The Good Life France newsletter – Louvre, cake & fateful France

Bonjour!

I hope that you and yours are well.

This week is the 20th anniversary of the year I got the keys for my house in France. I was working in a bank in London, living in the suburbs, I thought I had a clear path in life, work hard, pay the mortgage, retire and get a hobby. But life took a different turn. My mum died just 6 months after she retired at 60. I was distraught. My dad was utterly heartbroken and self-medicated with whisky. He was a rebellious, cantankerous man, pleading with him to stop fell on deaf ears, so my husband Mark and I decided to take him wine shopping in France for a day as I felt that wine at least would be a slightly better alternative to whisky.

Wine purchased, we headed an hour inland to find a cosy café, and somehow (it’s a long story), in a village that looked like a ghost town, I ended up falling in love with a run-down old hovel. And I bought it. It was very cheap, like less than a designer handbag cheap. Gave up my gym membership to pay the mortgage cheap. It was the beauty of the countryside that I could see from the windows that made my heart flip rather than the leaky roof, the rattling windows, the wall held up with metal poles. My dad was horrified “it’s a money pit, you’ll never be finished” he laughed. But for me, it was a coup de foudre as the French say, a thunderbolt to the heart – love at first sight.

The three of us spent weekends and holidays trying to control the jungle-like garden, mop up the leaks and fix the many problems. We all fell in love with the countryside, the way of life, the kindness of the neighbours and the markets. Eventually it got so that Mark and I couldn’t bear to leave the place that we thought would be a holiday home, but felt like a real home. And after some persuasion (blackmail) from Mark, and when my dad sadly passed away, we decided to see if we could make a new life in France – I thought it would be about six months. We fully expected to have to go back to London for work, we were many years off retirement (we still are!) and too poor to live without working (yep – still are!).

Again fate intervened and offered a different path. In between renovating the house and attempting to grow vegetables in our garden, I began to write a blog called The Good Life France to keep in touch with friends and family. I had no idea then that it would completely change my life, but it has – I’m still here, not six months later but 15 years later! And I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for your support, subscribing to this newsletter, buying my books, following on my social media pages, reading the magazine (it’s free – subscribe here), listening to the podcast and being a part of my journey…

Read the whole newsletter and see this week’s top features and recipe picks

Wishing you a bon weekend, bisous from France.

Janine
Editor

ps Top Photo is Bordeaux, my next stop! Come with me via Instagram

Janine Marsh is Author of My Good Life in France: In Pursuit of the Rural Dream, My Four Seasons in France: A Year of the Good Life and Toujours la France: Living the Dream in Rural France all available as ebook, print & audio, on Amazon everywhere & all good bookshops online. Her new book How to be French – a celebration of the French lifestyle and art de vivre, is out now – a look at the French way of life.

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