MY VILLAGE
SUSSEY, BURGUNDY Pastoral charm
Lindy Viandier and her husband Marc didn’t feel like they picked their location in the beautiful Morvan Regional Park in Burgundy, but rather that the location picked them
How did you find your village? We didn’t choose it at all. We live in a small hamlet very close to Sussey, about 60km west of Dijon, and almost an equal distance from Beaune, on the threshold of the Morvan Regional Park. Part of the time we live in a suburb of Paris, mostly for work, and one day I saw a photograph of a house with a tower on the internet and fell in love. As it turns out we’re in a really good place for transport networks and it’s wonderful for historical towns and nature. We hit the jackpot, but it was purely by chance.
What do you enjoy about village life? It is a real community, like being part of an extended family. I could say that the emotional and practical support that the hamlet provides is unique, but I think it is replicated in other small places throughout France. I had never lived in the country before we bought our Burgundy house in 2017, so I have developed a childlike quality where I’m discovering things that I had never experienced before. Sort of ‘city slicker comes to la France profonde’. But what actually happened is that I developed this absolute joy and love of the country.
What is there to see and do in your corner of France? We have the Morvan Regional Park, with five lakes within a short drive. There’s lots of historical towns including Arnay-Le-Duc, a very pretty medieval town, and Saulieu with a two-star Michelin restaurant and a great market. We’re 45 minutes from Dijon, 40 minutes from Beaune. People come mainly for the nature, forest trails and lakes, but we are also very close to the Burgundy wine route.
Lindy loves how much nature affects rural life – her home is in a small hamlet surrounded by countryside At the end of the second
How was your French when you first arrived – and now? Non-existent. Now people think I’m fluent, but I know I’m not. I read somewhere that it takes 12 or 13 years to be able to just sit watch television comfortably. And yes, I’ve been in France 14 years, and I can watch TV, give or take a few words where I have to ask my husband Marc, who is French. But I’ve got French nationality now, so I did pass my 40- minute gruelling interview all in French, I guess that counts.
How do you find it working in France? I worked for 10 years in Paris in the medical education field. My background was as an anesthetics nurse, and as it turns out, nurse trainees need 60 hours of English, so I co-devised a curriculum with doctors, researchers, and nurses, which was rolled out in 17 teaching hospitals in and around Paris. Over the years, the writing
life gradually took over and along came my books Damson Skies and Dragonflies and the recently released Mellow Mists and Walnut Wine; each one follows one year of our life at home in Les Libellules.
146 FRENCH PROPERTY NEWS: September/October 2023
book, I hint that animals have become my best friends, so that story will come out in the third book – readers are following my real journey. The books follow the seasons and are centered on nature, so my home in Burgundy became my muse and my subject.
Does French food play a part in your life and work? Food is now omnipresent in my writing. I had been considered a good cook in the UK but lost my footing when I moved to France. Our home in Burgundy reignited my love affair with the kitchen and each book has 18 recipes woven into the story. At first our neighbours left
surplus produce from their gardens on our doorstep. Almost everyone I know grows their own to some degree, every household dedicates part of their garden to fruit and veg. During the pandemic we developed our own potager, and about 80% of what we were eating came out of the garden. In France in general, there
is a certain approach to meals and their importance in life; my husband would have two four- course meals a day, whereas I would have a sandwich at
lunchtime and hardly ever ate a starter or dessert – never cheese before dessert. The sizes are more balanced; as Marc says, if you’re too full for dessert, something has gone wrong with the rest of the meal!
Has anything surprised you about this part of France? My husband surprised me. He became a French country gentleman instead of the Parisian I married! Seriously, what most surprised me is how much of life is dictated by nature, with all its beauty and cruelty. Even this morning, for example, there was a thunderstorm and then the internet crashed, which doesn’t generally happen in the city. Your whole rhythm of life is dictated by temperature, light, weather and the seasons.
What is your favourite French saying? On verra. It means we’ll see, but more than that, it also reflects a sort of attitude in general, what will be will be. ■
You can follow Lindy’s Burgundy adventures in her new book Mellow Mists and Walnut Wine, and on Instagram @
la.belle.vie. in.burgundy
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