The French Farmhouse

For so many years we have wanted to have a home in France. As a family we've spent many happy holidays with our girls in self catering accommodation throughout Europe and as a result we decided that we were experts in holiday homes! We finally bought The French Farmhouse in August 2014  and so we are now going to find out just how easy it is!

It was decided early on in our search that the French house must be in the South West, as it was here we believed we would get good weather and the rural idyll that we were looking for. A very knowing estate agent told us that we should decide on the area and then it would be easier to find the house. With an area of “The South West” we needed to narrow our search.

It was during one of our search visits, these were every six weeks, and while staying at a hotel, near Lauzerte, that we had our “this is the area where we want to be” moment. The hotel was high up and we woke in the morning to see the valley below us filled with mist, the bastide town of Lauzerte, high on its hill stood out of the mist, proud and splendid like Glastonbury Tor. We were smitten and from then on our search became so much easier.

The Quercy region is filled with these bastide towns, Montaigu de Quercy, Tournon d' Agenais and Montcuq to name a few. We love these towns, they are our special places because they are filled with the essence of French life. We had a focus for our search.

It was in the April of 2014 that we made an offer on the farmhouse, we had the most amazing estate agent, Sara, who over several visits to the area had got to know us and most importantly understood what we were looking for. Things progressed and we took hold of the keys on the 18th August 2014.

It is hard to express how wonderful I think the Farmhouse is, the peace and tranquillity recharges batteries. The different seasons this year have brought new wild life and it has been a delight to sit on the bolly in an evening and watch the foxes, wild boar (just the once so far and from a distance) and the so many different birds performing in front of us. We have red squirrels and fat dormice, there is a beautiful barn owl who ...yes lives in the barn. The butterflies have circled the Budleigh bush all summer and the the deer are regular visitors and often come into the garden.

UPDATE...........TWO YEARS ON !

We have now owned the farmhouse for two years. The builders began work on the house last November and were finished by the end of spring. I retired last year from my teaching job in a primary school and this has given me opportunity to concentrate on the renovation and refurbishment of the house in France. Now that the bulk of the work is finished I have debated whether the title of my blog is relevant anymore. The purpose of the blog has been to document our progress and to inform future visitors of the work that has been done in order to achieve a holiday home of quality. However I realise that at times it has also observed the similarities, differences and delights of French life. I think that we will always be looking to improve, develop and maintain the farmhouse so I feel that the blog title is still relevant. However as we change and grow, the blog will become part of our website for the farmhouse. I have purchased three new domain names "TheFrenchFarmhouse.co.uk and "FrenchFarmhouseHolidays.co.uk ( and .com). We will be using these for our website as it begins to be developed. "TheFrenchFarmhouseProject.com" will remain active too and all addresses will lead to home........I hope!

We look forward to welcoming you to the French Farmhouse in the future.

Pauline & Rob