Issue No. 13

How did you come to be in France?
I'm originally from East Yorkshire, England,
UK. There seem to be a lot of us "Yorkshire
Folk" out here. Either I'm being followed or
we all have the same great idea to move to
the Limousin region! Back in 2008, I
finished University and wasn’t really sure
what I wanted to do. My family had
holidayed in Southern France throughout
my childhood and my late dad had always
dreamed of retiring here. Sadly he never
got to live out that wish, but my Mum and I
(after a lot of dithering), decided to go for it
and move to France. We moved to
Carcassonne and I had six happy years
there. I met my Fiancée Dave two years ago
and we've just bought our first home in the
lovely Haute-Vienne region. My mum has
moved to this area too.
I bought a lovely, but unloved, two
bedroomed house with a barn, a little
stable and a bit of land – I just fell in love
with it. Dave wasn’t quite so impressed
when he saw it but I convinced him of the
potential. It had been left abandoned for 15
years but Dave is a builder so we’ve done
all the renovation work ourselves. It's in a
great area just outside the village of Saint
Laurent sur Gorre. It's very peaceful with
lots of lovely lakes and great for walking
our two dogs. But if we want a bit of city life,
Limoges is just 30 minutes away. I can
spend hours walking around the cobbled
streets, visiting the churches and dragging
poor Dave into the many shops. Other
highlights in the area include Saint Junien,
Rochechouart, Chalus, Segur le Chateau.
The list is endless...
What it inspired you to create a pop up
restaurant?
Well I must admit to being a hopeless cook
for many years. I had lived through my
university years on takeaways and had
never bothered cooking. But then I met
Dave and found that he was a vegetarian,
so I couldn't get away with shoving chicken
Kiev and chips in the oven, I had to learn to
cook!