We live in the Basque Region (64), our closest town is St Palais, 6km away. Hubby Dave and I bought our 'pile of rubble with a field of dreams' shortly after the 911 incident which changed our thinking and then our lives. We managed to escape the UK rat-race in 2010 and are now living here permanently and renovating two buildings - an 18th century Basque farm building with a smaller 100 year old attached cottage, which we hope will one day become a gite. Our project is known as our 'Big Renovation on a Little Budget'.... we are doing the majority of the work ourselves as and when, as well as creating a garden .... We love the Basque Region - it is completely different from the rest of France (that we have visited) and we have worked hard to integrate and learn the language (a little Basque, as well as French). It's been tough at times, but with dogged determination and three years on, life is getting easier. We have made many friends and fans in our village who are awestruck (at the size of the project), and very complementary, at our endeavours to save our property from disappearing forever (which it would have if we hadn't bought it...well, my husband viewed and made an offer on it, I was back in the UK and just trusted his judgement!). When we're not renovating or socialising with our neighbours, we still try to find time for our other creative interests - arts and crafts, photography, gardening, our dog Sooty (who adopted us here 18 months ago, must have recognised we'd never owned a dog before, (every day is a joy with him), walking, cycling, travel, fly fishing (OH) and volunteering/helping at our local Maison de Retraite. Survive France Network is our lifeline (now that we've found it) - thank you - all - for your input - whenever we have a problem/query, SFN is going to be our first port of call :-)
Hi Kris
We used to live close by and are now over the border in the 40!
*Waves* from 40180
C&J