A New Year and a new addition to the Tomlin household. We have a dog! Her name is Poppy. Yep I know, but Sharon insisted. I wanted to call it Vomit, after it was sick twice in the car on the way home from the rescue centre and especially as I had to clean it up both times as it was "on my side of the car"! Seriously though, she is lovely. She's a 10 month old Labrador cross and so far her only 'fault' is being a little over excited at times. Other than that she's as daft as a brush, so she should fit in fine.

The boys are well into their second term at a French school. Daniel's homework requirements seem to have gone up a gear. He has a French novel which he reads a chapter of each day. He then has to answer questions to test his comprehension. It is really tough. Even Florence said it was tricky and she's been living here 44 years! Luke has had his first experience of 'hands on biology' French style. They were given a bulls heart to handle. He took great delight in telling us what happened when the squeezed and prodded it. What with Daniel dissecting a rabbit last term, I asked them what their rates would be for 'cleaning up' our chickens ready for the freezer. 5€ each was the reply. It'll be cheaper to buy them from the hypermarket!

Spent a nice evening in Journet at the invitation of the maire (mayor). The evening was called a 'Veoux' and basically it is to welcome newcomers to the commune and to announce plans for the New Year. We were very warmly welcomed and it appears that we will soon have a retirement home, a bottling plant for the local mineral water and some wind turbines for electricity. Being an official French reception, there was plenty to eat and drink. Champagne flowed freely and when Sharon refused another glass as she was driving, she was told not to be so silly, "this is France and they'll be no Gendarmes around this time of night"! Even more shocking was that it came from a senior member of the towns council!

Sharon has now settled into her new studio and is producing some lovely work. We had a French lady call to ask if she could come over, as she needed a gift for a friend. Sharon gave her directions so she ended up in La Trimouille! She eventually found us by asking at the town hall and they told her where we were. Little did she know the frantic efforts that were going on at the house, as Sharon had had kippers for lunch and the place stunk! Half a dozen jos sticks later and we decided it would be best to take our customer round the side through the tradesman's entrance. She can't have been that put off though as Sharon made a sale.

We're getting stuck into the business registration side of things and it's really tough. There's masses of information available, but obviously it's all in French. It takes ages to translate it all and pull out the relevant points. We need to make sure we set up the business in the right format for us, as social charges/taxes are high and you start paying them from day one, regardless of whether you've earned anything. It's a headache when your French is not good, but it's vitally important that we get it right.

Our escapee chicken has been up to its old tricks again. We often let the girls have a free run if we're working in the garden, but 'Beauty' seems to have a taste for the big outdoors. Unfortunately, with Poppy and Nooky next door, there's a couple of dogs with a taste for her! Our problem is we can't work out how she's doing it. There are no holes in the fence and she is the only one who gets out. We thought she must be flying out so I took drastic action and clipped her wing. You only clip the feathers on one wing. If they try to fly, they either crash or fly around in circles until they're too giddy to get anywhere. Wing clipped and she's still getting out. It's so depressing being outwitted by a chicken!

Other highlights this month

Daniel talking in his sleep - in French!

Having a couple of ladies call at the house to try and sell us their religion. For the first time since we've been here that it's been handy not speaking the language well.

We were invited by next door for an aperitif. Sharon had a migraine so I went with the boys. I had hoped they would help me out a little with the language but they sat there in total silence. Little treasures!

Luke's lost 2 of his front teeth. They don't have the tooth fairy out here, it's the petit souris (little mouse). Why anyone would want a mouse crawling around under their pillow is beyond me, but Luke is trying very hard for a third visit.

We are enjoying being able to sit down as a family for dinner each day. No TV, just a chat about the days events. We were not able to do it often in the UK and it is one of the things we like a lot about out new life here.

We've had the full range of weather this month. From being so cold the gas bottle froze (I've changed it to Propane now). To days without a cloud in the sky and the car temperature gauge showing 22 degrees. We've had rivers bursting their banks and wind driving the rain horizontally, so that the car looked like it was in some sort of aerodynamic test tunnel.

