Jude Reddaway and her family upped sticks from Sussex for a new life in Provence. They found themselves freezing cold in a building in need of a total overhaul. Was it all worth it?
What happens when a couple from Brighton uproot their youngest child and take off to live in Provence?
Well, we were to find out. Leaving family and friends behind us and moving from a city we liked or even loved on good days, we set off, after months and months of preparation, for a new life. But nothing quite went to plan…
For instance, our arrival in Provence was not a happy start. The last straw seemed to be when the rather grumpy removal man insisted on unloading all our worldly goods as soon as he arrived – at night rather than the next day as arranged. As our new home is in the countryside and the (charming but feckless) previous owner had not thought to clean the place, but had thought to remove all working light bulbs, this meant moving everything into one dark and unwholesome room by starlight and candlelight. These have since proved aheady combination over supper on a terrace, but they are, of course, less conducive to identifying and finding a safe spot for all those boxes so carefully, but in the event, pointlessly labelled ‘fragile’.
“Two days later, snow covered the violets and Philip was flat on his back on the floor unable to move a muscle, let alone help shift all those mis-placed boxes”
The next morning, however, we woke to stunning views of the mountains lit by the March sky which was a perfect blue, and the garden was breathtakingly carpeted with violets. I lay down on the lawn with my face in the sun and said: “I don’t care, it’s all worth it, I live in Provence now and its glorious.”
Two days later, snow covered the violets and Philip was flat on his back on the floor unable to move a muscle, let alone help shift all those mis-placed boxes. And in many respects it only got worse.
For one thing, it became so cold. We had holed up in the oldest part of the house – the beautiful chapel room where the beamed ceilings are four metres high and the ancient walls one metre thick. As no one had lived here over the previous winter, the central heating was very, very slow to rev up. It also happened to be, at the time, the only large room without a large fireplace to burn our enormous store of wood. Visitors will be pleased to know that this winter we are all cosy, with working radiators and blazing fires.
Neither did any of our planning really help us to deal with French bureaucracy. At times we were almost crawling the walls with frustration. It took us three weeks and four separate visits to downtown Carpentras to rejoin the slowest moving queue ever just to be connected to the Internet and the telephone. For this purpose, we were furnished with a rather optimistically named ‘Livebox’, a contraption that looks much more stylish than the average modem and yet tempermentally and stubbornly refuses to work for the flimsiest of excuses.
Add to this a whole succession of French specialists whistling through their teeth at the quality of the plumbing, the folly of the wiring and missing septic tanks, and you get the message. This was not an easy ride.
So are we sorry we came? Not a bit of it. Just like the first morning, I wake to beautiful views over the surrounding orchards, vineyards and mountains. I have centuries old pine, cypress and plane trees in my garden. I live in an amazing house, an old priory, parts of which were here in 1183. From April to October we have been able to eat supper under the stars. We enjoy superb local produce such as olives, lavender, fruit and truffles, and, of course, delicious wines. And, even when the bulldozers are thundering outside preparing a new terrace or building our new swimming pool, they can’t detract from the basic tranquillity of the place. There is an air of retreat here. And to some extent we have brought Sussex with us.
Certainly we have really enjoyed welcoming all the visitors who have come to stay. We have also commissioned Sussex-based people to work for us. Kim Glass designed and illustrated our logo and stationery, Jon Malyon at Fatsand designed and manages our web site, and Brian Mander at Wayzegoose helped with the massive building project going on here as we prepare for our grand opening in the New Year. For my part, being of the opinion that historical whites go better with the ancient stone and traditional chaux (lime render) than the dark green and glossy red favoured by the previous decorator, I am importing huge quantities of paint from Brewers.
But more than this, we wanted our home, La Madelène, to be a resource for Sussex people. Our main business is running wine holidays specialising in the wonderful local Rhone wines like Chateauneuf-du-Pape. But we are also making room on our schedule for other courses run by Sussex companies. The first will be Plum in Provence – a cookerycourse capitalising on the prestigious and sought-after black truffles found literally on our doorstep, which will be run in February by cookery writer Kim Ryan. Others courses include yoga organised by Pat Bowen and
tutored by Jason Boyce running in June and September, and ‘Grape Train in Provence’ – an informal and fun wine course with Philip and Lisa McNulty running in May and again in the autumn. Courses in painting and cycling – we live in the foothills of Mt. Ventoux – are also in the pipeline.
In this way, we hope to keep our contacts and ties with Sussex where we lived for more than 25 years. And, should we really begin to miss the old place… we can always hop on a plane, or a train, or take the car. It’s not the other side of the world – it just feels like it.
La Madeléne Rhone Wine Holidays
www.rhonewineholidays.com
Tel: 00 33 4 90 62 19 33
Plum in Provence – February 9-13 and 23-27
www.plumcateringbrighton.co.uk
Tel: 07967 305044, kim@plumcateringbrighton.co.uk
Yoga in Provence – June 25-July 1, September 17-23
www.yogainprovence.co.uk
Tel 07887 571789 patbowen@mac.com
Grapetrain in Provence – April 28-May 2, October 6-10
Tel: 07770 846113, philip_reddawy@yahoo.co.uk
