Back to Burgundy

 

Burgundian countryside

Kate, it is hard to believe that it has been nearly two years since we last chatted about your French journey. At that time, you and your husband, Nathan, were navigating visa constraints and travelling back and forth between your homes in Australia and France. However, following you on Instagram, I know that there has been an exciting development in your French lives of late. Tell us more.

Thank you so much for reaching out to me and again being interested in our life here in France.

Things have definitely changed for us over the past two years. We made the decision to sell everything in Australia……our French restaurant, our house, our car and we packed everything up into two pallets worth of belongings and shipped them all to France.

Just reading this back it sounds quite crazy and a lot of people probably think that we are, but we followed our dream of living in France permanently, and without any children or family ties in Australia it was not a huge decision to make and we just did it!! We of course miss friends in Australia but so many have come to visit us and it’s just wonderful to have time here with them and to show everyone our day-to-day life, why we chose to be here and what we love about France. Its great to have one to three weeks with people to slow down and chat and catch up whereas when they lived around the corner we would just have quick get-togethers but we really have had quality time with friends here, and we know we will in the future when more of our beautiful friends around the world visit us.

It was really exciting for us when our shipment from Australia arrived. It was like Christmas and we got to unpack some really special pieces of artwork, books, photos and things that meant a lot to us to merge our two lives together and cement our life here.

In saying all that, cementing our life here has been a little bit challenging (to put it ever so mildly) with the French bureaucracy. The French are definitely known for excessive red tape and we have experienced these challenges and frustrations firsthand.

Kate and Nathan in front of their new home in Burgundy

Visas … I suspect that this might not be your favourite word. Where are you up to with this process?

We arrived on a tourist Visa which gave us one year to be here without working. During this year, we drew up our business plan to open a small cooking school in our home and to conduct small bespoke food and wine and cooking tours around the Burgundy region. We filled out all the relevant financial and health documents and since then we have been waiting for over a year for our right to work and then we had to fight to extend our visa for three months and now that is just about to expire. We’ve extended it for another three months, all this without hearing any updates or progress reports on our carte de séjour which means we would have the right to work and have healthcare etc in France.

But in saying all this, we would still encourage people to follow their dream to move to France if that’s what they would like to do, but to enter into it with an endless amount of patience and infinite financial resources in case they also have to wait a long period for a positive outcome to their Visa application.

Summer lunch with friends

Even without the right to work at the moment and the uncertainty of our permanent future here we feel as if we still have to strive forward with the process and be patient and be positive. So with that in mind, we have made yet another somewhat gutsy move you could say, and bought a bigger home in a wine village to create our cooking school with accommodation. We sold our beautiful little cottage here in the countryside of Burgundy and will be moving closer to Beaune which we believe is the wine and culinary centre of Burgundy.

It was a really big decision to sell our picturesque little stone country cottage in the Morvan national park. It was a fantastic holiday house surrounded by beautiful countryside, but it was a little more challenging to live there year-round. We also feel that for our clients, we can provide a better tour experience closer to markets and wineries and we will renovate this new house specifically to offer cooking classes, wine tastings, a small on-site brocante and accommodation.

You had some wonderful advice and practical tips in our last interview for anyone who was dreaming of buying their own place in France, did it make this second purchase easier?

Renovating decisions

We enter this new (and huge) renovation more confidently than when we tackled our first home, La Petite Maison, as over the past two years we have developed friendships and relationships and now have access to quality trades people. Renovating in France is incredibly challenging as I’m sure it as it is in many parts of the world and we have found it terribly hard with our limited French to talk about technical parts of the renovation with electricity and plumbing and that sort of thing. It was extremely hard to even get trades people to come and give us a quote for work and then there are the horror stories of people telling us that we would be charged tourist rates instead of local rates so we were only sceptical with some of some of the quotes that we received. But luckily now we have reliable and exceptional trades people that we get to work with on this new project. My advice to anyone buying a property here and renovating it is to get the advice of neighbours or local people and try and get referrals from them. A lot of tradespeople also will not travel far for work so will only work within a village and a very small radius around that village, so it really is best to talk to the locals about who they trust and recommend.

