle about the idea that my mum lived and worked in France when she was young, and now, many decades later, she might return there with her daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren. I love that. For her, perhaps it will feel like returning to somewhere familiar. For the children, it will be the beginning of something completely new. And for Malcolm and I, it sits somewhere in between.
France has become our happy place
Over the years, France has gradually stopped feeling simply like somewhere we go on holiday. It feels comfortable & familiar. Every time we arrive, there is a little sense of “Ahhh… we’re back”, and every time we leave, we talk about when we can return. Eventually, you have to ask yourself a question. If somewhere consistently makes you happy, and you have the opportunity to build a life there, why wouldn’t you at least try?
So that’s what we’re doing. We are selling up, packing up our lives and attempting to move to France. There are visas to navigate, houses to sell and buy, businesses to build, schools to find, and approximately eleven million pieces of paperwork to complete before any of this becomes reality.
There will undoubtedly be moments when we wonder what on earth we are doing. But underneath all of that uncertainty is something very simple. We want to create a good life for our family. One with more time outside, good food, new experiences, opportunity, adventure and perhaps a slightly different rhythm to the one we have now.
A few years ago, sitting on holiday in Concarneau, it was simply something we said might be nice one day. Somewhere along the way, “one day” became a plan.
Why we’re moving to France