Lifestyle: Renovatng our property in the Dordogne and other stories

Finally, I get the time to write about our experience of renovating our barn in the Dordogne and life in France in general. I should say that this is the story of our experience, the trials and tribulations of our renovation project and that others may have differing opinions.

Of course, any good advice for other would be home owners are all welcome too.

Although we tried our best we certainly didn't get everything right. This is partly why the guys at premier french property have asked me to share our experience. Hopefully, others that come after us won't make the same mistakes we did.

I'm probably not going to get everything in one blog post so I plan to do a series of articles that will cover several different aspects of the project and tell you about our new life here in France.

So, let's start at the beginning. We spent two years searching for our french property. As often as possible, we would fly into Bergerac from Stansted on a three day whistlestop tour and cram as many viewings in as possible on each trip.

We spent our holidays in every corner of France before finally settling on the Dordogne. Much to the relief of our exhausted estate agent we finally bought what is now our home. We packed in our jobs and made the permanent move to France.

Being in our late thirties at the time we came to France meant that we needed to generate an income. We thought a gite business would be the just the ticket. We couldn't afford to buy an established gite complex so we decided to build one. In hindsight that was our first big mistake. But more about that later.

Our four bedroom stone farmhouse and barn sits in two hectares, roughly five acres, on the edge of a very quaint little village. It's just south of the town of Bergerac in the Dordogne. The land has a two acre acacia wood and some wild walnut, cherry, plum, fig and quince trees. The rest of the land is pasture. To the south We have the most gorgeous views for miles over the beautiful french countryside with church spires and chateaux standing proud in the distance.

When we moved to France from London just over five years ago there was just the two of us. Now we are 10.

Our son was born in the spring of 2006. Then came our fist donkey a few days later. She was a gift from a friend who thought it would be nice for our new born son to have as a pet. Growing up we both had family dogs and cats but never a donkey. We had notions of setting up a smallholding in France anyway. Our new arrival was just the push we needed to get started.

We needn't have worried. Donkeys are hardy animals with great character and temprament. They're also surprisingly clever. But they're also very social. For the first few weeks she brayed continuously. She was lonely. So, we went about finding her some company.

A friend of ours from Monpazier mentioned that a neighbouring farmer had a couple of eight week old lambs for sale. They would be ready for slaughter in a few more weeks. So, we bought them feeling good that we had saved them from the chop but not knowing how donkeys and sheep would co-exist. The risk paid off. They all got on famously.

A year later we rescued a young male donkey who, through our naivety and inexperience, managed in no time to become a father. Then came our two feral tabby kittens given to us by a neighbour. I thought for a time about building an ark instead of a barn.

Then followed a very steep learning curve in parenting and animal husbandry that has never let up. We learn something new every day. Of course, for a time in the beginning we took our eye off the ball, the renovation of the barn and starting our business, but we quickly got things back on track.

We're now over five years in to a six month renovation project but more about that later.