The world was a different place 55 years ago; in the UK, shops shut on Sunday and in some cases even shut Wednesday afternoon. TV was three channels and if you were lucky you had a foreign holiday.
My father had always taken us on nice holidays, mostly to France and occasionally Spain. We holidayed in caravans, hotels and gîtes, but no matter what or where, we had a great time. Even in my childhood I remember lovely food and most ‘gastons’ giving me wine… all very French!
Once I had left home for that big wide world of work, I still holidayed in France. My job in specialist engineering took me all over the world but I always felt happiest in France.
In the mid 80s I took a position with a French company to live and work in the south of France. This was my ‘Damascus’ moment. Nothing I saw or experienced made me want to return to the UK. However, fate as always played its hand and my wife became pregnant and didn’t want to be in hospital in France. So with a tear in my eye, we packed up and returned to the home counties.
From that point I was truly hooked and vowed to return… but when and where? The whole point was that I wanted to enjoy life, and the French way of life is 100% made on the basis of ‘work to live’, not the other way around. Having spent 20 months in the Var area, it offered everything I wanted: beautiful landscapes, easy access to beaches and vibrant cities. “That’s it then, one day I’ll move back and work from there,” I said. Well, it seemed a good idea.
In the late 90s and early 00s, I rented homes in the region for holidays and even Christmas. The problem, as always, was finding the time, and yes, the courage to do it. Our old friend fate stepped in and halted the plan as I went over to America for 10 years, but each year I returned to France for my holidays.
Esta historia es de la edición March 2017 de French Property News.
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