I quit the UK for France to live in a huge farmhouse costing just £12k – I won't miss it & I'll never work a 9-5 again
Sam Maunder, 34, moved into the 500-year-old cottage, which her parents bought for £12,000 when she was 4.
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But the farmhouse, two cottages and barn located in Dordogne, France, were left abandoned when her parents divorced in 1998.
Maggie, 69, and John, 71, divorced, and Sam and her mum moved back to the UK leaving the land and its properties abandoned.
Untouched for more than two decades, Sam decided to return in 2018 to see if she could bring the once-loved family home back into use.
She had to break into the main home and discovered it was still full of their possessions, but had been taken over by animals and dust and required an entirely new roof.
Overgrown plants meant the properties were totally hidden from the road nearby, but the outbuildings had been emptied - and some were just a shell.
In 2019, she began the painstaking renovation to bring them back to their former glory - a project she admits will cost "thousands" and take another three years.
She is splitting her time between the UK and France, allowing her to do some of the work herself and keeping costs down.
Sam, a laser clinic business owner from Cardiff, Wales, said: "I was really young when we first bought it.
"My parents are well-travelled and adventurous, so it was them who decided it was for them and they stuck with that plan.
"I have so many memories there as a child, and it's the only place where my mind is at ease.
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I fled the UK for sunny Dubai - life back home is miserable & no-one has any cash
"I've been obsessed with it for years. It's really relaxing, and the whole lifestyle is just what I want.
"It does need a lot of work, but I know that and I am willing to do that. I can't wait to call it my own."
Sam's parents found themselves in the South of France because their neighbours, who they were very friendly with moved there and while visiting them they loved it so much, they just took the leap.
When the family bought it in 1993, Sam described it as "a shell." It had concrete floors, was not very inhabitable in the slightest, was very old-fashioned, and had not been lived in for 50 years.
It was abandoned in 1998, and Sam came to stay for six weeks in 2019 before she got married.
She said that to be legally married in the country, you have to live there for over 40 days.
By then, the already old home had fallen into near total disrepair.
In the main house, some of the ceilings have totally collapsed, the beams are rotten, and the whole roof needs replacing.
The walls need repointing, which Sam wants to learn to do herself.
Sam has done two deep cleans, recycled and cleared out boxes from the second cottage, and her dad has rebuilt a wall in the barn.
She's currently flying or driving to France to do two weeks of renovation work every two months and has yet to apply for a visa to eventually live permanently there.
Sam said: "As I've grown older, I have felt more confident. I would be nervous about moving to a new country.
"I am also slightly nervous because of the language barrier, but I have started taking one-to-one lessons, which I enjoy, and that is going well.
"Once I move, which I hope will be around two to three years, I won't miss the UK and I'm just so excited.
"The overall plan is that the first cottage will be for living in or holidaying in, and the second cottage will become a three-bed rental.
"The barn would be a recreation area that would be turned into a storage unit, bar, and seating area. Outside will be landscaped, possibly with a pool.
"The ground needs cleaning, but the roof is the most urgent job.
"I have a vision for the existing cottage, which is great, but because the other properties are so barebones, it is tricky to tell which direction it needs to take.
"It's a little tricky to see the vision, but I can start with the fun stuff once the roof is done. My dad can help on the projects as he worked in the trade, which is really helpful. If we were living there full-time, it would be a bit quicker.
"I just can't wait to host family parties and BBQs at my home in France. This is a really exciting project and I can't wait till it's finished."
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Daily Mail
16 minutes ago
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He said they did not receive any warning of the cancellation before it happened. We had no idea. There was nothing that the airport had said out on the speaker phones, or anything like that,' Mr Carr said. 'There was no warning from them or the airline that said it was cancelled. It's rubbish. There's nothing we can do. We don't know what we're going to do tonight in terms of accommodation. We have put our cars in special car compounds for the next six days.' His friend James Hedges, also from Stourbridge, said the group was in the departures lounge when they were told the flight was cancelled. 'We'd already checked in and gone through the security checks,' he said. Meanwhile Asha, 18, from Manchester, said the chaos had ruined her first holiday interrailing. She told the BBC her 3.10pm easyJet flight to Amsterdam had actually departed and was in the air for 50 minutes – before turning around. Hours later, she said she was still 'stuck' on the tarmac at the city's airport. Another passenger, Jane Ainsworth, told the Daily Mail her flight from Kos back to Birmingham had been forced to land in Brussels. Monica Clare, 68, from London, also had her hopes of watching her loved one walk down the isle thrown into disarray after her Aer Lingus flight from Heathrow to the Republic of Ireland was cancelled. She was flying out to attend the wedding in Limerick at 2.40pm today, but was stranded on the runway for almost three hours, after which passengers were told the flight was cancelled. 'The wedding is in Limerick on Friday but a hotel and hire car are awaiting us tonight, At 5.30pm the captain told us their shift had finished so Aer Lingus HQ in Dublin cancelled the flight,' she told The Telegraph. 'We were told to wait for a phone update about a flight tomorrow but others were told all flights tomorrow are already full. It's totally awful. We probably have to go home and wait to see when the next available flight is. It looks like we're missing the wedding.' Durand Meachem, 49, from North Carolina, was also expecting to fly out of Heathrow on Wednesday with his partner and two daughters to celebrate his 50th birthday. They had hoped to embark continue enjoying a 'trip of a lifetime', encompassing New York, London, Dubai and Thailand, before being caught up in the travel chaos. Chris Birch and his family faced similar turmoil after their flight out to attend a wedding was cancelled due to a shortage of cabin crew. 'At Gatwick for 5 hours for a delayed flight due to crew not being available. Now the flight and holiday is cancelled,' he wrote on X. 'We have been waiting another hour to collect luggage, that has still not appeared. No prams or escalators so parents carrying babies throughout. Our plane was on the tarmac, and luggage on board, we were simply waiting on a crew. We are going to a wedding and we were not given the option of a re-route. This breaks UK law.' Cockpit crews across the country were told the NATS centre in Swanwick, Southampton, had experienced a 'radar failure' at 2.30pm. 'We would appreciate your patience whilst we work through this unforeseen disruption,' they were told, according to The Sun. By 4.43pm, NATS said the issue was resolved but knock-delays will continue, with passengers advised to check with their airline. A statement read: 'Our engineers have now restored the system that was affected this afternoon. 'We are in the process of resuming normal operations in the London area. We continue to work closely with airline and airport customers to minimise disruption.' While the issue was ongoing, British Airways (BA) said the problem was 'affecting the vast majority of our flights', while Birmingham airport said 'departing flights from many UK airports have been suspended'. 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Transport Secretary Heidi Alexander said continued disruption was expected following the restoration of Nats' systems and urged passengers to check with individual airports for advice. A spokesman from the Department for Transport said: 'While passengers should continue to check with individual airports for advice, Nats have confirmed their systems are now fully operational and flights are returning to normal. 'We are working closely with Nats to understand the cause of the technical issue and the implications for the resilience systems in place.' The Mail has contacted easyJet for comment.
