Why we left our life in the UK to move to France and start a homestead
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- Опубликовано: 1 сен 2021
- Why did we leave the UK to escape to rural France? Why move to the Loire? What were we doing before? What are we going to do now? Find out a bit more about us and what motivated this momentous move and whether it has lived up to expectations. Plus some throwback clips of us looking much younger - pre-grey hairs, pre-wrinkles, pre-children! If you have any other questions please leave them in the comments and we'll do our best to answer them in a future video.
If you enjoyed this video please do consider subscribing. If you'd like to support us further you can visit our Buy Me A Coffee page to make a one-off donation (no account needed) buymeacoffee.com/livingloire - thank you!
#escapetoruralfrance #livinginfrance #homestead #simpleliving
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Welcome to Living in the Loire, we are a young family in rural France, renovating previously poorly converted barns. We aim to do most of the work ourselves, being as frugal and as eco as possible!
We are learning on the job and we hope to share the skills we pick up along the way. When possible we will take you on a tour of the region (the garden of France) sharing with you the numerous chateaux, towns and markets.
As well as the house we will be transforming the garden, bringing part of it back to its previous use as a potager. This is our dream and one of the main reasons of leaving the city to move to the countryside in France.
Join us on our journey!
![RESTORING our neglected 300-YEAR-OLD FARMHOUSE and garden [2 years in 24 minutes]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/22SkAp2KBHI/mqdefault.jpg)
![RESTORING our neglected 300-YEAR-OLD FARMHOUSE and garden [2 years in 24 minutes]](/img/tr.png)
Fairytales come from being brave and bold x
I totally understand being overwhelmed by the amount of work. We found that having a long term list, monthly list and weekly lists were the best way to keep it in perspective. Give yourselves 1 day off every two weeks and plan what you’re going to do to get the most out of it. Focus your renovations on a good bathroom and bedroom for you two. That way when you’ve done a full day you have a clean and inviting place to recharge. You’ll get loads more done and feel less overwhelmed.
Thank you for the finished bedroom/finished bath tip. I am redoing an old Victorian and I was getting ovrrwhemed.
I have my own system for my self build which is not to stick to one large task but to do a few smaller ones each day for the same amount of time. It has transformed progress. I work with builders fir my job and they deal with this by having a very structured day with an early start, a mid morning break and finish and tidy up each day leaving everything ready to hit the ground running. Rest each Sunday come what may.
best thing we did was buy a farm in france...we now have sheep goats and fruit after 9 happy years. in Dordogne valley ....bon chance mes ami
You guys seem lovely people. The amount of work you’ve been facing AND raising little ones at the same time would be overwhelming even for the more seasoned DIYers. Hats off to both of you.
Oh man I totally understand doing it by yourself. It’s one thing at a time. You WILL make it. Be very proud of yourselves. You had taken the bull (your purchase of the property) by the horns and ran with it. My nephew bought a very old farm in France and actually doing the very same thing as you two. So much work. The vegetables you have grown is priceless. Yes, good bones across the board. Good bones from good people.
Nice young couple, wish you good luck ;)
It's great to see you two again!! And looking so healthy and happy. You're troupers, just keep on keeping on. You've already achieved a huge amount in the short time you've been at your property, and had another baby as well! Just keep being yourselves, you're a breath of fresh air in this crazy world, your tranquillity rubs off! Much love and big hugs xx
Thank you so much Karen, that means a lot.
Thank you for sharing your story and future plans.
Looking forward to seeing you both on your journey
Honest and to the point, thank you !
Love hearing your story. Looking forward to following your journey.
Thank you for this and I wish you well with your fantastic and brave adventure, congratulations
Loooking forward to follow your adventures in La Loire!
Thanks for sharing ❤️
Awesome.
Thank you.
I'm amazed by what you've been able to do so far, just the two of you!
