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| My Good Life in France by Janine Marsh |
My review today is for My Good
Life in France, the brand new memoir from Janine Marsh, who also writes the
excellent website and online magazine The Good Life France.
An accidental house hunt,
while on a day trip to France from London, led Janine and husband Mark to the
home of their dreams just over The Channel in northern France. With a writing
style that is gentle and relaxed, much like how she describes life in the area
she lives in, Janine takes us with her as she gets to know the area, the locals
and more importantly works hard to turn a run down farmhouse into something
quite special.
To begin with, France was
still a holiday destination for them, albeit working holidays, and Janine
writes openly about the emotional journey to making the move permanent and how
difficult it can be to adjust. There may only have been two of them to start
with, but when the local animal population realised they had arrived, things
began to change. As someone who moved to France with a toddler and two cats and
was happy for it to stay that way, but ended up with ducks, chickens, a goose,
rabbits and a dog, I loved her tales of the animal antics that have become part
of her daily life in rural France.
Every area in France has it’s
own fêtes, festivals and celebrations of local history and traditions and
Janine explains those unique to her area in a way that will make you want to
visit somewhere that isn’t often on the main tourist map and experience it for
yourself. I remember fondly our day trips to France, stocking up on wine and
food, driving our Mini Cooper along twisty back roads, heading away from Calais
and searching out the real France, even if just for a few hours. Those happy,
carefree days of twenty years ago when we fell in love with France came
flooding back as I read this book. Sadly, since moving to France in 2004,
Calais and the surrounding area is somewhere we pass through as quickly as
possible while making the twelve-hour drive from home to the UK and back again.
Janine is a great ambassador for this region and has made me realise how much I am missing, zooming along the autoroutes and passing through,
rather than stopping and enjoying.
This book has everything a
good memoir should have; an interesting story to tell, the ability to write
openly about the ups and downs of life, while also including humorous
observations of the French way - their fondness for speech making in particular made me
laugh out loud.
If you, like me, enjoy memoirs
about life in France, you will love this one and it might even inspire you to seek
out the Seven Valleys on your next French adventure.
To read more about her love of
France, join me back here on Friday when Janine will be answering my France et
Moi questions.
My Good Life in France is
published by Michael O’Mara Books and is available in paperback and ebook
format. Links to Amazon can be found below.
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