So there you go, the first month of what will hopefully be our first full year here in France. We love to hear from people who read our diary, so if you'd like to drop us a line please do tomlin78@hotmail.com

February marked the second anniversary of when we first saw our little house. It was on a rainy day, Feb 2002 that we first walked through the gates and got that ‘this is the one’ feeling. What a couple of years! Stresses and strains, highs and lows. Fortunately there are more highs than lows and for as long as it stays like that we’ll be fine.

We bought our house for just over 30,000GBP and we‘ve been told that although we have only re-decorated it, it is probably worth twice that now. The reason is the continuing number of foreign buyers hungry for rural property in France. Most of the French live in the cities as there are more employment opportunities there, Us etrangers (foreigners) are broadly welcomed as we are bringing a bit of life back to the little villages and hamlets. We’re not daft enough to think this is money in the bank though. As all it will take is a wobble in the UK housing market for the customers over here to pretty much dry up. We’re looking to create a lovely place to live, more so than an investment opportunity.

The weather has been gorgeous this month, though again we’ve had the extremes. We had 23C at the start of the month and a couple of inches of snow at the end of the month. Virtually every day we’ve had a hard frost in the morning, about –5 or -6c but clear blue skies and beautiful sunshine. As the front of the house faces south, by the afternoon we’ve normally had the doors wide open although it’s still only been about 7 or 8c. See! We’re still British and obsessed with the weather!

We went from being new dog owners at the start of the month, to being 2 dog owners at the end of the month. Well, not really owners, one was on loan from Robert and Sheila while they were back in Scotland. I feel like some sort of puppeteer walking round the garden with a lead in each hand, trying to keep them from tangling as they zig-zag and jump all over the place. Still at least our escapee chicken is thinking twice about going over the wire. She just clucks sulkily as the dogs go sniffing by the chicken run.

Nicest event of the month was Sharon’s parents paying a surprise visit for Daniel’s 10^th Birthday. It was tough trying to keep it a secret as we prepared for their arrival and we nearly let it slip on more than a few occasions. But Daniel didn’t have a clue. I collected Terry and Glenys from Poitiers Airport and dropped them off a couple of minutes from the house. We made up an excuse for Daniel to go outside and when he saw them, he was totally dumbfounded. The look on his face! He couldn’t work out what they were doing there. He later said that at first he thought it was the ‘elderly couple’ from down in the hamlet!

The garden is starting to wake up from the winter. I’ve dug our first veggie patch. We plan to have 3 or 4 plots and rotate what we grow in them each year. Sharon has just planted some peas and we have potatoes ready to go. We hope to get a few bits this year but it’ll probably be more of a learning year than a productive year. I’m also hoping to extend the chicken run soon so that we can get a cock and some hens for meat. The 3 birds that we have at the moment are Warrens. They pop out eggs quicker than we can eat them, but they’re a bit on the thin side for meat. From what I’ve read we’ll probably go for a Cuckoo Maran or Light Sussex breed to hopefully provide some chicks to raise for the table. If anyone knows of a breed where the cockerel has a very quiet crow, please e-mail us.

While Terry and Glenys were over they stayed in our caravan. As you can imagine, the mornings were a bit nippy. We have electric and gas heating in it but the gas bottle on the caravan is still Butane and froze at night This was compounded by Sharon pulling the plug providing electric to the van and forgetting to plug it back in. Was it an accident? We’ll never know!

Sharon helped out at the school when the APE organised a craft making day. She had a great time working with the children. It’s one of the things she misses a lot from the UK. Hopefully once we’ve gone through the registration process, we will start doing children’s lessons here.

I've found out why the ladies on the fish counter at Hyper U always give me a nervous smile as I walk toward them. For the past 7 months I thought I was asking for 2 trout (deux truite) I've now discovered that my cockney French accent has let me down and in fact I have been asking for 2 female pigs (deux truie). Of course the ladies at the fish counter were too polite to tell me. Samy on the other hand took great delight in pointing out the error of my ways.

