Bev is a retired secondary school teacher (better watch my spelling here) who speaks fluent French, unlike some of us who still think shouting at the French in English works.
"I work in England, she would say, but I live in France"
I, am still working as a self-employed Graphic designer and Illustrator.
We sold a small building plot in Staffordshire and bought a huge piece of land with a farmhouse and this lovely little gite which we renovated in the first couple of years to let out for holidays and short breaks.
Bev had a French Pen friend who lived in the South of France. At the age of fourteen, she was put on a train, on her own, with a rucksack, a few bob and was waved off by Mum and Dad from the platform.
That was it for Bev. She was home. As for speaking French, well you had to or you didn't eat! Baptism by fire.
I was bought up by an Italian mother and spent my Summers in Italy. Lucky me.
Lots family at the holiday home in Falconer on the Adriatic coast.
When I was young, my father would drive us, five kids, to Italy so France was just part of the long journey where we only stopped for the night if Dad was tired otherwise France was generally ignored until we got to Switzerland which is, of course, spectacular especially for the young and impressionable.
It was only when I met Bev and we booked a Gite holiday in France that I really fell in love with it.
Years later we had the good fortune to buy a place in Brittany and have never looked back since.

Really, it is just the perfect location. Such a beautiful lifestyle and demeanour the Bretons have. It can be as quiet as you want yet you're a stones throw from the hustle and bustle if you like people watching whilst eating moules, drinking Muscadet and shouting at the French in English until they get your point.
A rural setting with everything close at hand to suit whatever floats your boat.
We've been here for eighteen years but never tire of the area. There is still so much to do and see.

It was simply the the look of these old stone buildings with their metre thick walls and giant fireplaces that was a no brainer for us. We couldn't believe what we got in exchange for our small pocket of land in England. Hundreds of years old with no foundations to speak of, these properties will still be here in hundreds of years to come. It's been a labour of love but we love it.
Being surrounded by farmland helps as well with young Deer running startled from our back garden and across the fields. Woodpeckers rat-tat-tatting against the old fence post. The owl flying out of the barn into the night. The night! Lie on your back in the garden and just stare in wonder at the amount. See how long it is before you see a shooting star. It will be a matter of seconds. Don't let the neighbours see you doing this. 'It's zose crazy English. Drunk again'