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Susie Kelly and her husband Terry had long dreamed of owning a home in France, but ironically it wasn't until they were facing homeless penury in England that they realized their dream. With five dogs, two parrots and their elderly horses, they moved to an old farmhouse in the Poitou-Charentes region with dirt floors, no water and a primitive electricity supply.
While Terry was back in England trying to support them all, Susie Kelly contended with a homicidal gas cooker at the bottom of the garden, burst pipes, a guinea fowl that turned somersaults and bit people on the shin and a constant stream of people turning up at her door with needs of their own. Sometimes the enormity of renovating a house with insufficient funds and little help seemed overwhelming. She saw her husband infrequently. Their English neighbour was imprisoned on drug-smuggling charges. And when Terry developed a condition that brought him close to death, the dream threatened to turn into a nightmare.
There were times when Susie and Terry seemed to be taking two steps backward, but the kindness of the local community and the tranquillity of the landscape inspired them to make a new life for themselves and their animals in the place they now called home.
While Terry was back in England trying to support them all, Susie Kelly contended with a homicidal gas cooker at the bottom of the garden, burst pipes, a guinea fowl that turned somersaults and bit people on the shin and a constant stream of people turning up at her door with needs of their own. Sometimes the enormity of renovating a house with insufficient funds and little help seemed overwhelming. She saw her husband infrequently. Their English neighbour was imprisoned on drug-smuggling charges. And when Terry developed a condition that brought him close to death, the dream threatened to turn into a nightmare.
There were times when Susie and Terry seemed to be taking two steps backward, but the kindness of the local community and the tranquillity of the landscape inspired them to make a new life for themselves and their animals in the place they now called home.
Keen to discover some of France's lesser-known attractions, Susie Kelly and her husband Terry embarked with their two dogs on a 10,000 kilometre journey, where they encountered exploding gherkins, killer waves, chilli-flavoured chocolates, sinister submarines, and pitchforks grown in fields. They crossed the historic paths of Charlemagne, Vauban and William the Bastard, and the battlefields of two world wars, and were bewitched by Bayeux's tapestry. Bovine-friendly courses Camarguaises and a transhumance provided entertainment; distressed birds required assistance, and hospitality was offered by characters kind, charming and quirky. The camper van's exhaust falling off into the road on the first day, and one of the dogs persistently trying to eat the vehicle and its contents, did nothing to spoil their magical voyage along the Brittany, Atlantic and Mediterranean coastlines, the mountains of the Pyrenees and Alps, the length of the Rhine, the borders of north-eastern France, and the Channel. This cornucopia of sights, sensations, legends and history is a must-read that will enchant Francophiles and armchair travellers everywhere.