Luke had us in stitches after dinner, singing a little song he has learned in French. He has to sing the same song a few times, but with different emotions. Happy, angry, sad etc. Maybe difficult to picture it, but he puts so much energy into it, Sharon and I agreed, he is destined for the stage!

Pierre and Pierrette next door have been looking after us. They’ve popped round with home made crepes and donuts this month and even gave the boys some euro’s for Daniel’s birthday. I think they've been as nervous about talking to us, as we were about talking to them. But as our French improves we are getting to know each other better.

I came across a motorist who had gone off the road and crashed. He was unconscious with his head on the steering wheel. Banging on the window didn’t rouse him so I went to the nearest house and they called the emergency services. The Gendarmes managed to get the door open and wake him. He was sober but didn’t know where he was or what all the fuss was about. Luckily he didn’t seem badly injured, if he’d gone off 20 metres further on it would have been different.

We're looking forward to March. We should have the business registration finally resolved, spring will have sprung and I will hopefully have finished our new bathroom. It feels like everything we want is there for the taking but at the moment we can only get our fingertips to it. Hopefully in the next month or so we will have grabbed it.

See you next month.

March has been a tough month. It started well enough, with Daniel's Birthday and we have made great progress in important areas, but for the most part, it has been a grind. I guess it's to be expected. We're at the end of our first winter here, it's the quiet time on the selling front and we are still living mainly from our savings. As I say, we are making progress and we are 110% sure that we are doing the right things. But it does weigh heavy at times. As I've said before, only time will tell if we will make a success of this, but we are sure of one thing. If it doesn't work out it will not be for the want of trying.

The 1st of March was Daniel's 10th Birthday. Oh how we've often thought how much we could have saved on Birthday presents if he'd been born in a leap year! Apart from the surprise visit by his Grandparents he had a few of his new friends over for a party and we bought him lots of fishing gear ready for the summer. We sang 'Happy Birthday' in English and French and a couple of the children even tried it in Spanish. Daniel is a bright lad (sometimes a little too clever for his own good). His teacher has often commented to us how motivated and determined he is. Whereas I am struggling to learn French verbs in present tense, Daniel is into future, passé composé etc. He often comes in the top 3 of his class in maths tests and he has learnt 5 poems (each with about 6 verses) by heart. Not bad for 25 weeks at school and a 4 day week at that.

Luke's doing great too. There can't be many 7 year olds that know their 2,3,4,5 and 10 times tables in English and French. We are encouraging the boys to keep their English reading ticking over and it has surprised us how much Luke's has improved.

Sharon is now a registered artist in France! As we've mentioned before, there are lots of different ways we could have registered the business and it has been very difficult deciding which is the best set up for us. We finally plumped for the Maison des Artistes in Paris. We hope we've made the right choice! As in the UK, setting up in business is one thing, making a success of it is another. But at least now we can now start to advertise what we are doing and contact shops to discuss selling Sharon's work. Early signs are encouraging as Sharon is getting letters inviting her to exhibit at various fairs and expo's and she has been offered the chance to sell at the Hyper market in Montmorillon just before Mothers Day in France.

Eye opener of the month was a dinner dance that we went to in Montmorillon. It was in aid of the school that our friends Stuart and Jamie go to. It was a really nice evening which started at 8.30 with an aperitif. Soon after the band started playing and they were still going strong (without a break) when we left at about 2.30am. Everything was played, from disco to French accordion music. The dance floor was full for the whole evening, Sharon even had me up doing the twist. The meal was tasty, though the service was, shall we say, 'relaxed'. We were served our starter at about 10 and the boys had their dessert at 2am! Yes they were tired but they were so determined not to miss pudding! All in all a good evening.

We have met some more nice Brit's who we hope to keep in touch with. There is Helen, who has a sheep and cattle farm near Lathus. Dee, Bernard and Toni who are in La Trimouille, Trevor and Diana who will be renovating the old hotel in Journet and John and Glen down in the Haute Vienne. We are lucky that we have met so many nice folks and we hope to be meeting some more over the next month or so as people who have been in touch with us via this site, come out for their holidays.

