David and Chrissy; we moved to the Dordogne, South West France 6 years ago after buying a neglected and crumbling old property and to follow a 25 year dream of living in France full time.
Selling everything we owned in the UK, house, cars and furniture and giving up our full time careers we made the leap of faith and set off for France in a little work horse van, a Peugeot Partner with our trusted cat Benji arriving to our new home on New Years Eve 2018.
Having purchased the property in July 2018, we had prepared very basic living requirements in advance, but still had no heating, kitchen, shower, wardrobes or any home comforts, but we did have a new bed and an old bath, albeit which leaked everywhere.
We rigged up a little camping stove and enjoyed some great meals which helped to keep us fuelled and energised during the renovations that followed across a 2 year period.
After the long journey south we had planned a bottle of Champagne and a hot meal cooked on our trusted camping stove to help celebrate our new home and the New Year. The mice had other plans for us and had been busy building a nest on top of a light fitting inside the ceiling of the first floor. Once we turned the lights on the house very quickly started to fill with smoke and carried a choking burning smell. News Year Eve was subsequently spent taking up the floor in the bathroom to extinguish the smouldering mouse nest.
Our very first night at the property, back in July 2018 held similar drama. Whilst at the Notary signing for our crumbling property, a danger to life storm hit us and smashed our bedroom windows. Our first night involved sitting in bed to try and keep warm, sipping Champagne with black bin bags taped to the window frames. It is important to keep up standards!
France had one of the coldest winters during our first few weeks. Our bedroom was -6 at night. We used to go out walking once a day to get warm and drank whisky, brandy and hot chocolate to warm the chills. We didn't even like whisky or brandy at that time, but needs must.
Well 6 years on and what we have now is a very different property to what we started with.
Our aim is to ensure that every guest that walks through our door feels like they are the only ones to have ever stayed here.
Currently we are decorating from top to bottom to ensure our guests in 2025 continue to enjoy the best experience possible and we are busy putting in a new water feature in the gardens.
We offer 2 night stays between 1 March and the end of April each year. 7 night minimum stays during peak season.
We hope to welcome you to our little corner of French paradise.......
Comments