Living Part-time in Provence My wife and I live part of the year in St-Rémy and it’s been fun to get to know the place. One way we’ve done it is through local associations, which are groups organized around a common interest. Associations are popular in France and every town …

The following is a chapter on the stone Bories of Provence is adapted from Mary-Lou Weisman’s book, Playing House in Provence: How Two Americans Became a Little Bit French. The Weismans arrived in Provence in September 2003 for the first of many visits to the South of France. The couple …

Provence Living Feature The Road to Rosé with text by Jeany Cronk of Mirabeau Wine and photos by Sophie Bellard was published in the July/August 2019 edition of My French Country Home – Magazine. The article (below) is reproduced with the permission of Sharon Santoni, the creator of this beautiful magazine. …

By Vaucluse Dreamer: Yesterday Andy and I sat in the Artisan Bakery on The Quay in Exeter, raising a cup of coffee to celebrate the 3 years since we signed the papers and picked up the keys to our long-dreamed-for house in Provence. Of course we would have rather been …

By Jemma: It’s all about the ants. I’ve never forgotten the advice from one of my earliest writing teachers. You can go on a glorious picnic – the food, conversation, and the weather all perfection – but you have no story until the ants arrive. They invade your blanket and …

The Old School Expat The word expat has always made me feel uncomfortable. It conjures up in my mind an old-fashioned view of a person. Someone who takes tea with the best china in their adopted country and then proceeds to whine about their surroundings. I am no doubt generalising, …

If you’ve been searching for French property for a while and find the system confusing, then you’re not alone. On the face of it, things in France seem to work the same way as in the UK, Australia, America or the Netherlands. Maybe you contacted an estate agent assuming that …

House purchase negotiations are a delicate process anywhere in the world. Tempers quickly flare, and communications can break down because of misunderstandings or hurt feelings. When you don’t speak French fluently and don’t know the ins and outs of French customs and the French real estate market, then things could …

House Search in the Alpilles Not everyone would have the vision and know how to transform a tiny 17th-century farm building into a bright, inviting pied-à-terre. The house was in poor condition, its last renovation dated from the 1970s as evidenced by the orange and brown colour palette. However, it …

By Paula Kane Here it is, the last full weekend of my stint in Provence. The time always whips by and it’s hard to believe I’ve been here just over two months already. This stretch is often punctuated with a wide range of emotions, and this year has been no …