We are getting more involved with the APE (the parents association for the boys school) It has been hard work trying to understand what's going on at the meetings and it can be scary when Miriam, the Chairperson, suddenly stops, looks at you and says "do you understand?" 10 or 15 people then look at you for an explanation. In French! Sharon has helped at more of the craft afternoons and I am helping with the Easter treasure hunt. I've got to give the children a clue and a task to do. I'm hoping they'll let me give the clue in English so the kids task will be translating it into French.

Other happenings this month

We've had a fair bit of wildlife around this month. We had a visit from La Villecharault ducks. There are about a dozen ducks that reside in a small pond in the hamlet and they all came waddling down the drive as Daniel and I were having breakfast. We've had a deer in the field next to us and we when we looked out to see what commotion was going on outside one evening, a young wild boar trotted past. Haven't seen Mum yet though!

There was a big fishing day this month and Daniel and I went along to watch. They release hundreds of trout and salmon into the rivers to re-stock them. Hundreds of fishermen then turn up to de-stock them. It was very interesting viewing though and we were given a couple of beautiful trout and salmon to take home. Very tasty.

The garden has begun to produce food. We have been eating our home grown endives (chicory). We've never had them before but we'll be having them again. Florence showed Sharon a quick and easy recipe with endives, ham, Béchamel sauce and cheese. We'll get the recipe page done one day! We've also got peas coming up and potato's sprouting.

We've started to use the swimming pool in Montmorillon. It's a big pool with a Jacuzzi, one of these curvy water slides and the water is kept at 32C. The odd thing is that we go on a Saturday afternoon and there's hardly anyone else there. Maybe it's something to do with me in swimming trucks? We've also been bowling and without wanting to sound too big headed, I absolutely thrashed the boys!

See you at the end of a hopefully sunny April.

In the UK, April 1^st is ‘April Fool’s Day’. The idea is to try and trick someone into believing or doing something daft. In France April 1^st is ‘Le Poisson d’avril’ (The April Fish) children try and stick paper fish on adults backs. It may not sound as much fun until you see lots of people walking around with fish stuck on their backs.

We’ve been busy in the garden this month. We now have 3 vegetable patches of about 4m x 10m each. We’ve planted peas, potatoes, lettuce, onions, peppers and carrots and soon we will be putting in courgettes, melons, strawberries and green beans. The fruit tree’s and bushes are looking healthy and we should get a good supply of apples, plums, peaches, cherries and raspberries. We’re hoping for a tasty summer at La Villecharault. I’ve been hacking away at our hedges as well. Apart from feeling like a pin cushion, we now have a lovely view across the fields.

Our friends Kevin and Becky visited with their children Kate and Tom. It was great to see them, even if Kevin does make me drink too much. The boys were especially happy and had a great time playing with Kate and Tom in the garden and Sharon enjoyed having another Mum around to chat to . Kevin proved a big hit at the Chinese restaurant in Montmorillon, eating there 3 times in a week. On the last occasion he had curried frogs legs. He enjoyed them, but without going into details, the ‘guest toilet’ has now been renamed ‘Kevin’s Room’!

Easter was good. Kevin and I helped out with a kid’s treasure hunt organised by the APE (school’s parents association). Our job was to stand in the woods and when one of the teams approached us we had to get them to walk 10m balancing an egg on a spoon (which was held in their mouths). For completing this task I signed their sheet and they received a sweet each. It was good to be able to help at a fun community activity. It all helps to make us feel more at home here. Easter eggs only appear in the shops a couple of weeks beforehand here. They are normally wrapped in cellophane and not masses of cardboard, plastic and foil. Sharon found it tough though; you can’t buy Cadbury’s cream eggs here, so she’s had to rely on family and friends smuggling them over!

