Letters #4: Why Brassac? Finding the Place That Feels Like Home

Bonjour, my darling,

Ça va?

Today I thought I would share a little bit more about how we chose the area of France we wanted to live in… and eventually, how we found the house that became our home.

Because one of the questions that has surprised us the most since moving here is…

“Why Brassac?”

Why this little village, tucked away in the mountains of the Tarn?

And actually, the answer comes back to something I believe is so important when you start imagining any new chapter of your life.

Getting really clear on your non-negotiables. Because a dream becomes much easier to create when you actually know what you are looking for. Brassac is the little mountain village we now call home. And the funny thing is, it isn’t just friends and family back in the UK that ask us that question. It’s the locals too.

When we’re chatting to someone and explain that no, we’re not on holiday, we actually live here, they often look at us and say…

“Really? Why Brassac?”. It always makes me smile. Because isn’t that true of life? Sometimes when something has always been around you, you stop seeing the magic in it.

The beautiful stone buildings.
The mountains.
The rivers.
The views.
The slower pace of life.

They see normal. We see magic.

But the truth is, Brassac wasn’t a random choice. It wasn’t us sticking a pin in a map and hoping for the best. We spent years dreaming and months exploring.

A couple of years before we moved, we travelled around France for a month looking at areas like the Dordogne and Charente. Then the Christmas before we finally made the move, we came back again. A week in Brittany.
A week in the Loire Valley.
A week around Bordeaux.
A week in the Tarn.

And slowly, piece by piece, we started to understand what we really wanted.

I had my non-negotiables.

Firstly, I wanted to be within two or three miles of a proper little village. Not just a handful of houses.

A village with life. Somewhere we could pop out for bread or milk. Somewhere with a boulangerie, a little supermarket, a bank, a few shops. Somewhere that felt like a community.

Secondly, I wanted to be within about 20–25 minutes of a bigger town. Because let’s be honest… this girl still needs a little shopping trip! I wanted somewhere I could buy a new outfit, meet a friend for lunch, wander around a busy town centre, buy furniture, visit big DIY stores and have everything we needed without driving for hours.

And thirdly, the airport. This was huge. I knew I would still be travelling back and forwards to the UK regularly, so we needed to be no more than around 90 minutes from an airport.

Those were my location non-negotiables.

And then there was what my husband lovingly calls (while rolling his eyes)… “Deb’s tick list.”

The house.

Now, I have always loved France. I told you in my first letter about those little seeds that were planted years ago on childhood holidays. But there were practical reasons too. The weather was definitely one.

And the houses… oh my goodness, the houses. Because the reality is, you can get so much more for your money here. Back in England we had a perfectly lovely four-bedroom modern house on a housing estate. And I want to be clear — we were very fortunate to have that.

But everything felt small. The bedrooms were small.
The garden was small.
The space around us felt small. We would fight for parking outside our own house because, like so many families, we had more cars than driveway space. We’d sit outside and hear the trampoline next door, the football hitting the fence, the noise of everyone living so closely together.

It wasn’t a bad life. Not at all. But it wasn’t calm. And I think that’s what I was craving more than anything.

Space. Peace. Room to breathe.

We basically exchanged our UK house almost penny for penny for our home here in France. And please know, this isn’t about boasting. It’s simply showing what is possible and why this move made sense for us. Because our home here is completely different.

We now have five/six bedrooms.
Three bathrooms.
A huge lounge.
A sunroom.
A beautiful terrace.
Three acres of land.
A swimming pool.
A private driveway.
An electric gate.
A huge garage.
A workshop.

And the house sits in its own little world. Our own little haven. The nearest property is a farm at the bottom of our land, so instead of traffic and neighbours, we hear cows, birds and the occasional dog barking.

When my son visited, he took some drone footage and it was amazing to see. From the ground, it feels like we are in the middle of nowhere. But as the drone rises, suddenly you see the village, the houses, life around us.

We’re not isolated. We’re just hidden. Wrapped inside our own little pocket of green.

The house itself was built in 1980 by a local family who owned a textile factory in the area. They were very well known here, and when we tell people which house we bought, they immediately say… “Ahhh, the house of that family.” It was designed by an architect and built as something special.

Do we love everything? No.

The 1980s wallpaper on almost every wall definitely wasn’t on my dream list! There is a lot of stripping and decorating in our future. But the bones of the house… The design.
The position.
The land.
The views. They were exactly what we dreamed of. Well… almost. There was one box it didn’t tick.

I had always imagined a bedroom with doors opening onto a balcony where I could step outside in the morning with a coffee and look at the view. I didn’t quite get my balcony.

But the views? Oh, the views. That was one of my biggest non-negotiables. I wanted to wake up and see something beautiful. And that’s actually one of the reasons we didn’t choose some of the other areas. The Loire Valley, for example, was beautiful, but very flat.

I wanted mountains. I wanted layers of green. I wanted to look out and feel something. And now, when we sit in our sunroom, with glass all around us, whether it’s summer, winter or spring… We have that.

So when people ask… “Why Brassac?”

The answer is simple. Because it ticked our boxes. Not somebody else’s boxes. Ours.

And that’s what I would love you to think about today.

What are your boxes?
What would your dream location look like?

And it doesn’t have to mean moving countries. Maybe you live in a city and secretly dream of the countryside. Maybe you want a beautiful island. Maybe you want another country. Maybe your dream is an ocean view where you can walk barefoot to the beach every morning. Maybe it’s mountains. Maybe it’s a medieval village where you open your front door and step straight into cobbled streets and little cafés. Maybe you want people and energy and the ability to wander home from a local bar. Or maybe, like me, you want quiet. Space. Your own little bubble.

One thing I discovered about myself during the pandemic was that I am actually much more introverted than I realised.

After years of running dance schools, being around people, always having my “dance teacher smile” switched on, I realised something…

I loved being home.
I loved my own space.
I loved not constantly having to be “on”.

So for me, the peace and privacy here feels like heaven. For someone else, it might feel like a nightmare. And that’s the point. There is no right dream. Only your dream.

So today, maybe while you’re having a coffee or driving somewhere, let your mind wander. Where do you go on holiday and think…

“I could live here”?
What is “here”?
What does it look like?
Do you want four seasons or sunshine all year round?
Mountains or sea?
A garden full of vegetables, chickens and animals?
Or a beautiful apartment with a balcony and absolutely no grass to cut?

My darling, let yourself dream. Imagine there is already a movie of your future waiting for you. Right now maybe it’s a little blurry. The contrast is turned down.
The colours are faded.
You can’t quite make out the details.

But every time you dream…
Every time you ask yourself what you truly want…
The picture gets brighter. The colours come back. The story starts to appear. And the wonderful thing?

You can rewrite that story as many times as you like. Nothing is fixed. You’re simply creating. So go and enjoy a little dreaming time today.

And if you want to share what your dream looks like, I’d genuinely love to hear.

À bientôt,
Deb x

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