'We just closed our eyes and jumped'

MovingtoFranceAn Irish couple who have swapped Dublin for the Dordogne tell Kate McMorrow why they'd do it all again

People who move overseas often mull over the idea for years. Others take the bull by the horns and are there within months. Irish couple Adrienne Cullen and Peter Cluskey made their decision to live and work in France on the spur of the moment.

"It was like a rush of blood to the brain - we just closed our eyes and jumped," says Adrienne, who worked as a freelance journalist before moving to France with her husband Peter.

Their life-changing decision was helped by the fact that they have no children and no other lives who depended on them, adds Adrienne.

Peter has continued his work as a freelance journalist, writing regular columns for The Examiner and Irish Property Buyer from their Dordogne base. And Adrienne, having worked in Ireland as technical editor with an e-learning company and writing The Romanian Adoptions Story, has launched a new career as negociatrice with French property agency TSD International Immobilier.

When they first moved from Ireland almost three years ago, Adrienne and Peter rented near the Pyrenees where Adrienne's sister and husband lived, but soon realised that the Dordogne region was more accessible.

"You don't appreciate that France is so large. Paris is eight hours by train from the Pyrenees if you want to go to the city for a break. From here it's just four hours and an hour and a half from Bordeaux and La Rochelle."

Their new French home, La Bergerie, is near Montignac, famous for its Cro-Magnon cave drawings. The house cost about half the amount they got for their Stillorgan house and its value has risen by 60 per cent since them.

Finding the old stone bergerie was the culmination of a property trawl through France for the ideal base, starting in Normandy and working south. The search showed up the flaws of buying anything on the internet, says Peter.

"We found an old presbytery which looked absolutely beautiful and went up to see it. I'd asked beforehand if there were any busy roads in front of the house and was told there weren't. It turned out to be ramshackle - the pictures must have been 20 years old - and a motorway to Calais ran past the back of the garden. We'd only asked about the front . . .

"We nearly bought in Richelieu in the Loire Valley and then we stopped in Eyzies near Sarlat. There in the window of an immobilier were three houses we wanted to see. One of these, Le Bergerie, was in fair condition although 300 years old. Its French owners remembered throwing hay up into the loft in the old days," Peter adds.

Size was the only drawback. Their Dublin house had three reception rooms, three large bedrooms and a small garden. In France they'd acquired an enormous garden with plum, cherry, peach and fig trees . . . and a house with three tiny bedrooms and one sittingroom. So when the furniture arrived at La Bergerie, most of it had to be stored in the attic. This problem was solved by renovating a stone outbuilding as a maisonette for guests; they have just got around to converting a bedroom into a dressingroom.

Peter and Adrienne were impressed by the local artisans, who renovated the outbuilding. The men were in and out in the time they promised, came regularly and everything went like clockwork. "Getting to know their neighbours has been one of the most rewarding experiences, say the couple, and their French has improved immensely.

"Too many foreigners want to be close to people who speak English, but they miss an awful lot on understanding (and misunderstanding) the French. They are are reserved, that's true, but very helpful and welcoming.

"We've got to know the lady across the valley and her sons and their wives come to visit. And two retired teachers in the village love to practice their English with us. The pace of life is easy here. Working from home is great and what we get for our money bears no relationship to what you get in Dublin."

"We'd do it again, absolutely," adds Adrienne.