This Could NEVER Happen

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: When I read this blog, I first thought–no. No no no. That could never EVER happen.

I read it again, a second time, I thought…nope. NO way. It could never NEVER happen.

But mes amies, peut-etre it could.

The wonderful (and completely adorable) Gillian Harvey has lived it. And lucky for us, not only realized it, but wrote a whole book about it.

It deals with France, and life, and wine, and love, and beauty. 

And–our own foibles.


RE-LIVING THE DREAM
By Gillian Harvey

Whenever I tell people I live in rural France, they respond with comments like: “lucky you!” or “living the dream.”

For the first year or so of living here, I’d have agreed with them. The problem? Living in a holiday destination does not make your life a holiday. At least, not all the time.

After a while, the daily drudgery of life steps in. Yes, you’re living somewhere beautiful and doing a job you love (freelance writing), but you still have to clean the bathroom. You still have to trudge around the supermarket, and work out what to have for tea. Bills still need to be paid.

Eventually, the beautiful, French location fades into the background and life begins to feel ‘normal.’ You take the kids to school, meet your deadlines, cook dinner and – if lucky – get to do a little reading or watching TV at the end of a day.

You stop exploring.

You forget to look out of the window.

You start taking it all for granted.

Reader, I went ‘France-blind.’

Luckily, things changed when I began to write my latest novel.

My first two novels were set back in my old stomping ground of England.

But for the third, A YEAR AT THE FRENCH FARMHOUSE, I decided I wanted to shake things up a bit. What if my main character decided to throw caution to the wind and hop across the channel, just as I had over a decade ago?

It was a fresh direction for me, and I began to get excited about the project. What’s more, the words flowed from my fingers: I’d unknowingly been ‘researching’ this book for over a decade simply by living my life (although unlike the main character in ‘A Year at the French Farmhouse’ I hadn’t accidentally bought our French home on eBay).

Over time, I noticed a change in my own attitude to continental living. Taking a step back to look at my surroundings afresh, finding words to describe the old stone buildings, the beautiful backdrop of rolling countryside, the dancing diamonds of light that flicker across the beachside lake on a spring morning, helped to open my eyes once again to the beauty of the place I now call home.

I started to realise that not everyone gets to munch their morning cereal in front of uninterrupted countryside views, that most people aren’t raising children who can chatter away with ease in two languages. That walking to the patisserie in the morning, or choosing locally made cheeses from the weekly market, or spending time at one of the many lakes a stone’s throw from my front door is something that nobody should take for granted.

I also began to revisit some of the memories of my first years en France – the mishaps, misunderstandings and mayhem that comes with adjusting to a new language, a new culture. A culture in which jokes sometimes fall flat, where both humour and confusion can be created through mispronunciation or misunderstanding.

The time when I told my neighbour about a plumbing issue, but used a word more suited to a sexual act, or when I upset a restauranteur by asking for my steak ‘bien cuit’ (well done). The friends we’ve made, and their beautiful accents, the idiosyncratic mispronunciations that I’ll never correct because I love them (one friend says clothesies for clothes and I don’t want that ever to change).

Like a relationship that had settled into a rut, my life in France had become – to me, at least – ordinary. And sometimes, dull.

But writing the novel opened my eyes all over again and made me realise just how lucky I am.


HANK: France-blind. That is incomprehensible to me! But think about it, Reds and readers. What things in YOUR world would be fabulous and enthralling to a visitor? Have you forgotten wonderful things about your own life?

Or: tell us one wonderful thing about your memories, or imaginings, of France!

A YEAR AT THE FRENCH FARMHOUSE

A new direction for Gillian Harvey, author of Perfect on Paper and Everything is Fine! Escape to France with this warm, witty romantic read, A YEAR AT THE FRENCH FARMHOUSE.

After ten years of loyal service Lily Butterworth has been made redundant. Like any clever woman, she knows the cure to redundancy is a little too much wine and her best friend. Only the next morning, Lily has more than a hangover . . . she has a whole new house – in France! Seeing this as an opportunity instead of a disaster, she’s excited about finally moving to France, just as she and her husband always dreamed of.

However, Lily is in for another surprise. Despite planning to move there for over 20 years, her husband never actually intended to go. So begins a year in France, alone, renovating the gorgeous old farmhouse that is held together by wallpaper and wishes. Will a year at the French farmhouse be just what Lily needs? Or could it be the previous owner, Frederique, that is the answer to Lily’s dreams?

GILLIAN HARVEY
After graduating from university in 2000 with a degree in English literature, Gillian Harvey trained as a secondary school teacher. She worked in the profession until 2009, when she decided (on the spur of the moment) to move to France with husband Ray.

It was there she began working as a freelance writer and has since built a career writing features, opinion pieces and short stories for national titles including Woman’s Weekly, People’s Friend, the Independent, Guardian and Metro.

Gillian also works as a columnist for popular Writing Magazine, a role she has held since 2020. She was also a columnist for Prima Baby magazine (2015-16) and Living France magazine (2017-2019).

Gillian’s first novel ‘Everything is Fine’ was published in May 2020. Her second, ‘Perfect on Paper’ was published in May 2021 (both with Orion).

Her latest novel ‘A Year at the French Farmhouse’ is due for publication with Boldwood on 29 September 2022. 

Gillian lives in Limousin, France, with her husband and their five children.