BLESSED you are, gratitude for all you have achieved this far, young and able, very blessed you all are. 📣
Such a great couple! 😀👍
Thank you for sharing your experience :)
Wow, so cool both of you, great decisions, great plans, good luck with all for you and the family
Great adventure. Wishing you all the best. We’re watching!
Lovely video, thanks for sharing
Lovely video, thank you. Always nice to have a peek at people’s motivation. I can see that you have already progressed on the opportunities you set up a year ago. All the best for your endeavors in France!
I appreciate your hard work 💝
Very nice. Thank you
You two are amazing! Thank you for sharing your life with us on RUclips! As a fellow introvert, I know it's hard.
Good on you for having a go. It will come together I am sure as you are willing to work and adapt.
Good luck to you, great that you are flexible, and improving your DIY skills!
What a lovely couple! You’re living my dream so I look forward to following your story, until I can start my own. Bonne chance à vous deux 😊
You are both awesome. Your pottery is beautiful. The property is looking so nice. Wow, the improvements you are making to your home and garden take such hard work and skill.
Thank you so much for all your supportive comments. If you would like to support the channel further please check out our Buy Me A Coffee page www.buymeacoffee.com/livingloire
I think you’re both doing great! It pays off to take risks! You’ve come a very long way in one year. Keep the faith, don’t get discouraged and just keep on going one day at a time. Well done both of you!
I admire you very much. You have lead your life in a very wise way. Lots of love for you and your fantastic family.
You're both naturals!!! natural potter, natural film makers !!! Delightful !!!
very sweet! thank you for sharing your interesting journey. greetings from New Hampshire, US
What a super video you guys did...I really enjoyed it. Honest, funny and just real and warming...well done.
Lovely..well presented..& such delightful whimpering snuggling going on 🎈
OMG visiting your home and farm and land would be such a wonderful trip!!!
I find you brave and charming! Wish you good luck in your proyect!!
That was a super video…certainly the Language immersion is a great idea. I used to do it, loved it…plus there is an income. Your joint energy and skills are super…good luck!
Hi Rebecca & Brook, so nice to see a young couple who made the jump to France since Brexit.Lovely to see how your business ideas are progressing and where you'd like to see your projects going. I too live in a rural setting 12km from Millau viaduct up at 750m in wonderful clean air with no light or noise polution,and my potagers face south with views to Roquefort,gorge de Raspes and the river Tarn. The euro exchange rate is so good for buying in France right now,so exciting for others who want to come and do the same! Can't wait to hear more about what you're up to for 2022.
Marrikka in Millau
Lovely gentle Vlog. Nice to meet you. Looking forward to following the next part of your journey.
Thank you! Hope you enjoy following along.
I love you guys. I love your authenticity and tons of your talents! Amazing work for which I'm sure it will blossom in the rainbow colours 🌈🌈🌈
Great guys. Keep on truckin’. ❤️ LOVE your pottery.
It's comforting to fall back on growing a large percentage of your own foods. Even on a standard residential lot around 1/3 acre, we've been able to cultivate most of our backyard. Fruit trees, berry patches, then your standard veggies, plus a few 🐔 chickens makes our lifestyle more recession proof and not so hectic. We're nearly 70yrs, but close enough to kids and grandkids to stay connected and be a blessing in their lives.
Well done . I did the same in Bulgaria . Never looked back .
You are a charismatic couple ,them you for your thoughts
Thank you for your candor and as you said eventually all your hard work will pay off because you are a team and have love and family as your motivation. Love and best wishes from México
Thank you Carmen. Yes we just have to keep the long term goal in mind!
Thanks 🙏 for sharing
I've just listened to this video and I think your idea of a fully immersive language / experience homestay / guest house sounded a wonderful idea ... a great point of difference to other people's business ideas. I hope it worked / working out for you.
Brilliant!
FairPlay guys enjoy and best of luck 👏🍻
I love you guys already!