Having lived full time in France, organised renovations, and participated in village and social activities, your language must have had a work out. How is your French now?

Teddy

Our French has definitely improved over the past two years mainly out of necessity but also out of a desire for us to be able to communicate with our friends and now we are comfortable in nearly all situations and social environments. People may have seen on Instagram that we bought a puppy about six months ago and locals are very amused when they realise that Teddy is bilingual. All his commands he understands in both French and English so if he has one of our French friends looking after him, he can understand them and then also us when we forget to use French. 😆

To finally wrap this up I would say that we are very happy with our life here and with our decision to move here permanently. We’ve had some stressful times lately with the prefecture and our Visa status and how slowly that is moving along, but we couldn’t wish for more beautiful friendships and relationships  and we continue to embrace French culture, its food, wine and lifestyle and we absolutely love hosting our friends from all around the world and sharing with them all that makes France so special and so enviable for many. We truly feel lucky to have had the opportunity to make this move and to create a new chapter in our lives…

Wow, from one leap of faith to another. At the moment, you are burning both end of the candle having moved full steam ahead with your renovation. Your project looks both exciting and exhausting ... and fun to watch from the sidelines and see the wonderful progress that you're making. 

I look forward to staying in touch and wish you both the very best with your new ventures. 

 

If you would like to follow her journey (highly recommended), Kate can be found on Instagram @la_grande_maison_burgundy/

Nathan and Teddy at home in France

And for another French-Australian story (mine 😊), please find below links to my 5 books (including Books 1-3 in my 'French at Heart' series). With thanks.

The links should take you to where you need to go, wherever you are in the world, to make a purchase.

• But you are in France, Madame: One family, three children, five bags and the promise of adventure living in the French Alps
• Weaving a French Life: An Australian story
• Love, fear and a return to France: A family memoir
• With bare feet and sandy toes: Growing up in Australia in the 1960s & 70s
• Talk and Play with your Child in French

Burgundian Beauty

Kate's home in Lucenay-l’Évêque in Burgundy

Kate, it has been lovely connecting with you. Thank you for participating in my occasional series, ‘Australians in France.' 

Can you tell us about yourself and your French connection? 

I really discovered France later in life. My first trip to Europe was at 41, with Paris being our first stop. It was definitely love at first sight. Since then, my husband Nathan and I have been lucky enough to spend time exploring many regions of France, especially those noted for their food and wine. As a chef, Nathan looks to France and French cuisine as the foundation of modern cookery, and we have embraced our quest to experience as much of it as possible with great gusto! Our travels throughout France have provided inspiration for multiple hospitality venues that we have been involved in - a tiny laneway wine bar, a French bistro and a neighbourhood café. We love that we have been able to bring a little piece of France back with us to share with others and to help us not miss France as much when we are not there. 

Kate and her husband in their garden

You have bought and are renovating a property in France, do you live in France or spend some of the year there?

We take full advantage of the Schengen visa that allows non-EU passport holders to spend 90 days per 180 in France. That means that we are in France for 6 months of the year and in Geelong for the other half.

Can you tell us how you settled on Burgundy for your French home? 

We love many regions of France and toyed with the idea of buying in Normandy (good proximity to Paris) or in the Jura (fabulous wine) but Burgundy has it all for us. We love its scenery, its easy access to Paris, Dijon and Lyon and of course its iconic food and wine offerings. The weather is idyllic for us too … four very distinct seasons with warm and pleasant summers and crisp, cold winters. 

What advice would you give to other families who dream of buying their own special place in France?

DO IT! It’s incredibly exciting and rewarding and relatively easy. Coming from Australia, where housing prices and the cost of living is high, we found that you can actually achieve your dream of owning your own little piece of France very affordably. 

