Earlier this week my wife and I signed our lives away. Away to whom? Away to what is more like the question that should be asked. We sat in a small immoblier in Bugeat in a small corner of the Millvache plateau in the Correze part of the Limousin and signed our names on a piece of paper stating that we intended to buy a house. When we confirmed that we wanted a permanent  home not a holiday home the teenage girl opposite us finally looked at her father and smiled. The smile at last came to his face and the French estate agent sat between my wife and I hugged us both. With frightening speed the paperwork was filled in and we were told that within 3 months we would own a house in France, a country neither of us have ever lived in and I have only ever been to 4 times before.

Why? Rather than put everything down in my first attempt to write a blog (Congratulations if you’ve stuck through my bad English thus far, you’re probably the only one!) I’ll give a quick run down. My aim is to expand on this topic as I add to this, until now, form of communication I’ve never used before. The whole reason for setting up this blog was as a response from lots of people who wanted to be kept up to date with our “adventure” and I thought this might be the best way. Let’s see.

Back to “why?” To cut a long story short we’re fed up. Fed up with so many aspects of modern British life that we’ve decided to cut our losses and leave. We also want to have a go at simple smallholding and selfsufficiency, ironically you cant do this in Britian unless you’ve got at least £250,000 to spare to buy land on our overcrowded island. Expect lots of commentaries in the future about the particulars of British life that grind us down, and anything else that “gets my goat” as well as updates on our progress and pictures, probably mostly rubbish ones of me posing in willies and up to my neck in French DIY and construction.