.... A little about the authoress....and below are a series of articles giving an insight of living a life in Brittany.

Late in the year 2000 my husband surprised me by asking me if I'd like an adventure.

I don't know if it was mid-age crisis, indigestion or he'd been watching too much ‘Place in the Sun'. The upshot was that on a very cold January day in 2001 we arrived in France looking for the ‘dream home' (as you do). At the end of a very tiring day after been shown houses that couldn't possibly have been anyone's dream, we were shown as a last resort ‘Le Mezerai' All I saw was a wreck of a longere with holes in the roof and overgrown with grass two feet high. All Norman saw was his dream. Oh dear.

After a long chat that night I extracted a promise that on no account would he tackle this himself. Not that he wasn't capable, but time was against us. The following morning we told the surprised estate agent that we'd have it. He arranged for a builder and us to come over again and discuss the plans. Our son and pregnant daughter in law came with us, and when they saw the houses available and the prices, they too decided to come and live here.

Seven frustrating months living on site in a caravan had almost brought us to the end of our tether. When I saw the removal lorry from England at the end of our lane I burst into tears. At last we could begin to live a normal life again. Some newly acquired friends from St George came over to help us move in, and that night I slept in my own bed again in a bedroom! DEEP JOY.

We then had to make the house into a home and form a garden and drive, so there was still a lot of hard work to do. Norman made a tremendous impression on the outside of the building and the land. Sadly his dream was never finished as he died suddenly in November 2004.

My son and daughter in law and two grand daughters live 20 minutes away and I spend as much time with the girls as I can. I keep busy doing as much of the garden as I can manage, visit friends, read, write and take trips to all the lovely places there are here, within a very short distance. Keeping busy helps me cope, and watching my son and family succeed in France , makes me very happy.

Carole A. Foster.