My big news this month is that I’ve had my first job interview for 20 years and it was all in French! We still have plenty of savings left and we would like to keep it that way, so we have decided that I will try and get a job so that we have some regular money coming in while we work on our long term plans. Apart from that it will be excellent for learning the language and it has been difficult at times going from the person who puts the bread on the table, to a handyman round the house or the bloke who carry’s Sharon’s boxes to the expo’s. I'm not expecting too much, as unemployment here is nearly 10%. That coupled with my language ‘skills’ means that I'm looking for something in the ‘broom operator’ department. I am optimistic though, as it is a similar situation here as in the UK. I.E. Many of the unemployed don’t want to work, so immigrants like me get a chance to get on the ladder and start climbing. Getting back to the interview. It appeared to go well, but obviously you can never tell (even when it's in your own language!) If nothing else, it was a good experience and I hope to know the outcome by 8^th May, so fingers crossed please everyone.

The interview gave us a big lift. We had been in the doldrums at the start of the month. It’s been hard adjusting to a winter in rural France and this winter seems to have gone on and on for ever. Virtually nothing happens and when you are in a small house, trying to make a future for yourselves in a foreign country, it does not always make for a happy home. Next year we will know what to expect, we hope the house will be bigger and our savings will be going up rather than down.

Our little 10 and 7 year old role models have been excelling themselves again. We had meetings with their teachers and were told that they had made excellent progress. Daniel’s teacher, Madame Lyon, said that Daniel was a great example of integration and that she will be telling any other English children coming to the school to follow his lead. She also said his progress had shocked some of the French children. His end of term report showed that in his control tests he was above the class average in nearly everything, including French. Luke didn’t have to do any tests but is now speaking good French and becoming more involved in the classroom. It’s early days for Luke as regards to education but it’s so uplifting to see him gaining in confidence as he realises he can speak French. There can’t be many 7 year olds that can read, write and speak French and English. Sorry if I’ve gone all gushy again, but we are very proud of them both.

Sharon and the boys went back to the UK for a few days at the end of the month to see family, friends and get a little retail therapy. One of the highlights was going back to their old school and seeing their old schoolmates and teachers. Sharon had a good chat with the staff she used to work with, while the boy’s enjoyed seeing their old friends in the playground. We wondered how the boy’s would react to the school visit. But while they had a great time and chatted about it for ages, they were both happy to be coming back to France and their new school. A 'sign of the times' was Daniels reaction to the flight. When I asked him if he was looking forward to flying he said "not really, but I can't wait to go on the train into Southend"!

While they were going on holiday abroad. I was hard at work laying a new floor in our bathroom (violins please!). I really missed Sharon’s eye for colour. Especially so, when I grouted half the floor in mint green when it should have been white! Good job the boy’s weren’t around!

Meeting Igor. Igor has bought a house near us and we’ve been exchanging e-mails ever since he found our website. He’s an interesting guy. Born in Russia, married in Bulgaria and now living in the USA. We had some very good meals in Montmorillon, which was good to discover, as Sharon and I haven’t had many chances to eat out. We are looking forward to meeting Igor and the rest of his family in the summer.

Losing the awning on our caravan. A couple of days after Kevin and Becky went home, we had a big storm. To try to take the awning down in it would have been madness so I battened down the hatches as best I could. Unfortunately the wind was too strong and took the awning over the caravan resulting in torn canvas and bent poles. We’re now trying to find the local tent repair service!

We’ve seen more deer locally and a wild boar running across a field just up the road to us. Every evening when I take Poppy out for her late night walk we can hear Nightingales singing. It's really strange to hear this beautiful birdsong in the total darkness. They also have a backing group of a few hundred croaking frogs in the distance. It all makes for an interesting midnight chorus.

We are so happy here. You just think to yourself ‘This is perfect. It can’t get any better than this’. But, as it has been from the start, our hardest challenge will be earning enough to support ourselves. It’s tough, but we feel we have to make it work because we are desperate not to lose what we have here. Sharon has lots of expo’s booked now and we are trying to get more shop placements. The website is also starting to bring in more orders. If I can find work it will take a lot of pressure off and we'll be able to say we're luckier than a lottery winner.