Oh I am glad I found you
Looks very fun and interesting
Would like to see your home and what you have done
Interesting video! Your journey and aspirations mirror quite closely those of my partner and I who took early retirement and have recently settled in the Charente Maritime region. 3 months in and we're just about ready to plant those seed potatoes! We've got small pension pots but figure that if we purchase solar panels and grow our own veg we can live quite frugally. Hope your project goes well and I will look forward to seeing your updates,
Your vlog just turned up and I was fascinated with it. I wish you lots of luck. We lived in France for almost 9 years, trying to renovate a property but because my husband was an electrician, to make a living he was working pretty much 7 days a week and eventually his back was injured and we had no way of surviving and finishing the property so we had to return. I still regard France as home and I miss it every day, my friends I made, all French, I still keep in touch with, and I would jump at the opportunity to return but its unlikely to happen unless we won the lottery.
I think you’re super sweet and so real. There’s not an ounce of the social media falseness to you, where people pretend to have perfect, happy all the time lives. I loved how open and honest you are about being introverted and the struggles of building your homestead and businesses. You’re very brave and hard working and I wish you success and joy and to get to a point where you can explore some of those cities or the beach that you mentioned that are close by. I’m looking forward to seeing more of your life on your RUclips channel.
Thanks Alie. That’s a very nice comment. It’s been an emotional few weeks. To receive such positivity for a film we made has been very humbling. At the same time we never set out to be ‘RUclipsrs’ and are a little unsure of how we navigate down this path with a greater wide ranging audience. I hope you’ll enjoy our future films and endeavours. Best wishes.
Love you guys and looking forward too following your adventure - I am a Brit who ended up in Bulgaria because it was cheap, but actually wants to be in France running a creativity & wellbeing retreat/homestead like you - your comment about the Bulgarian language made me laugh out loud - I have tried to learn it and failed dismally but can speak French no problem!!! I have a buyer for my house here now so fingers crossed I may get to France after all - If I ever make it I will drop by for a cuppa! 😀
Haha yes I wouldn't even know where to start with Bulgarian! Hope your house sale goes smoothly and we see you in France one day soon ☺️
Good luck!
@@LivingintheLoire I agree 100%. But, Bulgarian is doable. See my channel here. Creating this channel was the only thing that saved me (for a ton of reasons)... ruclips.net/video/PWXQN1oZiOQ/видео.html
Brilliant best of luck to you
Your plans sound very exciting. Homesteading has become very popular. There is huge potential to gain multiple audiences from RUclips. It’s seems France has been a great fresh start for lots of Brits. Best wishes!
So many questions for you two! Greetings from California.
I wish more Utubers would do this !!! I love knowing your background story !!
Nice people you are literally 🥰
Thanks Wasim ☺️
Wonderful guys congratulations ❤🎉
Hi Rebecca & Brook, I am so impressed with your drive and not giving up. Thank you for sharing so much of yourselves, it is very hard to open up and having your life out there when you are private people. I wish all the very best for you both & look forward to following your journey. Have you made any contacts with any other British expats living in France? Take really good care of yourselves, stay safe! Much love Kathy x
Thanks Kathy. We’ve met a few but unfortunately the pandemic has made it pretty difficult to meet anyone new or socialise much at all. Hopefully that will all be a bit easier sooner 🤞
Excellent work
quite nice - it will be good to see how it goes along :)
you are doing so well félicitations!
I properly love you guys
I’m really enjoying your channel- you’re doing a fantastic job. I lived and worked in France and Spain in my 20s - I wish I’d done what you two have done and stayed there! Good luck with it all and I hope you get some time off to enjoy it all very soon.
I just had to subscribe...this was such a great video. I could feel your desires as well as the anxiety of the unknown and y'all took the plunge. Now I shall live vicariously through you as a trip to France was always something I have wanted to do, it just wasn't in the cards. Thanks for sharing the thought process of make your dreams come true and I look forward to watching you build on those dreams. Have a Blessed day.
