Welcome To My New Blog

Welcome

Hello and welcome to my new blog, or should I say, bonjour et bienvenue?

Having moved to Brittany in March of this year (2016) and I thought it would be fun to keep a journal of our exploits here, and share it with anyone who might be interested J

A Bit of Background

Steve and I have been together for ten years. We hail from Derbyshire, but moved to the beautiful island of Gozo in Malta in 2010. We spent five very happy years on the stunning little island of magic, and married there in 2011. 

While in Gozo, I wrote my first book, titled, Known to Social Services. The book was a fictional narrative based on my own experiences as a child protection social worker in the UK. Known to Social Services won its section at the 2015 London Book Festival, and has also been the number one social work book on Amazon UK several times J

My first book

Following on from this, I wrote a book about our lives in Gozo, titled, Gozo Is the Grass Greener? This book was also successful at the 2015 London Book Festival, gaining an Honourable Mention.

My second book with a wicked front cover by Mick Martin, current illustrator of Fred Basset in the Daily Mail

I have just finished my third book; a novel titled, Caught in Traffick. Based on the grim world of child trafficking and set in Thailand, it is due for release mid-2016.

Coming soon!

Steve and I left Gozo in 2015, and moved to the Tarn et Garonne in France; we spent seven months doing a house sit there, and it was during this time that we really fell in love with France. We felt so at home here and decided we would like to live here full time.

We love France, especially those baguettes, mmm

Several dozen house viewings later, we happened to spend a few days in the stunning town of Dinan.

Dinan

Historic and beautiful

Steve liked it as you can see

All lit up for Christmas

That was it really, Brittany was The One J

Back in the UK for Christmas 2015, I scoured the Internet for property in the Brittany area. Anyone who has ever done the same will know that there are literally thousands of properties for sale in the area. Having selected a handful for viewing, we left the UK again at the end of December – destination Spain, with a slight detour to view properties in Brittany! 

Spain, where we spent three months

We were straight off the Plymouth Caen ferry to see the properties, which we thought had potential for us. 

Waiting for the ferry back to France

Long story short (for now) we put in an offer on one, and three months later, we’re in!

Here it is, our house - well one half

And here's the other bit

So What Now?

We are now busy renovating said property, and enjoying our new lives here in Brittany. We live in a small, peaceful village, population 450 J This blog is entirely personal, and will reflect our experiences here, including the process of buying the house, contact with the utility services, getting registered in France and much more. Not least among my writing will be the ongoing renovations of the house, and our contact with the various businesses and organisations. As I said, this is a personal blog, it is not intended to promote, endorse or criticise. I will however be recommending any services and businesses, which we found particularly helpful.

This first post is really an introduction and a welcome. You can sign up to follow the blog by completing the email link on this page. I hope you will enjoy sharing our exploits with us and reading about our life in Brittany.

Oh, and before you ask, I called the blog Breakfast in Brittany, simply because of my love of pain au chocolat – always for breakfast, and often for lunch as well J and why not, none of us are getting out of here alive, so we might as well enjoy the small pleasures while we can.

For now, I will leave you with the words of Viking King Ragnar Lothbrok – I love the TV series Vikings! And yes, he was a real Viking King.

Bye for now

Freya