Good news! I’ve got a job! I’m going to be ‘responsible for production’ at a factory making PVC and aluminium windows, doors, gates, shutters etc. Any of my former work mates who are still reading this diary will be wetting themselves with laughter now! I start on June 7^th, nearly a year to the day from when I finished my last job. The euphoria of getting the job lasted for about an hour, then the panic kicked in. I’m going to be bombarded with French all day, every day and I’ve got to supervise people who I can barely speak to! Oh well, I did say that I wanted a challenge and I am looking forward to it (sort of). Seriously though, it will improve my French and it will be reassuring to have some regular money coming in. I’ll only be working 35 hours per week, which is virtually part time to what I was doing for many years in the UK. A little footnote to anyone who has had dealings with window fitters. Their job title over here is ‘posers’ I’d say the French have got that one right!

It has been said to us "well done on getting a job, but is that really what you came out here for?" Our answer is yes and no. Obviously I would rather not go back into full time employment but at 44 I am too young(!) and too poor to retire. As I have said often in this diary, we love it out here. The people are friendly and welcoming, it is peaceful, unhurried and not congested. We feel able to give the boy’s more freedom than we were comfortable giving them in the UK and we feel like we are alive, not just going through the motions. Getting a regular job means that our position out here is more secure and we can work on our long term plans without the pressure of money worries. Sharon’s craft business is growing well and a few people have approached me about building a website for them. We have other ideas in the pipeline such as a booklet about our experiences in moving to France, the things we’ve done well and the things we’ve done not so well. I’m looking on the job as a means to an end, rather than a solution.

We have had first hand experience of the French health care system this month. Sharon had a number of kidney operations in 2000 and we feared the problem had returned. The result was a trip to the ‘Urgencies’ (A&E) at 3 o’clock in the morning. They checked her over, but as painkillers were having no effect she was admitted for the night. After some treatment the pain began to subside. Despite having 2 scans during her 4 night stay, they were not able to say for definite what the problem was. Suggestions were a small kidney stone (Sharon suggested "more like a boulder!") or an infection. The main thing is Sharon is now feeling fine.

On the whole Sharon was very happy with the care she received, apart from one doctor who refused to speak French any slower as Sharon had asked. Instead he gabbled on saying ‘if you live in France you should speak French’. Sharon pointed out that she is learning and that it was not a problem for the other medical staff. Sharon described him as a through and through male chauvinistic pig, an opinion confirmed when he came into the room while I was there and spoke English!

One of our worries while Sharon was in hospital, was that we (stupidly) had not got around to arranging our top up insurance. How the system works over here is that for all but a few life threatening illnesses, the government will only pay 70% toward heath costs. It is up to the individual to pay the rest or take out private insurance. Four nights in a private room, with 2 scans, medicines etc and we were thinking ‘how much is this going to cost!’ We were relieved when it was only 300€ (about £200). We have our top up insurance now and we feel we had a lucky escape.

A nice side effect of the episode was that we have had nearly a dozen friends and neighbours, English and French, tell us (and in some cases tell us off) that we should have called them for help and to make sure we do, should another situation crop up.

We had a lovely day out in the Brenne National Park, which is about 30 minutes drive from the house. We were lucky enough to have a guided tour from Stephen and Una, who we met at our French lessons. They are both nature lovers and keen bird watchers. We would have missed out on an awful lot without their sharp eyes and tuned ears. It is a beautiful natural area which is reputed to have 1000 lakes (we didn’t count). Well worth a visit if you are down this way.

Daniel and Luke have been having a good time. They are our little ambassadors around the hamlet. We can imagine some of our neighbours saying ‘nice kids, but the parents aren’t very sociable!’ Truth is, the boys French is improving at a phenomenal rate. When my Dad visited this month, he sat open mouthed as Luke chatted to our friend Florence. Daniel volunteered to stand up in front of his class and do a presentation about a school newspaper, even though his teacher told him that he didn’t have to do it. Even kids he’s had problems with came up to him and said well done. They are my motivation in getting a job. They are doing so well and are so happy, I feel I have to make this work so that we are assured of a happy and comfortable future over here.