Thanks Margaret. We should have a video soon that will bring you up to date from start to now but feel free to watch any previous films. Thanks for the sub.
@@LivingintheLoire Thank you, I know I am going to enjoy them.
Hi 👋...just come across your videos ! So refreshing and natural delivery . Living in France presents opportunities for a completely different lifestyle...especially in the rural areas . Someone I know recently mentioned a property they are going to see in France soon and it sounds incredible ...and amazingly cheap ! Obviously it's important to be realistic about rural living and make sure you can access services resources and community as necessary. That said we moved onto the Isle of Wight to get away from mainland UK and our life has been transformed. Well done guys for all that you've done ✔️ 😀😀💚💚
Thanks Sian! Hope your friend likes the property they're going to see.
Congrats as for sure its good decision make the best of it.
Lovely ❤️
I love your channel and your idea of doing a homestead. I am French and living in Germany, so when you are ready to do the homestead, I would love to visit for a holiday.
Thanks Sandra! Hope you’re able to come and visit one day 😊
you are cute couple 🧡🧡🧡 good luck with your plans xx
😀You're such a lovely family.. well done on your move.. I hope to be out there in the next 2 years too
Good luck with your move!
Good luck 😄❤️
Love you guys! Subscribed🌸
Hello Christina 👋
How are you doing today?
Excellent great interaction video good luck for the next year exciting times 😝♥️ 🇫🇷 Viva Le France
welcome 😀
love from India. you guys are such wonderful people. All the very best !
Thanks Shaleen ☺️
Just started watching your videos, so helpful and succinct I’ve immediately subscribed. Also planning a move to France and location so challenging to decide on, France is so large
Thanks Deborah. Good luck with your search, it is indeed a big country!
Brits looking for a French house in France, just to 'make' it a British one. Huge project. Impressive results. Contratulations.
nice! best wishes ti you!
Good luck from Cologne/Germany. Keep on going, I will follow ❤.
Thank you Edith!
Lucky you!
cool film....
Strangely the shot of Bristol and Brunel's bridge also shows where I lived before we moved to France in 1993...
I have never once considered we made the wrong decision.
I'm currently restoring a small watermill in Aquitaine, it's paradisaical!
No traffic noise, just the sound of running water, birds, bees.....
It feels like at least half the Brits we encounter in France have come from the south west of eng. Small world. The sound (or lack of) is quite incredible. It's so easy to take for granted and then every so often we'll stop and go 'isnt it so amazing that all we can hear are birds?'
I've just caught this video, almost exactly a year behind. I left the UK when Gordon Brown was Prime Minister back in 2009, with a one way ticket to Kazakhstan. Since then I've lived in China for 6 years and I'm now entering by 8th year in Thailand. If you don't travel you might believe the poisonous UK media where everything is a disaster! Go guys Go!
Thanks David. Bon voyage!
Your comment about travel was an astounding eye opener! I believe you.
Yes I believe that's true of both British Media and Politicians. They don't want Brits looking beyond their own back yard, coz they'll be able to see past all the lies and other crap we're continually fed. I've plans to move to France myself when I retire. Britain has had it.
I wish I could do life over again, and I was as brave as you.
I don't know your situation but it's definitely easier to be brave when you're doing it with a supportive partner who shares your vision. I don't think either of us would have done this alone.
I’m new to your channel I really enjoyed watching this. It reminded me of the channel4 series from years ago called No Going Back. Couples just like yourselves moving to another country to start a new life. Good luck with everything…I’ll stay tuned:)
(I think you can still watch the series on catchup…if ever you had the time that is:)
Thanks Barbara. We've not heard of the show but it sounds good, we'll try and check it out - it does sound similar to our situation. We are certainly a lot happy here.
It was delightful to have a conversation! When your little boys get another year older you can take your day trips. I found it much easier to stay at home when they are so little. You will do fine! 😇💜
Thank you! Yes, now we're a year on it's already a little easier to get out and about and imagine next year will be even more so.
