Changing Your Life: Selling Up and “Living the Dream”

Considering selling up and ‘living the dream’?  Perhaps it is worth a few mintues quiet thought before you take a step further. You have to admit it, running a Chambre D’Hôtes  in France is not exactly a first career option! I cannot imagine that anyone leaving college, qualifications clutched to their chest, actually says ‘well I am off to entertain strangers in my home and battle with French officialdom’. 

Something happens to certain people en-route from their first early professional ambitions, their striving for success and finally achieving career mileposts. Something so powerful that it makes people give up on conventional ‘working life’ and allows this strange foreign life to suddenly appear veiled in ‘dream-like’ qualities. It is incredibly important that anyone considering relocation works out primarily why they personally see this possible new way of life as the right way forward for them and their family.

It is a cliché but worth reiterating that any problems you have within your personal life, your own inadequacies and your own fears will move with you – it is not possible to run away from all your problems by making a move such as this. Most problems come from within and inevitably follow you wherever you go. So, bearing this in mind, what reasons make this change of life a good idea?

It is true that you may well be able to leave many work related problems behind, but with this comes the end of the monthly pay cheque security. If you are fed up with office life and each time you park your car (or cruise around looking for a place) you look skyward and plea for your life to take on a more rewarding and natural turn – then perhaps you may find some relief in such a relocation.

If we were brutally honest about our reasons for taking such a big step ‘pressure of work’ was probably at the top of the list. Our individual working lives meant we had very little time to spend together. If this sounds familiar and you are nodding in agreement then just stop and think (for a minute) about the reality of spending all your time living and working together!

When you come back from a two-week holiday having spent every hour together are you actually looking forward to some space from your relationship? Do you long for a coffee with friends at lunchtime? Do you hanker for the security of the routine that your working life affords you? If so, are you ready to be thrown together totally dependant on each other, working, living and learning together – every day (and night).

Coming a very close second (in our reasons for leaving) was the need to put some distance (we felt) between us and other family members. Parents were becoming dependant at far too early an age and children were proving reluctant to stand on their own two feet. However, it is important not to underestimate how difficult the separation from ‘independent’ parents and children can prove. 

Weather – well there is a simple, easy and logical reason that everyone can understand for moving from the North West of England. Stop for a minute and consider what you know about the climate of where you are planning on moving to.  Is there such a thing as a perfect climate? Here in the South West of France we have extreme weather conditions. It can be extremely hot and dry in the summer but along with this comes the occasional impressive storm.

The winters are extremely cold and there is rarely the same level of home comforts as you would expect in British homes. So it is possible to find yourself sheltering from either the baking sun or the minus temperatures of winter. Perhaps where the local climate is most alluring is during the spring and autumn where things are less extreme and fairly consistently an improvement on the experience in the UK. 

What is dangerous is perhaps the notion that coming to France is much cheaper than remaining in the United Kingdom. This is fast ceasing to be the case, both in the cost of living and the cost of house purchase. There are still areas of the country where bargains can be found, but they are fewer and further between. It is true that you do seem to be able to get more for your money, more space and more buildings – this is fine but do bare in mind the amount of maintenance this will all demand and with it a further need for money.

The standard of living (not measured by any addition of electronic gadgets and large salaries and final salary pension) is higher here and the French people have a way of making the most of their lives and families that we can all learn from.

It is possible to grow more of your own food, shop for local food at colourful markets, find locally produced great wines and to sit outside on summer evenings listening to the frog and cricket song whilst smelling the jasmine and lavender blossoms.  Most of the real reasons for moving to France are not ‘bankable’. So please do not imagine that these sunflower fields are paved in traditional gold – to find what you are looking for you need to be looking for something far more difficult to define.