With so many foreigners moving to the area in the last year or so, we are making some good new friendships. I mustn't forget to mention Beverly and Steve who are moving to La Trimouille when they've sold their house in the UK. We are getting to meet and to know, people who we would never normally have met. Obviously the reason is that we have something in common as a minority group in a foreign country, but most Brit’s we know are trying to integrate and not becoming a sort of community within a community. Many of the French are totally confused as to why all these people want to live in their country. We try and explain, but I’m not sure that they really understand. One of the reasons came to light when I was helping a friend to insure his new scooter. He queried the premium because he thought it was high. The lady explained that it was because so many scooters and motorbikes are stolen in the area. After a little thought, she stated that 4 had been stolen in the last 5 months. She asked why we were slightly amused, so I explained that where I’d come from the figure would be about 4 stolen a week. She was shocked.

Something else that causes us amusement (though it probably shouldn’t) is the music they play in the supermarkets. Sadly, many songwriters nowadays feel the need to include strong language in the lyrics. This is normally censored out in the UK. But over here swearing in English is not noticed by the vast majority of people, so it’s left in. I’ll leave it to your imaginations as to what enlightening lyrics we hear as we glide around Hyper U with our trolley.

So there you are, only one month away from our first year over here. It’s been bloody hard work, but it all that graft seems to be baring fruit now. Just hope that I can clear the next hurdle.

One year on and our home is here in France! There have been times when we didn’t think we’d be saying that. It has taken a lot of hard work and at times we’ve all felt exhausted by it all. However, it’s been a great year, we’ve achieved and done so much, in fact, so much more than we had expected to at this stage. It’s nice to think that the hard work we’ve put in on the language and integrating is now paying off.

I’ve been at work for 5 weeks now and it’s quite a challenge. I’m Chef de Production (Head of Production) for a window and door manufacturer at Mignaloux Beauvoir, just outside Poitiers. After the first few days I would have jumped at any excuse to quit. The only thing that kept me going was the thought of what the many people who had wished me well, would have thought if I gave up after only 2 or 3 days of trying. I’ve been in a fair few nervy situations before, but never anything like this. I wasn’t sleeping well, I couldn’t eat my breakfast and I was generally the bear with the sore head. I was going into the office with my head telling me to get back in the car and go home, but my legs wouldn’t stop walking! I felt like a square peg in a round hole. The feeling of vulnerability was made worse by my lack of language and the fact that the boss had told everyone I was a consultant from the profile supplier. No one knew where they stood. I have never felt so uncomfortable in my life.

The good news is that it’s better now. I took the bull by the horns and got stuck into sorting a few things out. I’m getting a good reaction from the boss and the workforce, to the changes I’m making and they seem to understand my own peculiar version of French! I should know by the end of July if I am being kept on, so fingers crossed. Again!

While some may say ‘you’re not living the dream anymore’, we’d say ‘you’ve been watching too many escapism programmes on TV’. In real life, if you’ve got children and are not super rich or comfortably retired, you have to earn a living! The difference now is that we’re living somewhere we like living, the children are happy at school and enjoying the freedom and space they have, I’m doing 35 hour week instead of 60 plus and Sharon is also earning money from something she enjoys. We’re not there yet, but for our first year I don’t think we’ve done too bad! We still miss family a lot and that side of things has not got any easier for us .

Daniel and Luke have completed their first year at French school and they loved it. It was the thing we were least happy about ‘gambling’ on when we came over, but we feel happy (and relieved) that our faith in the boy’s has been realised. They had their school fete at the end of the month and all the children take part in a show. After proudly watching the boy’s in many shows at Rochford Primary, it was nice to see them performing again but this time in French. They had very good end of year reports and we are always getting people telling us how well they speak French. They have surprised themselves with the language. Daniel loves a challenge and he says that learning French has been the best part of the year. When he puts his mind to it he seems to absorb information like a sponge. Luke initially, was not as confident academically and we feel he has surprised himself with how he has learnt the language. He has gained confidence from his achievement and made a tremendous amount of progress at school in this last term.