A family have revealed how they managed to buy an entire French village after selling their three-bedroom semi-detached home in Manchester.
Liz and David Murphy purchased the historic rural hamlet of Lac De Maison, in Poitou-Charentes, southwest France, for £400,000 in January 2021.
The hamlet includes six 400-year-old houses, two barns, three acres of land, and two 10m x 15m swimming pools, which they renovated with the help of local builders and tradesmen.
The couple said they took the leap during the COVID-19 lockdown after feeling like they were “stuck in the rat race” with nine-to-five jobs while managing a busy schedule of after-school clubs with their children, Tom, 12, and Charlotte, eight.
After months of renovations, the family of four moved into the main house late last year while Mrs Murphy’s mum Helen Diaper, 73, and stepdad Terry, 72, took up the house opposite.
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The remaining four houses and two barns in the hamlet have been turned into holiday homes, which they plan to rent out for hundreds of pounds a week.
Mrs Murphy, 45, said: “We were both working nine-to-five jobs in England, with busy lives and the kids were in after-school clubs and it was like we were on an endless treadmill.
“It wasn’t until Covid came and we were on this furlough and we realised we were in a rat race and life was passing us by. We realised we hadn’t spent much time with the kids and we decided we had to do something to change all our lives.”
Mrs Murphy said the couple had talked about moving to France “for years” and just had the “sudden” urge to do it.
She said: “We’ve got six houses and another big barn that has been converted into a playroom and a workshop, with three acres of land and a ruin. It’s really like winning the lottery without realising it.”
Mr Murphy, 54, who is a trained hypnotherapist, said: “Some people decided to buy a dog during Covid but we decided to move to a different country. We were amazed at what we could get for our house price in Manchester, we could get a hamlet.
“We kind of made the decision to move in August 2020 and we came over in the Covid break in travel. It was really quick. I think we both loved France. We fell in love with it coming over here on holidays.”
Wanting to learn a language, the food and the weather meant the couple “never considered” anywhere else.
Mr Murphy said: “When we came here, we could only say hello, goodbye and can I have a beer?” Google Translate was invaluable to them at first, but they have now reached the stage where they learn from conversations.
“We’re living like millionaires here. It takes two-and-a-half hours to mow the lawn on a sit-on mower. In Manchester, I could do the lawn in ten minutes.”
But the transition wasn’t a smooth sail. Initially, the couple said they had nowhere to stay and the children disliked school.
Mrs Murphy said: “We were really scared about the move and making enough move. For the first four months, the kids hated school and we were thinking this was difficult.”
Mrs Murphy said the family experienced flooding, issues with their septic tank and no electricity.
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