I sold my poky three-bed semi in Manchester and bought an entire French village – now I’m doing up 17th century houses
COLLAPSING on the sofa after putting her two kids to bed, Liz Murphy felt like she was on a never-ending treadmill.
She and husband David would drop children Tom and Charlotte, then nine and five, at the school breakfast club at 7.30am before heading to work.
They would then dash to collect the kids from after-school club at 6pm and return to their three-bed semi-detached Manchester house, where they made tea before finishing off more work at home.
“I was a bit of a workaholic,” says Liz, 47, whose job was in marketing for a local radio station. We did these nine-to-five jobs, but in reality my hours were much longer than that.
“I was always logging on to my computer at home and we didn’t have any quality time as a family.
“By the time we sat down at night, we were exhausted.”
It was only when Covid hit and both were furloughed that Liz and David, 55, who also worked in local radio, made the dramatic decision to move abroad.
“The weather was gorgeous that spring and we were sitting outside with the kids playing around us, enjoying barbecues,” Liz recalls.
“I remember saying, ‘I wish we could do this all the time’.
“Dave suddenly said, ‘We could’. It was a real light bulb moment.”
The couple had talked about moving away in the past, but it always seemed like a pipe dream.
“Suddenly, I realised we were missing out on the kids’ childhoods because we were working so much,” says Liz.
“It was like a switch flipped in me and I just said, ‘Let’s do it’. With the kids still young, it was a case of now or never.
“We knew we’d need somewhere with holiday lets, as neither of us were near retirement age and we still needed an income.”
The couple put their house on the market in September 2020 for £355,000 and began searching for a place in France, where they had holidayed many times and loved the laid-back lifestyle.
Every year, more than 20,000 British people emigrate to France — and numbers have been rising since the pandemic. It is the second most popular European destination to move to after Spain.
Liz and David looked at dozens of properties online and made a shortlist of ten. They then spent a week in France visiting them all.
‘As if we’d won lottery’
Their fourth viewing was the historic rural hamlet of Lac De Maison, in Poitou-Charentes in the south west of France.
Amid breathtaking countryside, it was made up of six 400-year-old houses, two barns, a swimming pool and three acres of land.
“I’d already discounted it on paper, thinking it was too remote and too big,” says Liz. “We didn’t need a village, but it was so cheap at €450,000 (£400,000 in 2020) that we decided to take a look.
“When we arrived, we fell in love. I knew straight away it was the one. You go down a long drive and all the properties are in a big horseshoe shape at the end.
When we arrived, we fell in love. I knew straight away it was the one
Liz
“The day we visited, the weather was glorious and the pool was glinting in the sun.
“It had everything a Brit who wants to move abroad could ever dream of.
“It was already an established holiday lettings business and there were bookings for the following year. That was important, as we’d need the income.
“We cancelled all the other viewings and put an offer in. Less than five months later, in January 2021, we moved in.”
With the money from selling their Manchester home, the couple bought the village at the asking price, splitting the cost 50-50 with Liz’s mum, Helen Diaper and step-dad Terry, both 73, who chose to move with them and also sold up.
“We’d gone from a small, three-bed property with a tiny garden to this huge hamlet and all these houses,” says Liz. “It felt as if we’d won the lottery.”
The couple only spoke “pigeon French” when they arrived, while the kids started school barely knowing a word.
“My language skills were very basic,” says Liz. “We did a couple of online courses before coming out, thinking we’d deal with it when we got here.
“The children both went to the local primary school, where no English is spoken.
“For six months, they hated it — and they hated us for bringing them here, away from their friends.
“We felt really guilty but knew that in the long run it was going to be worth it.
“It’s amazing how fast they learn. Within six months, they knew enough to get by and now they are fluent. They both love it here and say they wouldn’t want to go back to the UK.
“Charlotte, now nine, was so young when we moved here that she can’t remember much about Manchester. She counts herself as French. Tom, 13, has a great bunch of mates and has more freedom here than he would at home.
“They spend more time outdoors than they did in the UK, especially in the gardens and the pool.”
The family have immersed themselves in the French way of life, making friends with neighbours as well as other nearby expats.
The school and nearest shop are just under two miles away, but Liz doesn’t mind that. There is only one issue.
“You can’t get a good take-away curry where we are in France,” she says. “Other than that, I don’t miss our old lives.
“It’s a real gift being able to work for yourself. We do have to be careful and keep on top of budgets, as there is no set income every month.
“But if we wake up one morning and want to go out for coffee, that’s what we do. There is no boss to hold us to account.”
The pair have renovated three of the properties, spending around £300,000, which also came from the sale of the family homes.
‘We don’t regret it one bit’
“We lived in a caravan for four months, which was hard,” says Liz.
“We had to spend a lot of money on things like electrics, water and pipes. We have had tradespeople in, but have done a lot of work ourselves to save money. We’ve learnt a lot from tradespeople as well as by watching videos on YouTube.”
However, with properties dating back to the 17th century, there can be costly issues.
Sometimes it has been hard, but it is such a gift to be able to share this experience with my best mate
Liz
“Last winter, we had a water pipe leak and we had to get diggers in,” says Liz.
“The rain was torrential and we were up to our knees in water trying to get it fixed.
“It was one of those moments where we wondered if we’d done the right thing and thought about packing up and going home.
“A couple of weeks later, it was sorted. We don’t regret it one bit.”
This summer, the couple’s three holiday homes are almost fully booked and they have big plans for their village.
“We want to continue renovations and start to improve our own house,” says David.
“We’d like to start putting in solar panels and be self-reliant on energy.”
Despite the challenges, the move has brought the couple closer.
Liz says: “Sometimes it has been hard, but it is such a gift to be able to share this experience with my best mate — and it’s lovely to watch the kids grow up so close to their grandparents.
“The sunshine isn’t bad either. We certainly don’t miss the gloomy Manchester weather.”
