MOVING ABROAD

Packing it all in

Life’s too short to spend in an office. Dominique Afacan talks to three people who came to their senses, changing country and career for a more rewarding lifestyle

01 Showbiz Editor to Guesthouse Owner

London to Normandy Jon Barnsley, 45

“I used to have a glamorous life as showbiz editor for the News of the World but now I’m a fully fledged country boy. In London, I was at parties almost every night; you had to drink and stay out late to do the job. It was great fun – I met everybody from the Queen to Elton John – but eventually it got tiring.

“I’d always wanted to run a guesthouse – it was just finding the right time and place. And then I saw an advert in The Sunday Times for Le Castel and, on a whim, I decided to go and have a look.

“I’d never even been to Normandy before, but me and my partner ended up going the next weekend. We saw four properties but we just knew Le Castel was right before we even walked in the door. It’s absolutely unbelievable. In Britain, the property would have cost several million pounds but here it was much less.

“The whole process was so easy – we bought the property from an English person who had bought it a couple of years previously. We used the same notaire as they had, there were no legal issues and the mortgage was easy to arrange.

“As soon as we bought the place I kept telling guests I wanted to buy animals for it. I always loved llamas after going to Peru but nobody seemed to believe I would really go through with buying one. Anyway, one day

I went to a neighbouring chateau and there was one for sale, so I bought it there and then. They’re herd animals so I had to buy some more too. It’s given us a great unique selling point, although sometimes they escape – my partner spent so much time chasing Fernando around the field last time, I caught him Googling llama recipes the next day!

“Le Castel started off with four bedrooms and, lucky for us, it was a success from day one. Most of our business comes from the internet and good guidebooks like Alistair Sawday’s. You’d never think you could start a business and it be successful from day one, but that’s what happened. It’s hard work running a guesthouse, but it’s also a pleasure. The guests even pitch in and help, and most nights there are up to 15 people having dinner together.

“The whole move has exceeded expectations. The only thing I miss from Britain are the Sunday papers. But the pace of life here is addictive and the French people here are so lovely – you walk into a bar and everybody shakes your hand. And you can easily stand in a baker’s and chat for 20 minutes before getting your croissant. That’s the way it is over here, and I love it.” g www.le-castel-normandy.com

02 IT Manager to Flamenco Dressmaker

London to Granada Anjela Herrmann, 41

“I’m originally from Germany but moved to London to work in IT. My UK job was enjoyable for a long time, but it was starting to get boring. My role was changing and it was becoming frustrating. I decided a holiday was in order to get my head together, and chose Peru on a whim. I found a language course on the internet before the trip and enjoyed it so much so that when I came back, I kept going with it. I wanted to practice so got to work planning a mini-break to Spain. A friend recommended Granada, so I gave it a go.

“As soon as I arrived, I fell totally in love with the place and started putting together a plan to make it possible to live there. I tried to imagine what I would do if I had absolutely no restraints and decided it would be to run a dressmaking business. I’ve always sewn for my own enjoyment – I’m from East Germany and in the old days you couldn’t buy much unusual stuff – and I had just started getting into flamenco, so I automatically thought of that.

“Initially, I was worried about demand for my product, but a friend who took flamenco classes recommended me to her teacher and I ended up making all the dresses for their end-of-season show. Since then, it’s been really busy and I haven’t looked back. The satisfaction of seeing my dresses on stage in the theatre is just tremendous.

“Finding a house was pretty tough – I wanted to live in the Albaicin, the old part of the city, but the accommodation was taken up by students. After a bit of a struggle I managed to find somewhere there, though I think it was down to sheer good luck! My boss in London let me carry on working from Spain for a few months from my laptop, while I got settled, which was a real bonus for rent.

“The people are very friendly here and I immediately felt a part of the crowd. I find the mañana attitude a little difficult sometimes, but it doesn’t affect payments so it’s fine. Socially, it can be difficult trying to work out whether a 5pm rendezvous means 5pm or 7.30pm.

“I have no regrets. I have no commute, plus I enjoy great food and weather. I’d hate to look back in 20 years and wonder what might have been. And if it all goes wrong, I can pack my bags and go – it doesn’t have to be forever.” www.flamencreaciones.com

03 City Worker to Winemaker

London to Carcassonne James Kinglake, 42

“There are no such things as mother and baby groups here, which has been difficult at times”

“I used to sell European shares to UK investors for Commerzbank. It was tough. Getting up at 5am and working late every night is fine when you’re younger, but not when you’re approaching
40. Also, we’d been trying to have kids in London for about eight years and it hadn’t happened, so we made a joint decision to remove ourselves from the stressful environment.

“I love selling things that I am passionate about and I love wine, so running a vineyard didn’t seem too crazy at the time, despite not having any experience whatsoever. We used an estate agent called Vignobles Investissement to help us find the property – they don’t just sell you the property but they give you help on the entire winemaking process. Our friends seemed to be impressed that we had the balls to do it and I think, looking back, we did.

“We were very lucky and got a fantastic manager, Laurent. We tell him what kind of wine we want – we’re as organic as humanly possible here – and he creates it. Our main customers are Majestic, Waitrose, Loch Fyne, and Superquinn.

Saying that, we’re not paid a salary yet and we have a small child without the support network we would have had in the UK. There are no such things as mother and baby groups here, which has been difficult for my wife at times.

“There are things I miss about England, like the variety of pretty much anything. Here, you can’t just pop out for a Thai meal, as the nearest town just has four French restaurants – plus you can’t get a curry anywhere nearby!

“On the plus side, now that we’re working for ourselves, the highs are much higher.

But, similarly, when things go wrong, it’s your livelihood.” www.domainebegude.com