This blog of mine has opened up the world to me and it’s so fun to hear from readers literally all over the globe.  I get many comments from those of you in other countries and I think it’s so fascinating to see how other people live.  We’re all more alike than we imagine.  When I got an email from Susan, sharing her French country house that she and her family live in, I knew my readers would enjoy hearing her story and checking out her blog, Our French Oasis. Can you imagine living in your very own 250 year old French Country house?
Born in the UK, Susan and her husband have lived all over the world and now have settled permanently in a small French village in southwest France, in the Department of the Charente Maritime, where they are raising and educating their children in a simpler way of life.  They have five children, aged 9 to 19, two dogs, two cats and ten chickens.  I think this way of life is so interesting and knew that you would too!  So, join me on a tour of this wonderful style of country living in the South of France.
She started the blog over a year ago as a way to keep in touch with family and let them see what life was like in France. Â It started growing as strangers found her blog and were interested in that way of life. Â She and her husband love photography and enjoy sharing their home and countryside with the world.
Susan shared her thoughts with me, so I’m going to use her text and you can hear her voice in this description of life in the South of France:
We are a British family of 7 but with distant French relatives, which is why we have always been involved with life in France and love it. Both my husband and I have visited France all our lives, my husband to stay with relatives, and so it was always natural that we would one day come and live here.
I love the French way of life, it is a slightly simpler way of life that perhaps I lived when I was a child. The children are still quite safe to walk home from school alone and everything stops for lunch and dinner! Family life is still very much “the way of life”.
When we bought the house, we spent a year renovating it, adding bathrooms, a new kitchen and a laundry room. The house had not been touched since the 1960’s.
Some of our trees in the garden are approaching 1000 years old, we have some huge monsters!
Much of the village dates back to the 11th and 12th Century, the church was built in the 12th Century and many of the houses were too.
Our house is a 250 year old farmhouse, some interesting history – it was bought in 1936 by a Parisian and his English wife as their summer residence. He was a physicist and when WWII broke out he was working on a specialist piece of equipment; he crossed the Channel on a fishing boat and arrived in London with the completed piece just 6 weeks before the Germans reached Paris, and it is indeed true that without his work the allies would almost certainly have not won the Battle of Britain, and in all likelihood would not have won the war.
During the years he spent abroad his wife moved south to “our house” and lived in it permanently with their children for the duration of the war; at the time the property had 15 hectares of agricultural land on which she grew vegetables and fruits, most of which probably supplemented the larders of the entire village. Old people we have met here talk of her ploughing the land with oxen, and having a store full of fruit. After the war the street on which the house sits was in fact named after him as a dedication to him for his work.
The small outbuilding in the garden, which we now call the summer kitchen used to be the old wash house. There is a huge underground well by it and all the original pumps are still in place for bringing up water into the little house. Now there is a newer electric pump and it all still workshop, but back then it was a wheel.Â
Inside is the original 1700’s wheel that used to bring up water from the well below. Â Now it’s electric and no longer in use, but still stands.
200 year old floors worn smooth over the centuries of using this space.
The open fireplace that used to be used for heating water for the wash house, now is used for roasting marshmallows with the children. Â What a charming way to grow up!
Take a tour of the inside of the house. You can see the rock walls and patina of a beautiful structure weathered with time.
I love Susan’s story and knew that you all would enjoy it too. What a different way of life than most of us in America live.  I think it’s idyllic for children to grow up this way, seeing nature, animals, and so much beauty right outside their door in the countryside.  The village sounds so charming too. Stop on over and visit Susan at Our French Oasis and you can follow along on her French country journey.
Loved reading about this idyllic lifestyle in the French countryside. Just beautiful… thanks for sharing this, Rhoda ?
Thanks Rhoda, for sharing this lovely home, utterly idyllic and charming!
Wow! What a beautiful home. Off to visit. 🙂
What a beautiful home and story! I am a sucker for antique houses with great stories (which most have!) and this one is just gorgeous. I like seeing interiors in different countries. Sometimes American homes seem to have similar trends and can all look alike but there is an element to foreign homes that inspires me to try different things. thanks for sharing!
J’adore anything to do with life in France! What a gorgeous family, living their dream in that beautiful house. It looks so inviting and peaceful. I already have my DVR set for February 14 when Ina Garten will have a special show from Paris…Barefoot Contessa in Paris Part Deux (Food channel at noon). She has a second home there, so I hope we get a glimpse of it. Happy weekend, Rhoda and all!
To grow up and live with that kind of history must be amazing, something that we, with our very young country can’t really experience. Fascinating!
Thanks for sharing Susan’s home. I must go over and check out her blog. What a wonderful place to raise her family. I love her home!
i enjoyed this post so much! I think it will be one of my favorites. Love the French countryside.
We are witnessing, in the macro, rural living becoming the new status symbol.
Daily Mail names the new rural, the Turnip Toffs, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3405797/As-Kate-Wills-turn-backs-London-meet-Norfolk-Court.html.
Oddly, have known from childhood, gravel drives & meadows are the true status symbols.
Driving thru rural USA is heart rending. Many towns have zero access to healthcare, grocery store, pharmacy, transportation. And that is before Walmart created more of these rural voids.
Moving rural recently, it has been surprising the number of city friends in shock ! Took me over 5 decades but I’ve got my gravel drives & meadows & pond & woodland & ca. 1900 home. Could never have afforded this in the city, yet we are so much richer here. Nor could have moved here without the internet allowing me to work from anywhere.
Look forward to perusing more of Our French Oasis. Bless them for having so many children & raising them rural !!
Garden & Be Well, XO T
Describing the way of life makes me a little misty that we have lost some of those cherished practices…family meals are just not as popular in my neck of the woods, but maybe the next generation will bring all of it back. Also the idea of being able to walk from school. My children were able but that was many years ago. I would be very nervous to allow it now.
I so love the stone in the living area, the fireplace and that amazing entry chandelier. But the living in a historic home would be very special to me. I love exploring lots of historic landmarks here in the US.
It kind of reminds me of Island life. They don’t build new they just redo!
Beautiful! Thank you for sharing. Makes me miss my little home in France. We only spent a year there but what a year it was…
So beautiful and interesting.
What a wonderful way of life! That house is just incredible. I studied in France for a summer during college, and I loved the pace of life and the culture. Meals are an event and families love to spend time together. There is another great blog about living in a small town in France that you probably will like:
http://mimithorisson.com
Very Fascinating!!! Thank you for sharing this on your blog Rhoda. Loved it!
Marilyn C.
So fun to see historical dwellings like this, older than most of our country entirely! In a throwaway society and world of modern McMansions, this is proof that things will last if given a fair amount of attention – and show their quirky beauty marks through the years of enduring! Thanks for sharing, Rhoda.
Such a lovey home! I enjoyed this very much!
Thanks for sharing Susan’s post. I’ve added her to my personal blogroll. Very different way of life from American blogs I read. I was concerned when I read her post about Evie killing a chicken, because at first I thought she was referring to one of her daughters. I was relieved to find out Evie is one of her dogs.
A HUGE thank you to everyone who read this, for all your wonderful comments and to all of you fantastic new subscribers. Life in France is Wonderful! It is never dull, it is full of inspiration and with my husband and children, we live life to the full and that is what I love sharing with you all. Once again Thank you everyone and Rhoda especially x