My Good Life in France: In Pursuit of the Rural Dream (The Good Life France)

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So, I went to work in a bank as a secretary and worked my way up to Vice President and about to become a director when my husband persuaded me to chuck it all in for love! Item despatched quickly and as described, but damaged in transit due to plastic wrap packaging being inadequate protection. After recently posting some photos of my handmade wreath on my fireplace at Christmas time, many of you asked for more information on how I made my wreath.

We’ve been enjoying Christmas and a traditional Boxing Day in Sydney at my sister’s beautiful new home feasting on food, watching the cricket and then start of Sydney to Hobart yacht race before dashing to the cliffs to watch the racing yachts sail past. French people truly value their culture, heritage and history – and the French language is a big part of that. We decided to live the good life and grow our own fruit and veg, keep chickens, ducks and geese and be as self-sufficient as possible. Overall, this was a fun memoir and it helped me satisfy the need to go somewhere else while staying home the whole day. From her early struggles and homesickness through personal tragedy, to her attempts to become self-sufficient and to breed 'the fattest chickens in the village', Janine learned that there was more to her new home than she could ever have imagined.We learn new skills and evolve in ways we could never have dreamt possible, simply because anything seems possible, we feel free.

From her early struggles and homesickness through personal tragedy, to her attempts to become self-sufficient and to breed "the fattest chickens in the village", Janine learned that there was more to her new home than she could ever have imagined. As a single mother with a young son, I needed something more secure that would enable me to work regular hours. She has recently published a book, My Good Life in France: In Pursuit of the Rural Dream, which charts her experiences of her unexpected property purchase, eventual move to France and observations on la vie française. Along the way she became maid to four cats, three dogs, four geese, nine ducks (that's a long story) and thirty-eight chickens! I had to really guess to figure out the cities, villages and geographical spots she was talking about.This book is also different from a lot of other ex-Brits in France stories, because the house is up in the north of France. We learn about the nearby town that is normally silent as a tomb, but that comes to life when Madame Magniez decides to bake some of her famous bread to sell. For the first year or so they just shut themselves off from the upper floor of the house, and did their cooking outside in the garden on the barbecue, hopping over from England and visiting the house on odd weekends. I do not like taking the ferry boats that the Brits frequent -- they seem slow-moving and make me anxious, and I have taken them from Portsmouth, Folkestone, and Dover. I’d started a blog when I moved to France as a way to keep friends and family up to date with my travels and my French life.

I think I would take Bill Bryson’s At Home, the history of the home and how bedrooms evolved and windows and all things house and home. Here we follow Janine and Mark through the renovation process which, they carried out on weekend trips over to France and involved a lot of hard work and determination. When you’ve ticked off those must-see sites on your list – the Palace of Versailles, Mont-Saint-Michel in Normandy, a dazzling little island that makes you feel you have stepped back centuries, the Louvre, the world’s most visited museum and the sun-kissed French Riviera, the boulevards of Paris and the majestic castles of the Loire Valley - there are a million more thrilling sites and places to discover – prehistoric caves, troglodyte villages, the steep cobbled streets of Saint-Emilion in Bordeaux, the medieval town of Annecy in Haute-Savoie and Claude Monet’s house and garden in Giverny, Normandy. At the top of her career, Janine eventually decided to give up her job in London and move with her husband to live the good life in France.With little money they decided to do as much of the renovations as they could themselves, no mains drains, electricity, proper rooms, and, even less of a clue how to go about it, they knuckled down to lots of hard, back-breaking work. I go there a lot with my husband and we both agree, we would love to live there and really get to know the city like a local. Note: Readers in the US, the publishers have pushed back the release date to August 25, 2017, which was originally set for August 7th.

Her French adventure began as weekend trips to renovate her new home which lacked mains drainage, heating, proper rooms, and had not the slightest of comforts. Janine Marsh is a busy lady, but she took the time to answer my questions related to her book and back story. By completing your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and authorise Audible to charge your designated card or any other card on file.I truly enjoyed Author Marsh's down to earth descriptions of the adventures and realities of her new lifestyle. So, it’s great to read an account of someone who saw the experience less of a triumph over adversity, and more of a blending with the local landscape, its culture, its traditions, and its people. The book is written in Janine’s easy-flowing style, peppered with amusing stories and real-life vignettes.