Just a hi

Hello everyone. My name's James.

Right. Best do the intro, I suppose. I'm a journalist and writer with rather more years' experience than can be healthy - for me or my family.

After two stints at the Press Association separated by a few years at the Scunthorpe Telegraph and later the Grimsby Telegraph - and later still working across both centres as the two papers' chief (read only) features writer - in 2009 my journalist wife and I took a great leap of... well, faith, if we're being polite about it... and upped sticks, mixed metaphors and moved lock, stock and barrel down to south-west France - bringing our too-young-to-be-a journalist daughter with us.


We're now in France's rugby heartland in Castres, about an hour west of Toulouse, and a far cry from North Lincolnshire. More mountains, for one thing.


And we've since been joined by our definitely-too-young-to-be-a-journalist son.


So, here we are. Hi.

Definitely… or maybe the mountain air.

Just waving a Hi to you both. Teresa I live about 30 minutes from where you will be so once you are settled and if you fancy a coffee give me a shout.

Congratulations on your new addition James. Same thing happened to us lol except we were "blessed" with twins! I reckon it's something in the water here.

Good luck to you all on your new lives x

Hi Teresa -

Look forward to maybe, hopefully, saying hi in person in 11 weeks or so after you've nearly settled in.

Yes, both my wife and I work in Castres (well, just outside - near the sadly non-international airport that's so small it shuts for lunch, allegedly).

We both work for an editorial outsourcing agency that does a lot of work, ironically, with Irish newspapers, so there's quite an Irish / English enclave in and around Castres.

In fact, some colleagues of ours live in Soreze, which I think is close to Revel. Lucky you for going to the same area. It's a lovely little town.

We love it here. In fact my wife is arguably the only bigger walking advert for this part of the world than me. Hopefully, you'll have the same sort of experience when you arrive.

And, of course, it's great to catch some European rugby. We've got Northampton here next weekend. That'll be quite a show, I think. I used to play back in the dim and distant past. Wasn't very good, but enjoyed it a lot.

Hello James,

We (husband, me, dog) are just about to up stix to france - we're off to live near Revel in 10 weeks time... Husband's a stonemason/builder and i'm a graphic designer - working in newspaper production all over the place... Are you working in Castres? We're both rugby fans too - and (Irish) husband enjoyed a mis-spent youth playing the game.