Following on from her hugely popular books, My Good Life in France and My Good Year in France, ex-pat Janine Marsh shares more heart-warming and entertaining stories of her new life in rural France.
Since giving up their city jobs in London and moving to rural France over ten years ago, Janine and husband Mark have renovated their dream home and built a new life for themselves, adjusting to the delights and the peculiarities of life in a small French village.
Including much-loved village characters such as Mr. and Mrs. Pepperpot, Jean-Claude, Claudette, and the infamous Bread Man, in Toujours La France Janine also introduces listeners to some new faces and funny stories, as she and Mark continue their lives in this special part of northern France. With birthday parties, rural traditions, christenings, and even a funeral, there is never a quiet moment in the Seven Valleys.
A little over ten years ago, Janine Marsh and her husband gave up their careers in London to chase the good life in the countryside of northern France. Having overcome the obstacles of starting to renovate her dream home-an ancient, dilapidated barn-and fitting in with the peculiarities of the locals, Janine is now the go-to expat in the area for those seeking to get to grips with a very different way of life.
In this book, Janine regales us with the delights and dramas of a year attempting to live the rural idyll. Each month brings to light a new aspect of life in the French countryside: snow in January, resulting in a broken arm, which in turn leads to an etiquette lesson at the local hospital; wild winds in February; cuckoos in March; and giant hailstones in July that destroy cars and houses and bring the villagers closer together.
Told with warmth and humor, My Good Year in France showcases a uniquely French way of life: where two eternally ambitious expats drag a neglected farmhouse to life, and deal with the accompanying disasters, learn to grow vegetables, discover how to cook, and stumble across the hidden gems of this very special part of the world.
One grey dismal day, Janine Marsh was on a trip to northern France to pick up some cheap wine. She returned to England a few hours later having put in an offer on a rundown old barn in the rural Seven Valleys area of Pas de Calais. This was not something she'd expected or planned for.
Janine eventually gave up her job in London to move with her husband to live the good life in France. Or so she hoped. While getting to grips with the locals and la vie Française, and renovating her dilapidated new house, a building lacking the comforts of mains drainage, heating, or proper rooms, and with little money and less of a clue, she started to realize there was lot more to her new home than she could ever have imagined. Ten years ago, Janine Marsh decided to leave her corporate life behind to fix up a run-down barn in northern France. This is the true story of her rollercoaster ride, in many ways a love story, with her sharp observations on the very different way of life, culture, and etiquette of France.
From her early struggles and homesickness through personal tragedy, to her attempts to become self-sufficient and to breed "the fattest chickens in the village," Janine learned that there was more to her new home than she could ever have imagined.
