It was been a dream of ours to move to France for a 'new life' for a long time. You know the way it is, you go on holiday to France and dream about the new life you could have… You watch Escape to the Chateau and dream of doing it yourself!
The plan was to retire to France, but things changed in 2020 when the World changed due to the Covid Pandemic.
In May 2020 with chaos all around and our businesses (award winning top London Restaurant SNAPS + RYE and long established Hair Salon Kell Skott Haircare) forced to close, we decided that the time was right to do it, if we didn't do it then, then when would we do it?
Things fell very quickly in to place. A dear friend said that we could stay in her house in Saint Antonin Noble Val in the Tarn-et-Garonne whilst we house hunted.
A client of Kell's wanted to rent our house in Buckinghamshire for a few months to 'trial' life in the Shires. And the simply fantastic team we had at the restaurant said that they would look after things in our absence once it was able to re-open, albeit as just a takeaway deli / cafe.
On July the 29th 2020 we left for France, with what we thought was going to be at least a 3 month house hunt in front of us.
After just 10 days we had found a house (and land) that ticked all the boxes. There was just something that said it was right for us. The vendors wanted to move quickly, so once we had signed, we headed back to England.
We closed the restaurant, rented out the house, packed everything up and were resident in France on November 14th.
Oh and we managed to fit in a drive down to the Southern tip of Spain to pick up my Maman who was coming to live with us!
Kell and I have never been daunted by change and we don’t hang around once we have made a decision, but I don’t think either of us thought that from conception to completion (especially in a worldwide pandemic) would take just 6 months.
We hope you enjoy following our journey here.
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