In Foreign Fields: How Not To Move To France

October 20, 2019 - Comment

Sometimes it feels more like taking part in a musical comedy than starting a new life in France. ***** ‘A laugh-out-loud romp through an honest story of moving to France & buying a house that is anything but the French dream (who needs water and electricity? lol!).’ Goodreads***** ‘I’m a huge fan… as usual Susie’s

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Sometimes it feels more like taking part in a musical comedy than starting a new life in France.

***** ‘A laugh-out-loud romp through an honest story of moving to France & buying a house that is anything but the French dream (who needs water and electricity? lol!).’ Goodreads
***** ‘I’m a huge fan… as usual Susie’s humour and skill at recounting events in her life during that time period had me laughing out loud.’ Mrs Bloggs’ Books

Who hasn’t dreamt of living in France?

For Susie that dream comes true…

…but not in the way she had imagined.

Yes, the countryside is spacious and peaceful….

…on summer nights the stars skim the rooftops, the owls hoot and the nightingales sing. Sunflowers smile from their fields.

Then there’s the food and the wine…

…the wine is cheap and the baguettes are crusty.

The French neighbours are generous and gentle.

But then come the drug addicts, builders who cannot build, demanding compatriots, undercover cops and unwelcome guests. Susie begins to lose hope of attracting the fabled French philanderer and, far from appreciating their new home, the animals do everything they can to make life as difficult as possible.

With her house literally crumbling around her, the number of odd characters Susie manages to attract are only matched by the assortment of creatures appearing from in and out of the woodwork.

When her husband almost dies, Susie’s resilience and good humour are tested to the limit.

Another delightful, very funny, memoir from the witty & wise travel author Susie Kelly.

First Kindle edition of Two Steps Backwards, originally published by Bantam/Transworld as a UK paperback. Launching worldwide, this edition is updated and contains new material – including, for the first time, photographs.

*****’Great storyteller and very funny.’ Goodreads

***** ‘Very well written and entertaining.’ Goodreads

***** ‘Susie’s books are always literate, always accurate and always delightful.’ Goodreads

***** ‘I can’t recommend it highly enough. I couldn’t put it down.’ Goodreads

***** ‘Really funny. Up there with Driving Over Lemons and French Fried. Great stuff.’ Goodreads

***** ‘There are a handful of authors who will achieve that elusive trick of making you laugh out loud. For me it’s James Herriot, Bill Bryson & Susie Kelly.’ FrenchEntrée Magazine

Comments

Anonymous says:

Real rural France, not the ‘glass of wine on the terrace’ stuff that is so misleading. I came to live in rural France a little time before Susie and found her description of local life completely accurate, down to the old boys you had to watch out for on the roads as they certainly didn’t look out for you!She tells it with such kindness and humour that it puts me back there, in that time, renewing happy memories.How she coped with her circumstances in that first winter in a barn of a place with plastic sheeting for a door I do not know…all I can say is…

Anonymous says:

Geese, chickens and other animals I believe I have read all of Susie’s books and have always enjoyed her humour and honesty.I have never lived in France but have spent many a holiday in the same region that Susie lives in and indeed my sister lives there still.The description of the tumbledown collection of buildings that Susie and Terry has purchased made me shiver at the thought of the hard winters ahead of them. No heating, no bathroom facilities and no electric power!!It our heroine is a tough cookie. Lack…

Anonymous says:

Very enjoyable read Having been enthralled by Susie’s earlier publication, Two Steps Backward, I was delighted to read the updated version, Foreign Fields. People who take on the challenge of starting afresh in a new country meeting headfirst the barriers presented such as language, culture, lack of resources to name but a few and without family back up deserve admiration from those of us who would not take the risk. The experiences Susie encountered and resolved are described in such a manner that you nearly…

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