Maybe it was ‘Meant to Be’
I’m not a great believer in fate – but I do sometimes wonder what made me utter the words: ‘Shall we just… move to France?’ to my husband one November evening in 2007.
It was the first time either of us had raised the possibility of living abroad. At the time, we were both teachers, working hard and paying an extortionate mortgage. Despite enjoying my time at the chalkface, I was struggling physically with the job – and close to burnout.
We’d talked from time to time about doing something different – finding a way to pool our skills and have a different sort of life. But we’d never been able to pin down an idea.
Suddenly, it seemed obvious.
The comment was made at the end of a long, hard day. After staying late for a meeting, I’d driven along the dark roads – feeling completely miserable. I opened the door of our pleasant, new-build home feeling that something had to change. Thing just didn’t seem to be working out.
I’m not quite sure where the idea of moving to France came from exactly. But embarrassingly enough, we had been watching a lot of ‘A Place in the Sun’ the previous summer. I’d noted, at the time, the price of property and realised we could afford to buy a modest property outright. The idea of simply upping sticks and hot footing it across the channel was tantalising to say the least.
I pushed aside any such thoughts when I took on a new role at work that September, but the pressure mounted and I realised I’d bitten off more than I can chew (something that’s quite the habit for me).
But while those words came from nowhere, my subconscious might have been working on the plan all along.
A year later, we bought a house in Limousin in rural France.
Here, I was able to take stock, look at what I wanted for life and work towards something more meaningful. I started off tutoring online, then moved on to freelance writing. My dream was always to write novels, and I’d scribbled a few in the past, but I worked on developing my craft in earnest over the decade that followed.
(We also had five children in the first six years. To say things were ‘busy’ would be an understatement but it was ‘good’ busy, not ‘burnout’ busy).
Of course, there were obstacles and bumps in the road. We didn’t research that much before leaving and almost drowned under the necessary paperwork in the first year. The first location we chose turned out to be a little too rural. There were adjustments and moves and crises of confidence along the way.
But overall, my moment of impulsivity turned out to be one of the best decisions I’ve ever made.
A couple of years after my move, I found an old tape. It was from the only tarot reading I’ve ever had, which took place in 2004, just before I started a new teaching job. I was anxious and stressed and I suppose I wanted someone to tell me that everything would be alright.
Listening back, I realised that as well as speaking about my grandfather and telling me I wouldn’t be staying in my new job long, the reader had said ‘you’ll eventually live abroad.’ At the time I poo-pooed it as a cliché and was sure it would never happen.
Yet here I am. Who knows? Maybe fate had a part to play after all.
You can pick up a copy of Gillian’s brand new escapist read A Month in Provence here: https://mybook.to/monthinprovencesocial