One grey dismal day, Janine Marsh was on a trip to northern France to pick up some cheap wine. She returned to England a few hours later having put in an offer on a rundown old barn in the rural Seven Valleys area of Pas de Calais. This was not something she’d expected or planned for.Janine eventually gave up her job in London to move with her husband to live the good life in France. Or so she … so she hoped. While getting to grips with the locals and la vie Française, and renovating her dilapidated new house, a building lacking the comforts of mains drainage, heating or proper rooms, and with little money and less of a clue, she started to realize there was lot more to her new home than she could ever have imagined.Ten years ago, Janine Marsh decided to leave her corporate life behind to fix up a run-down barn in northern France. This is the true story of her rollercoaster ride, in many ways a love story, with her sharp observations on the very different way of life, culture and etiquette of France.
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.
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Janine is an excellent writer, and her stories of relocating from London to northern France are lush and vividly told. Janine is a woman who has fallen in love with her life in France, and through her writing, you will too.
I might not be brave enough to renovate a run-down barn in rural France, but as an ex-pat living in a French village, I can totally relate to Janine Marsh’s book, My Good Life in France.
The author’s new life in France started out quite differently to most ex-pats though: whilst on one of her regular day trips to pick up cheap wine in northern France, she purchased an old barn in the rural Seven Valleys area of Pas de Calais. It seems no one was more surprised at this purchase than the author herself.
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. It turned into a life-time project requiring far more time, money and energy than she could ever have imagined.
Several years ago, Janine eventually gave up her top corporate banking job in London to move with her husband to their still quite run-down French barn. In My Good Life in France, she narrates the true story of negotiating the local inhabitants, French bureaucracy, tradesmen, culture and etiquette. No easy feat for a born and bred British girl from the city!
I loved reading about all of her adventures: the good, the bad, the ugly. And the incredible, one of which resulted in the neighbours nicknaming her “Madame Merde”. I’ll let you read the story for yourself to find out why!
The author’s joy, frustration, enthusiasm and curiosity for her new homeland shines through as she recounts her experiences with humour, from administrative struggles to homesickness and personal tragedy, to her love for chickens and stray animals. And, finally, love for her life in France.
Towards the end of the book, Janine includes a lot of useful information for adapting to the French lifestyle and negotiating French rules –– both written and unwritten!
Highly recommended for Francophiles and anyone thinking of impulse-buying a run-down property in a region where it rains all the time.
How many of us have dreamed about having a second home in another country to escape the hustle and bustle of urban reality and enjoy the sweet life in a country setting? Could you do it, would you? Author Janine Marsh shares her charming journey to the good life dream–including the bon and not-so-bon things to consider!
A trip to the French countryside changes everything for Janine and her husband, Mark when they buy a home that needs ‘a bit’ of fixing up. You’ll smile and chuckle as they meet their new neighbors and adjust to the rural way of life in a new country–a far cry from their city life in London. The foods, home renovations, gardens, and a menagerie of new pets make their move enchanting, humbling and hilarious at times.
I truly enjoyed Author Marsh’s down to earth descriptions of the adventures and realities of her new lifestyle. Not everything is greener on the other side, but ooh-la-la, it does sound magnifique! A heartwarming, inspiring read—highly recommended!
This book has made me crave similar stories of people moving abroad and starting again.
A London couple purchases a rundown house in northern France as a second home. The first part of the book was the most interesting for me, where the couple is shopping for houses on their weekend trips to northern France to purchase wine. After purchasing the house, they leave London and move into the house, where they are welcomed with endless repairs. Other than an episode where the couple arrives for a dinner invitation at the designated time and is put off by their hosts for showing up unfashionably early, that pretty much sums up the highlights. The rest was a bit dry.