COLUMN


JOIE DE VIVRE


We may have bought a ramshackle old ruin, but we found a home”


Janine Marsh raises a glass to her late dad, whose presence she still feels in her treasured “money pit”


E


very 1 April, sat in the back garden of my little French farmhouse, I raise a glass to my late


dad on his birthday. It’s where I remember him best, helping to cut trees, driving the ride-on lawnmower in the style of a racing driver, giving me advice on what to grow and where. My dad is kind of responsible


for me being in France, since it was on a day trip with him to buy wine in Calais that I first saw the neglected old hovel I now call home. It was a vile winter’s day, glacial, grey-skied and sleety. Unable to find a restaurant open for lunch in the town of Hesdin, an hour inland, we accepted the offer of a cup of coffee from an estate agent who saw our miserable faces looking through his window. Finding that we had no real


interest in buying a property, and worse, no money, he insisted on giving us details of his three cheapest properties. All of them cost less than a secondhand Hermès Jane


a house in – we’d never been there before and had no idea exactly what we were letting ourselves in for. We discovered that the


village has no shops or bar, and that the people who live in this part of Pas-de-Calais speak with such a strong accent we could hardly understand them. But over time we’ve made good friends here and become part of a community. We’ve learned how to cook and cut cheese the French way! We’ve explored the rich culture of France and like the locals, we adore the heritage of our region. We may have bought a


The kitchen as it is now following the much-needed renovation


Birkin handbag. As we had nothing else to do, I persuaded my dad and my husband Mark to “just have a look”. All three houses were


horrible. But at the last one, as we were about to drive on after a cursory glance through a gate set into prison-like concrete-block walls, a man


came out and offered us tea. We accepted. Three hours later I was the owner of an old barn with holes in the roof and dirt floors. “This house” said my dad “is a money pit. You will never be finished doing it up. It’s madness.” Well, 19 years later my dad


was right about one thing, we’re still not finished! I’ll admit, doing this much renovation hasn’t always been that great, life is not perfect, but mostly it’s been an adventure and I’d do it again in a heartbeat. But my dad was also wrong.


Janine and her dad in the kitchen of her home on the day they first saw it


Despite it seeming like a touch of madness, buying and renovating this old house and moving to France is one of the best things I’ve ever done. It was absolutely a risk to move not knowing what the future might hold, how we would earn a living, whether we’d even like the area that we’d bought


ramshackle old ruin that may


The house during renovation


never be fully renovated, but we found a home. ■


Janine Marsh lives in France with her husband and 72 animals. Her latest book, Toujours la France: Living the Dream in Rural France, is available to buy now. thegoodlifefrance.com


FRENCH PROPERTY NEWS: March/April 2023103


© JANINE MARSH


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