John and Abi Wilkin created this blog to introduce you to our two gîtes, our classic cars that are available to hire and our life here in France.
La Ferme de l’Église is situated in a small hamlet in the very south of Deux-Sevres, bordering Vienne and Charente, in the Poitou-Charentes region of South-West France. It’s a classic Charentaise farmhouse. The original house, one of our gîtes, La Petite Maison, was built in the 1650s and the rest of the farmhouse added about 100 years later. Our second gîte, La Grange, has been created in half of one of the huge stone barns in the courtyard.
View of the main house and La Petite Maison
We moved out here for a change of pace, even in Buckinghamshire life could sometimes feel frantic. We still run an IT business back in the UK, and for the previous few years we had all been home working. It worked really well, so we thought why not do this from France? We just needed internet access, be reasonably close to an airport/train access. It couldn’t be easier.
We love this area of France, although there is still so much more of the country to discover. The summers are very hot and sunny, and although the winters can be a lot colder than the UK, that really hasn’t been a problem, and being an hour ahead makes a big difference to the sense of darkness you get with the UK winter. Far less SAD.
We moved here lock, stock and barrel in July 2007, it was a pretty stressful drive, starting at 3am in the morning from Buckingham, with two cars and a screaming cat. So stressful, I didn’t remember until we were halfway through France that it was our wedding anniversary. It didn’t help that our removal company had messed up our booking, so the entire contents of our house, garden and a motorbike, didn’t arrive until a week after us. Thank god the gîtes were furnished so we had something to sleep and sit on, just a bit short in the clothing department.
Turning into the driveway that late afternoon, it really did feel like we had come home.
We’ve acquired more cars and more cats along the way.
Sunflowers just outside Vanzay
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