Last week I was in Paris – the weather was wonderful, the food was fabulous, the city was full of joie de vivre. I was co-hosting a tour for eight lovely ladies who are now friends, and it couldn’t have been more perfect. We did way too much to go into detail (there’s info about the next tour here), but would you believe that in the Montmartre district, in the heart of Paris, in the courtyard of a mansion house where we stopped for a Champagne break – I met a chicken (you can see me and the chicken on Instagram here)! I guess you can take the girl out of the countryside…
Back home, me and the other half have been making plans to actually finish renovating our old farmhouse. It’s been 21 years since we started transforming it from a rat-infested, leaking barn to a cosy home, and we’ve decided to give it our all this year and just get it done.
I fell in love with this house on a soggy and shivery February day whilst on a day trip to France to buy wine with my dad and my husband. It was a fluke that led me here, a chance encounter with a real estate agent in a village nearby who persuaded us to look at his cheapest houses, and about two hours later I bought one of them there and then (it cost less than a swanky French designer handbag!).
I had no intention of buying a house, I had no desire to leave London for France, I didn’t know the area, and I barely spoke French. But there is one thing that life – and my late dad – has taught me as I get older, our time here is not a rehearsal and if the fingers of fate sometimes reach out to you, grasp them and hang on for the ride. Mind you when it comes to the marathon effort of renovating this house – which we’ve done with our bare hands, and by watching a lot of YouTube tutorials (36 windows installed, 9 external doors, and around 100 tons of concrete as dirt floors are not really my thing!), I think the French playwright Molière might have the last word: “the greater the obstacle, the more glory in overcoming it.”
I am ready for glory (and a finally finished home!). I’m taking photos as I go as so many people have asked me for the before and after photos – watch this space, an article is in progress!
I’ll be in Paris again next week – checking out more exciting things to see and do, and so the next newsletter will be with you in two weeks’ time.
Wishing you a very bon weekend wherever you are – and a very Happy Easter
Bisous from France
Janine
Editor
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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 latest book How to be French – is a celebration of the French lifestyle and art de vivre.
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