Have your criteria on size, price, region etc. but be a little open and flexible. Your dream home may be where you least expect it. 

Do you have any practical tips regarding the purchase process? 

Have the patience of a saint. Nothing happens quickly. French real estate agents (Immobiliers) are more relaxed and not always as responsive as ones in Australia. 

Make as many appointments as you can to see properties in person whilst you are in France. We made our purchase online from Australia and had only photos and one video to go on. 

Open a French bank account. This is not necessary for the purchase, but will have you ready to sign up for all your utilities. 

Use a buyer's advocate if the agent for the property doesn’t speak English (and if your French is not up to deciphering legal documents) They will  guide you through the whole process, even negotiating the sale price for you, will hold the key for you until you get to the property, and in our case, help you get your utilities set up. 

The French purchase system we found does not have the big negotiation range that we tend to have in Australia. You may only get a few thousand off the asking price. 

A new roof, electrics and septic are expensive works and a change in ownership may trigger having to bring existing systems up to code. Have your agent or buyer's advocate alert you to any impending costs. 

If you are looking at buying purely a home for holidays, maybe reconsider buying a 5-acre farm or anything with a lot of land involving upkeep. The grass and weeds can grow at a staggering pace. We know this first hand with our property. 

If you are considering buying in a rural area, make sure that your land boundaries and right of access for you and your neighbours are explained to you very clearly. Often plots of land are not adjoining and in many instances, the farmer or neighbour has rights to go through your property. This is to note, particularly, if you’re planning to put a pool or a garage etc.

What do you wish you had known before you signed for your French home?     

Just how patient you have to be!  Especially when you are purchasing remotely. We wish that we had been more aware that when the agent said that the house comes fully furnished (which most do) that he also meant that we inherited the contents of all the outbuildings as well. That in our case included copious amounts of rubbish, old white goods and a gigantic, rust-riddled bulldozer. We were quoted €2000 to remove it all. 

If you can, use tradespeople that are referred to you by people you trust and ideally from your village or town. Usually tradespeople only work in a very small radius from their home base. 

Might there be a renovation story or two that you could share?

SO MANY! One fun one was that we found a secret room at the back of the house that wasn’t on the floor plan that we were given by the agent. The owners had said there was something back there but that they had never entered the sealed and padlocked room. Nathan had grandiose visions of unearthing a priceless collection of vintage pinot noir, but all we found was a dusty small room with two dormant dormice who were not very happy about being disturbed. It has now become a candle-lit cellar lined with wine racks and with a wine cask for a table.  It stays at a perfect cool temperature year round, and is filled with a lovely (although not priceless) selection of local Burgundy wine. 

Is your long-term plan to welcome guests (holiday let, other experiential services)?

We want to have guest accommodation and host cooking classes and food and wine tours as soon as possible. The house and barn are being renovated with that in mind as we are dying to share our little (relatively unknown) part of Burgundy with as many people as possible. 

Do you speak French? I talk frequently with families who feel that their French would not be sufficient for either living in or buying in France. What are your thoughts about the level of language required?

Un peu…..

We have found that you can definitely get by with “Google Translate” BUT negotiations and renovations and friendships can be very challenging to cultivate without knowing some basic  French. At the bare minimum, we feel that a basic knowledge and understanding of pleasantries, numbers and every day conversation is important in becoming a part of your new  French community. Making this effort, coupled with a big smile goes a very long way.

I love to hear of different village traditions and stories. How have you adapted to life in your village and your village to you?

We have happened upon an incredible little village on the edge of the Morvan National Park to call our own. A large number of French people have recently chosen to call Lucenay-l’Évêque home and have made a conscious effort to welcome and embrace all who follow suit. This simple town houses a primary school, a convenience store, a renowned restaurant, a locally designed handbag shop, a hairdresser, an architect's studio, a recording studio, a brocante, a wine bar and soon a patisserie. We have a medieval church that is currently under restoration, a lovely river and a town square that hosts a pizza truck on a Saturday night and a butcher on Wednesdays. 

