… you were mid 40s (so over 20 working years left!), reasonable intelligence, OKish French (written not so good - don’t use that over coffee and wine 
) to make a decent living?
Ideas on a postcard please! 
Ah ha… there’s the rub.
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No good asking me, I gave everything up in my mid 40s to come and live in the middle of nowhere 
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Not sure what you did before but other aspects of tourisme…? Jobs where speaking English is a plus. Tour guide (they will happen again one day), do some online formation over next few months so could work for a vineyard? Animatrice.
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My focus, for the last few years, has been to reduce what I need for living, in terms of money…& to try, at least, to do things that interest me.
First thing in my opinion would be, define “decent living”
Probably the opposite of an indecent one (but with Oz’s you never know) 
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Over the years I’ve been a corporate international travel agent, worked for an airline, a campsite, ran a ski-chalet and most recently a rep for a very nice UK travel company that while was only smic and long hours in the summer i was working from home and had lovely all expenses paid trips at the beginning and the end of the season! Tourism is so seasonal though and lets face it not well paid!
If I could earn €2000 / month I’d be happy (I’m the main wage earner in the family), we don’t live an extravagant lifestyle, have chooks , grow our own food etc, no mortgage. Currently on about half that and it is a serious struggle, no holidays, SO sick of saying no to the kids, not eating out, having only twice yearly haircuts etc… Some thing like the teaching plus some private students would get me there with a good life balance as well but just thought I’d fish for some other ideas that I may not have thought of.
Private teaching of English as a vacataire in Unis and business schools or tertiary education can bring in about 15-20kE/year net, more if you’re prepared to work all hours. Is that decent enough? Bear in mind though that’s without paid holiday leave (or at best 10% compensation in lieu) and rubbish pension contributions, and never knowing much in advance whether and what your hours for the upcoming semester will be.
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I’ve been looking at things I can do from home these days.
I already sell eggs to various folks locally.
Making & repairing things…nothing complicated.
I’m a cabinet maker, not a mechanic, so am not greatly solicited.
My campsite job in the village is due to start at the end of April, so that will help; & leave me time to do other work when necessary.
I’m resigned to having to live within fairly meagre means, having done so all my adult life.
I’d be happy with that, would be enough to be comfortable’ish however when I called the IFSI (nursing school) to see if it would be an option to put my name down etc they said that they (and all unis) are now only allowed to hire proper teachers. Not sure if true or not! That would be my best job teaching English in nursing / midwifery / medical schools 
Forgot to add that most tertiary education establishments have moved (are forcing) their vacataires to autoentrepreneur status or portage salarial to avoid falling into the trap of a potential prudhomal decision making the post permanent after X number of years.
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Actually most Unis and tertiary education establishments require you to have a masters degree for a permanent post. The vacataire jobs they weren’t so picky about, but you need to have a principal employer already to demonstrate that your uni work won’t allow you to claim permanent status years later.
Doing an online Tesol qualification might help you along the way there.
yep finished my TEFL a year ago.
Have you got any ‘tourism’ type qualifications?
Yes my first studies were at the AFTA (Australian Federation of Travel Agents) college were I got a Cert III in International Travel - that was back in the 90s though 
Another thing with unis in my and my OH’s experience is that they are extremely slow payers. You can easily work for 3 months and not get paid until later (unlike business schools for example that pay you a month late).
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Wow, possibly not the best places to work! I worked at my uni teaching first years how to use the computers / do their essays etc when I was in 2nd and 3rd year (peer teaching I think it was called) and I was paid every fortnight without fail!
Is wine seasonal? The posh vineyards seem to be are open all year…
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