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L Mis e Pélu - fmy’ Gascny npie …. Martin Scott shares some details of his family’s new life


Approaching our ninth year in France we have few regrets for the move that we made with our two sons in the middle of the heat wave in 2003. Having spent many wonderful summer holidays in Gascony, Christmas 2002 saw us visiting potential contrast to the one that we had in


properties with a view to starting a new life in France, in the U.K.


W


our other partners. We had been badly affected by the foot and mouth outbreak and then with 9/11, which reduced the international tourist trade dramatically. We intended to fall back on earlier skills and occupations, Carol as Fashion Designer/Seamstress and myself as a Joiner/Cabinet Maker.


e had decided to leave the Lake District and pass on our retail business, established in 1987, to


As luck would have it, we ended up buying the first property that we viewed, after of course looking at a number of others. We wanted a home situated close to a village with outbuildings to convert into workshops and a showroom, together with sufficient flat land to have a large vegetable patch, free range chickens and the odd duck or two. In Pédeloup we found the ideal property, situated in Bas-Armagnac,


just half a kilometre from the village of Monguilhem, with a primary school for our youngest son and a bus service to the College in Nogaro, for our oldest.


Pédeloup is a traditional Columbage built Gers Farm, which once had cows providing the village with fresh milk, ducks for Fois Gras and Confit, together with a healthy Armagnac production. Built in the middle ages, it was solid, habitable, but needed a serious overhaul and lots of TLC, a project which will continue to keep us occupied for years to come.


With just a small amount of dwindling capital, our priority was to convert the Armagnac chai into a small showroom with an atelier above for Carol and a workshop below for myself. It was than down to contacting the Chambre de Métiers and arranging to


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