@@LivingintheLoire hello, fantastic job thus far!! How would one reach out to you if interested in a conversation about homesteading with ? I am in US and looking to move to France, this video popped up on a search !🤗🤗🤗 I know sounds weird but I don't have FB or messenger ( not a fan of social media) but I'd be willing to re enstall messenger to communicate for the sake of sharing private info like ph# & email, Let me know what you think and look forward to chatting!! Great Grace & Blessings 🤗
Thank you @Shannon - you can email us at livingintheloire@gmail.com
If we endure or live through a massive pole shift. It has been determined that France is more than likely the safest place to be.
I have just found you both - wonderful to hear how you have immersed yourselves and taken plunge into the french lifestyle.. I love your steady ethos and values - homesteading is a great idea - good socialization too fro the children. having had lodgers it can work really well when you have the space.. mine are all pretty much grown and i led a somewhat UK conventional lifestyle.. but now I'm considering doing something different as feel the need to be self sufficient or have people stay and skill swap. ..not sure where as yet. But France and Portugal beckon as its so much more affordable than the UK - as you say house and land (and its the land I'm always very interested in) is pretty nigh impossible here. Thanks for your lovely documentation of your journey so far.. fascinating and motivating! Hope you have since managed to get the odd day out! i will get onto the other vids. All best wishes to you.
Thanks for the comment Louise. Yes I believe well maintained and nurtured land with good soil will be the number one commodity of the future. Even more than a house? Who knows. Good luck with the search.
Keep the wild meadow, plant with harvested type of wildflowers i.e. camomile, and keep six or eight beehives. Just a thought. Less physical input and probably about the same return on income. Find a cash crop for after summer and the bees are hibernating that is valuable. I'm south of you, in the Lot, balance between all the physical labour and short burst for the same return for 2 - 4 weeks of the year is sometimes the best option. Sell hive produce en-bulk to pharma companies. Then you don't have to sell jar by jar.
I would LOVE to have bees, hadn't even considered doing it on that kind of scale though. Something to think about for sure. I never know where you get the bees from in the first place though? Also does France have quite strict restrictions on where you can place a hive or have a I imagined that (eg distance from roads/houses etc)?
@@LivingintheLoire Consider natural bee keeping, been diving deep into the research. Many of our local bee hives have died off with mite in the last few years, the only ones still standing are these. While less honey, less work and very healthy. There is a group that keep huge amounts of hives in the natural park just south of Cahor who sell hives you one doesn't want to make them. ruclips.net/video/iswU2kfmVOM/видео.html
As an American who lived in northern Uk for three years, I definitely would choose rural France. I have a general idea of where you are. Good choice. Like the way everyone in those small towns says hello. I love the food and French country kitchen design. The relaxed artsy flavor of those areas appeals to me, with their weekly market days. I will follow your progress with interest. If you have an email address I would be glad to share some of our local potters in New Hampshire. And a few pics of our 350 working farm n Central Lakes Region New Hampshire. Grass fed beef- hay- logging. I am looking at returning to art school this fall. All the best! ~ Diane
Thank you Diane for your lovely comments. Our email address is livingintheloire@gmail.com. You're right the area has a lovely atmosphere. Good luck with art school!
Well done. Yes don't dwell too much on the big long 'to do' list, and don't get tempted into scatter gun approach. it's too hard to see your progress. Concentrate on finishing each project at a time. Far more satisfying and motivating! 😊👍
Thank you for making these nice videos for us. I could imagine being one of your guests. The region seems to be very interesting. As you said, there seems to be a train station near by?
Your pottery could be sold on Etsy and town markets. There’s no additional overhead. Price it correctly and it will sell!
Thanks W&S I did a couple of Christmas markets in UK and sold on Etsy too. I think I priced it too cheap though!