City or Country: Real Life moving to France stories

The buzz of city life or a quiet rural retreat? Gillian Harvey speaks to expats who’ve chosen to live very different lives in France…

Mike and Hayley Gibbon, Madranges, Corrèze

When Mike (56) and Hayley (46) Gibbon moved to Corrèze in 2019, they were attracted to the idea of rural living as well as having a new adventure. “My parents live in France: mum moved to Haute-Vienne with my stepdad over a decade ago, then dad went to live in Dordogne with my stepmum a few years later,” says Hayley. “Every time we visited it got harder to leave. Then Mike turned 50 and that was the catalyst for him. He wanted to try a different way of life.” The pair explored areas close to Hayley’s parents, before setting their sights on running a campsite in Madranges.

“We’d lived in a village before, so thought we knew what to expect. But we soon realised there’s a huge difference,” admits Hayley, a former graphic designer. “You aren’t really ever far from facilities in the UK, and our village there had about 14,000 inhabitants. Madranges has around 200.” Despite its relative remoteness, Madranges ticks all the boxes for Mike and Hayley. “We’re right in the foothills of the Massif des Monédières, a stepping stone up to the Massif Central. We have mountains, rivers, forests, heathland. It still takes me aback when I’m driving home and I take in the scenery. And internet connection is great.”

Since their move in 2019, the couple have spent time getting their campsite, Le Ranch, up and running and adjusting to local life. Living remotely may have been the goal, but the reality comes with its challenges. “There are no shops, so you do rely on the car. If we take a trip to Limoges or Poitiers, the nearest cities, we need to plan ahead to make sure we’re getting the most out of it because of the distance.”

Luckily, what the area lacks in amenities it makes up for with community. “The village is very friendly. We joined the comité des fêtes to help with integration and go to all the meetings, all the events. While language is a barrier at times, our French is improving daily.” Their proximity to Limoges and Poitiers airports means, that despite its rural location, the area is quite well connected to the UK. This is very useful for Mike, who has grown-up children back home.

Meanwhile, Hayley benefits from being closer to her parents, who both live within an-hour-and-a-half’s drive. The lack of amenities locally has also led to more opportunities for the campsite business. “A customer who stayed with us in 2021 said how much he’d like to be able to order a drink and have some food on site, which got us thinking,” says Hayley.

“We now have a drinks licence and serve pizzas. It took a while to organise the right licences and health and safety paperwork, but it’s up and running now and has proven to be very worthwhile. We’ve opened it up so that the villagers can also come and get pizza, which means we aren’t just those crazy English people running a campsite, we’re supplying something to the local community too.

“We’ve realised that living remotely doesn’t mean being isolated,” Hayley says. “You can be as connected as you want to be.”

leranch-camping.com

Kerry-Anne Gilowey, Content Strategist and UX Writer, Caen

Kerry-Anne (49) first visited France on a tourist visa, leaving her native South Africa for an adventure after her marriage ended in 2018 and her beloved cat, William, passed away in 2022. “I’d been living in a quiet suburban area, but it wasn’t what I wanted,” she says. “I realised I was on my own, and it seemed like the perfect time to explore.” The original plan was to tour the country for a year, having taken a sabbatical from work. But life had other plans. “I started in Besançon for six weeks, then travelled around for four months or so. But in late August 2023, a friend suggested I should come to Caen; he’d been there and was sure I’d like it.”

Kerry-Anne originally planned to stay in Caen for two months, but she loved it too much to leave. “I eventually realised I wanted to stay here permanently,” she says.

After a sojourn back to South Africa to apply for an entrepreneur/profession libérale visa, which would enable her to work, Kerry-Anne came back and set up her business in the city centre in July 2024. She hasn’t looked back since. “I’ve never lived in a city before. I had a quiet life with a big house, a garden and a pool. Now I’m in a fifth-floor apartment with a gorgeous view over the city and am loving urban life.”

One thing that appeals to Kerry-Anne about city living is the opportunity to socialise at a moment’s notice. “I’ll have a big WhatsApp group chat with friends, where someone will say ‘who’s keen to get a drink in half an hour?’, and I can say ‘sure, why not?’. I love being spontaneous. I’m so used to having to organise everything two weeks in advance so people can make it. Now I’m just a three-minute walk from the port where we go to drink and dance.” While Kerry-Anne’s business means she can work anywhere, living the country life doesn’t appeal. “Someone I know who lives in rural France recently sent me a picture of her farm with her chickens and cows, and it held zero appeal for me.”

Another advantage of city life has been the opportunity to improve her French fast, just by going out and mingling with locals. “I met many of my friends via a language exchange meet-up here, so we mostly speak English to each other, but now my French is better than some of their English.”

Kerry-Anne is also enjoying the best social life she’s ever had. “I’ve read stories about it taking a while to integrate, or to get people to open up. But my experience has been the opposite. I became friends with people so fast. Most of my friends are French, and we have dinners and parties at each other’s homes.”

So, will she ever try rural living? “Never say never. Maybe when I’m 80. But not for the foreseeable future,” she says. “The countryside looks lovely for a visit, but I need the busyness and pace of life I get here. One of the things I love most is meeting new people. And here it happens all the time – every single weekend. I thrive on that.”

Vanda-Lynn Hughes, Maubourguet, Hautes-Pyrénées

When Vanda-Lynn Hughes (66) moved to France with husband Gareth in 2020, it was in search of a warmer climate, and a step towards retirement. They wanted somewhere they could enjoy an easier pace of life, but where they could generate an income from running a gîte or B&B. Having considered Spain, Portugal and Cyprus, they eventually settled on France as being the best option, moving over in the December to search for their ideal property.

Having lived in rural Wiltshire for 12 years, the couple wanted to find somewhere a little more connected. “I’d experienced isolation, living in a tiny hamlet. I’m a bit of a people person, so I didn’t want to go through that again. In addition, Gareth was diabetic so I wanted us to be near medical facilities,” says Vanda. The couple initially rented a property just outside Perpignan. However, they didn’t settle in the area. “I found it a bit too busy; and it was very windy and dry. We decided to look north and find a more temperate area that was a bit quieter.”

Eventually, they settled on Maubourguet, a small town in the Occitanie region of France with a population of just over 2,000, in August 2021. “It seemed to have exactly the right balance: it wasn’t too isolated, but it wasn’t too busy either. We found a house where the majority of the work had already been done and where we could let out the top floor of the property as a gîte.” The climate was also more to their liking in this area. “The weather was clement, but not too extreme. The agent said to us that they’d been here 20 years and there had only been one day when the snow stuck to the ground, but everyone could still drive around as it was very light,” says Vanda. “I’d experienced being snowed in before and didn’t really want to repeat it!”

While the location proved ideal, the couple’s dream retirement was short lived, as Gareth passed away in August 2022 after complications post-Covid. However, Vanda continues to live in the property, renting out the upper floor to guests. Fortunately, as she and Gareth had chosen a location where there is plenty of village life, Vanda hasn’t been left feeling isolated and makes sure she gets out and about each day. “Every day, I walk into the village in the morning to have a coffee,” she says. “I’m back in the afternoon for a walk. It’s great to have the interaction with locals, and to see people coming and going.”

Having come over knowing very little French, and with much of her initial life in France having been taken up with caring for Gareth, Vanda still has only relatively basic skills in the language. But she puts it to good use in her visits to the café, where she chats with locals about the weather and makes a big fuss of their dogs.

“In Wiltshire, I used to walk the dogs twice a day but I wouldn’t see a living soul. Although things haven’t turned out as we’d planned, in that sense, I have enjoyed living here. It definitely has the right balance.”