About us
Hello, We're Paul and Rosalyn Chapman and this is the website dedicated to our Half Acre Farm.
The Chapman Family
We moved to France in 2005; We are Paul, Rosalyn, Daniel and Michael
Dan didn't originally come out with us but joined us in 2006, after all the hard work was done! Dan is 23, Michael is 21.
We wanted a life style change but, the life we wanted to live was unaffordable in the UK. England was to busy, its yob culture, political correctness and persecution of motorists were all good reasons to leave. We loved France and so we thought... why not?
If we had stayed in England we would have moved house, so we sold up and came out house hunting, we figured we could always return to England if we didn't find anything we liked here in France.
My advice to anyone coming to buy in France is, don't believe the property websites, after we arrived in France armed with €80,000 we found the hundreds of houses we had seen on the websites was down to a hand full, although there was plenty of ruins in our price range, buying the house we wanted with the land we needed wasn't easy.
I wouldn't say we fell in love with the house we bought when we saw it, but it ticked enough boxes to make us believe we could make a go of it.
Our original plan was to get the house set up the way we wanted then I would look for a job on the lorries, it was only having applied for a job that I discovered that all though my licence was good enough for me to drive in France, without the 'formation' (a training course that is expensive), takes a month and is only available in French, I realised that was a non-starter.
Mike and I visited a lot of work agencies and we were given a job in an abattoir in Josselin - to be honest I thought it was going to be some grubby shed with dead pig everywhere, but its a clean modern factory.
After a month of hanging hams up with a piece of string, we were asked if we wanted to go on a formation, a years training as a pork butcher. As this meant a year's contract we accepted straight away.
Half way through our course Dan arrived in France and was immediately taken on by the abattoir, with a request from the management that if any more of our family wanted jobs they could start the next day.
After a month Dan started his formation, at the end of the training we were all given CDI's, this in France means a lot, you have a job, a safe job, you can buy or rent a house, you can get loans, a CDI should be what all people moving to France should strive for.
We have since moved on from there and now work in another abattoir (for lots more money).
We all love living here, have lots of friends (English, French and Dutch). I think Roz has found it hardest as she has struggled with the language, but although she doesn't say much she understands a lot. She goes to England occasionally to see her parents, but wouldn't go back for any other reason - she's to busy looking after her all her animals.
Dan says he misses the English night life and likes to go back for weekends but Mike who now has his own house and living with his French Fiance, doesn't even want to go to England for holidays, he's happy and settled here, speaks French and loves his life.
We have been fortunate with our neighbours, Frank and Nadette, and their daughter, now Mikes Fiance, Violaine - we may not have survived if it wasn't for them, they made us welcome from the day we moved in, sorted out our bills, and came with us when we needed to visit the bank, insurances and other places.
They have become close friends, something I don't think we really had in England.
Our plans for the future are pretty much to carry on as we are, I may go for the HGV formation, we want to be self sufficient on meat by 2009, and we've plans to extend the house.
When we holidayed in France we always went south, often in to the dry dust bowls in the Charente - having moved to Brittany we were pleased to see how green and alive it is, never gave a thought as to why it's so green, it rains here!
From me, "I wish we had done it sooner!"
From Roz, "I wish I could hibernate from January to March!"