Our village has accepted us with open arms, and we are humbled to be considered a part of this vibrant community. We are routinely invited to all manner of events and celebrations - birthdays, music sessions, pig roasts, shop openings and weeknight dinners. We, in turn, host couples, families and large groups of new friends to BBQs and dinners at our little house on the outskirts of town. 

Our next door neighbours are incredible. They always ready our house for our visits by opening windows and doors to air it out in summer, or lighting a fire before we arrive in winter. This past Christmas they decorated the whole house with Christmas cheer, and topped it off with a real Christmas tree covered in decorations and lights. I was reduced to tears with their thoughtfulness and generosity. We are very lucky. 

If you can’t live in France, what do you think is the best time of year to visit? 

Oh it’s too hard to choose in our region….

Summer has exceptionally blue skies and endless sunshine. 

Autumn is just stunning with the colour of the leaves in the mountains and on the vines. 

In the colder months, our countryside turns into a stunning, snow-covered winter wonderland. 

We have yet to experience a full spring in Burgundy, and are anxious to see this area come back to life from its sleepy winter. 

We will say from experience that we feel it’s a good idea to avoid Paris in the height of summer as it can be very hot, and many restaurants and small shops are closed for the holidays. We also wouldn’t choose to go to Alsace again in summer, where the wonderfully rich regional food and wine is definitely more suited to snowy winter days than hot summer ones.

Apart from your special region in France, do you have any favourite French places that you would recommend to other families?

Lake Annecy

Annecy and it’s lake. It is staggeringly beautiful and clean and the views will stay with you always. 

Normandy and Brittany. Lovely winding roads with beautiful scenery and stunning coastline (oh and the oysters!).

Jura. Again, beautiful scenery and picture-postcard villages, with really interesting unique regional wine.

And finally, what is your favourite thing about French living?

For us, it is specifically French country living that we love so much. It is the slower pace of life, the scenery, the markets and their magnificent local produce, the affordability of food and wine and the ability to cultivate relationships with those with whom we come in contact.. 

Thanks so much, Kate. I look forward to staying in touch. It has been a pleasure chatting.

If you would like to follow her journey (highly recommended), Kate can be found on Instagram @lapetitemaisonburgundy.

Here again are my three books. Clicking on the links should take you to where you need to go, wherever you are in the world, to make a purchase.

• But you are in France, Madame: One family, three children, five bags and the promise of adventure living in the French Alps
• Weaving a French Life: An Australian story
• With bare feet and sandy toes: Growing up in Australia in the 1960s & 70s

How did that happen!

Burgundian buddies

Last week, in a café alongside an ex-Prime Minister, I met Ali in Sydney. Some would say that was not a surprising feat, given that we currently have a rather large range of living Australian PMs to choose from. But, the main event for me was not a question of patriotism, more incredulity at the how and why that had brought Ali and I together. France, possibly?

Uh huh, but more specifically, the cover of my book.

You see, Ali, originally from the UK, now living in New Zealand, also owns a house in France...in Burgundy... in Noyers-sur-Serein... in the street... on my book's cover.

Somehow, this picture of her street came to her attention, and across time-zones and countries we connected, first by good old-fashioned social media and secondly, in person. I still can't quite believe that Ali's house is on my book.

A couple of day's ago, another beep (look left) brought to my attention an Instagram message. 'But you are in France, Madame' had done a fine job of saving someone from a Sunday washing day.

I ask myself frequently why these wonderful interactions keep on happening. I guess because people are basically good; happy to share the joys, dream the possibilities and champion the successes of others. Wow, that is worth highlighting and celebrating.

**For Kindle or print copies of our French story, 'But you are in France, Madame', click here ***