Vive la Renovation!
Building a different life
FOR most people, dreams of escaping the rat race and moving abroad remain just that. They are little more than fantasies to be brought out and examined whenever the British weather lets us down or a foreign holiday leaves us with a yen for the dolce vita.
But Trevor Morris and his wife Sue managed to turn their dreams into reality, after a holiday in France five years ago led them to move out there permanently.
Since then Trevor has chronicled the achievements and mishaps of their venture in the Dorset Echo's Weekend magazine.
He has now put the best of his columns to date into a book – Vive la Renovation! Building a Life in France – which went on sale at Waterstones in Dorchester recently.
It is a witty and down-to-earth tale of two innocents abroad who by hard graft and a willingness to integrate have found their own niche in foreign fields.
Trevor says: "We had always wanted to live in France. After we were married we went camping there and thought how nice it was.
"Then a few years ago, things worked themselves out to make it seem possible for us to move there. Then we were chatting to a neighbour who had a barn conversion in France and he said there was lots of work out there and he knew someone who could put work my way.
"And we thought, 'why not?'"
Sue said: "So we went out there for a week's holiday in the September – and by the end of October we were living there."
With no children or education to worry about, but with several cats to acclimatise, the Morrises made their move.
"We had a few sleepless nights before we went but we've no regrets," added Sue. "We already knew one person out there, which worked as a kind of safety net for us – and if things get really, really bad, we can always come back."
She pauses for a moment. "But I don't think we will!"
Trevor and Sue live in the tiny hamlet of La Lauressie, not all that far from Toulouse in an area of France known as Tarn and Gironde.
"It's becoming known as Kensingtarn, because of all the middle-class Brits going there on holiday," sighed Sue rather ruefully.
After the move Trevor joined the team of a man who was working on a barn conversion but then set up his own business, Trevor Morris Renovations. He has a small team of French builders – including an electrician with a version of Tourette’s Syndrome that causes him to swear at ceilings and hit his head against a wall when stress gets to him...
Apart from one or two hiccups, the couple feel very much at home. They speak French (Trevor fluently – as you would have to in the daily round of dealing with local tradesmen, suppliers and bureaucrats), they take part in community activities and have bought a home. And they are now in the process of buying two run-down buildings at the bottom of their garden with an eye to converting them into holiday lets.
"We get on great with the French people," said Trevor. "They have been very welcoming. I think they like the British because we spend our money there!
"We also have a reputation for tasteful renovation and keeping the houses in character, whereas some other people, such as the Dutch, tend to bring all their own materials and workmen from Holland and don't work as well.
"There are just five houses in La Lauressie and all except one are owned by British people. The last one is owned by an old lady who has lived there all her life. It is sad to see the way of life of her generation dying out.
"When she was growing up, everyone lived on subsistence farming, owning some land and a cow and a pig.
"Now the young people go off to find work in the big cities, and if it wasn't for the British buying the properties the hamlet would be completely deserted.
"As it is, some days I can drive the 40 minutes to work and only pass one car on the roads."
In the rural area of Tarn and Gironde, life does seem to move at a slower pace. Shops close on Sundays, local bureaucracy is still creating reams of paperwork and the local people are of conservative farming stock.
They also have some rather sweet eccentricities which have endeared them to the Morrises even more.
There was the time when one local grew so tired of his English neighbour's swimming pool alarm going off at all hours that he yanked it out of the water, dumped it on their porch and gave it both barrels with his shotgun.
Then there was the village fete competition, first prize of which was 'win your own weight in tripe' – and another fete at which the main entertainment turned out to be a strip show, much to the delighted bemusement of village elders.
It does indeed seem a far cry from the daily grind of UK living. "When we lived in Britain the pace of life got us down, but now because we live somewhere so rural, it’s nice to come back to the hustle and bustle once in a while," said Sue.
"France and England are so different. France doesn’t like change, England is more innovative. If you could combine the two you could have the perfect country, although that’s not likely to happen!"
Do Trevor and Sue have any advice for anyone keen to follow their lead?
"Tips one, two, three and four are learn French," said Trevor. "Become fluent in the language, and that will help so much when you come to sort out all the legalities and practicalities of moving.
"It also enables to you make the most of living there, to integrate properly. Without the language, you may as well not bother."
Read Trevor’s latest column in the Dorset Echo Weekend Magazine on Saturday.
Now you can purchase a copy of Trevor and Sue's book on-line by going to our Shoppers World on-line ordering site here.
