Heads Above Water: Staying Afloat in France
Staying Afloat in France tops them all for me. As similar books, you hear about what this family left behind, why they decided to move and settle in France, and then about all the daily ordeals when the nice dream becomes reality, and sometimes a tough one. Indeed, to survive such a feat, you need a good amount of humor! I felt totally swept off my feet and could not wait to see what was coming next. And no, she does not exaggerate when she speaks of the workers coming to fix part of the house, what they did, and how they did it, and mostly how long it took them to do it.
I would have tons of personal stories to add to illustrate her point. I had to laugh about the passage on what type of paper and notebooks the kids had to buy for each class at school, with special requirements, different for each teacher. I, like all French kids, had to go through that. Both parents and colleagues looked at me as if I were coming from another planet. And as you can imagine, I was never able to set the example. Stephanie Dagg gives a very realistic image of what expats can expect when they decide to go settle in France.
If you are considering such a move, I highly recommend you read this book! It also contains lots of very concrete and useful information, and will definitely help you let go of too romantic ideas you may have. If you are happy where you are, it is still an excellent book to read, to know more about daily life in France, and enjoy great writing. And you may even consider visit Stephanie next time you spend some vacation there, as she has great facilities for guests and organizes fascinating tours.
Staying Afloat in France is the story of our first couple of years as expats in France. And yes, there are lots of books about living in France out there already. But a lot of these are the short-term adventures of single people or retired couples or tourists. Moving abroad for good with a family and without a pension is a whole new ball game. We moved the electric fencing a fraction every few days or so to give the llamas a fresh patch of grass to eat.
Little moves were best. We tried a major relocation in the early days, but it was disastrous. Electric fence wire has a mind of its own. However carefully you hold it, it tangles itself up and wraps itself around the posts. You end up having to rethread it completely. The llamas got a few shocks from it and learned to respect it. He just closed his eyes and winced rhythmically as the charge pulsed through him any time he stuck his neck to close to it. Oscar might be a wimp, but Larry was dumb. Larry was an escape artist too, as I soon found out one Wednesday.
It had been pretty much the perfect morning, apart from Chris not being there, of course. My halo was bright. I was being a Good Mother. We stopped for a cup of tea. Ruadhri looked out of the window. My perfect world shattered. My heart sank to my boots. I looked outside and sure enough, there was Larry prancing away down the driveway. Denis and Oscar were watching him anxiously, almost certainly planning to join him.
Bernard ignored them all as usual. I hurtled outside and hustled the remaining boys into the stable. I had some remote chance of catching one escapee, but three?
Heads Above Water
Next I stuck Ruadhri in front of the telly, to his delight, and then quickly filled the magic green llama bucket up with pellets, threw a rope round my neck and set off after Larry. An hour later the wretched animal was still skipping around, despite several near captures. I was in a foul mood. What on earth had possessed us to buy 75 acres of llama gallops? But at least it was Wednesday and the guys would be back from school early.
I realised that things could have been a whole lot worse. Any other day of the week, it would have been dark by the time they got home and llama wrestling in the night-time gloom would have been a whole different ball game. I made a pile of peanut butter sandwiches for Ruadhri to eat as his eyes got squarer and squarer with every minute of extra telly viewing. I was too distracted to care. I sent Chris a whinging email. And then some more. Then I had a brainwave.
I hurried out and tied electric fence wire across the driveway and between the trees and the two houses. That should constrict Larry a bit. The moment Benjamin and Caitlin arrived, even though they were tired from coping with a morning of French, I mercilessly stuck more fence wire in their hands and snapped out instructions.
Go this way, go that way. Cunningly we herded Larry into in a smaller and smaller area by moving in with the fence wire and finally we swooped. I would love to have my 4-year-old instructing me in the art of French meals. Stephanie included part of what her teenager Benj wrote about his new French school: Then go to locker, grab books and off to class So far we've had rabbit, trout, omelettes, steak, mussels and cheeseburgers. Ok, bar possibly the junk food, can many people admit to eating those for school dinner? We're treated like royalty. Even the appetisers and desserts are good.
The house didn't even have a working bathroom. That's a non-starter for me.
The minimum requirement will be a working bathroom. But they, and their kids, who are very different from my kids, started with an outdoor solar shower. They put a composting toilet in the indoor bathroom, planning to later use it outdoors for the visiting fishermen, women That would not quite cut it at my house either.
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I found the book and the adventure a lot of fun. The amount of work was incredible. I think they must be making a go of the farm now since the author has a blog and writes about her continuing adventures in France. She's also working on a sequel to this memoir, which I'll look forward to reading. I found the writing straight forward and descriptive.
Heads Above Water Staying Afloat In France
She definitely took me on a French adventure. This is perfect for anyone who wants to create their own France homestead, or for those who just enjoy reading about others who do. May 15, Jacqueline rated it it was amazing Shelves: There are many 'new life' in France books out there and some might say too many, but I say bring them on! They all have a different story to tell, they all have a unique style, some are better written than others, some are more humorous than others and I've read my fair share of them all.
This is one of the better ones, very funny and their story is different, I don't know too many llama farmers with fishing lakes too, do you? Stephanie had me crying with laughter right from the start of the boo There are many 'new life' in France books out there and some might say too many, but I say bring them on!
Stephanie had me crying with laughter right from the start of the book with the language faux pas and then there was the composting toilet issues, followed by the randy llamas and lots more funnies as they settled into their new life in rural France. Being an expat is certainly a life changing experience and not always easy, and I really liked that Stephanie brought a very personal touch to her story even including little extracts of the children's diaries from their first few months. Made me wish I had got our son to do something like that too, but he was only three when we moved.
As well as telling their story of house hunting, buying, moving from Ireland and settling in with only basic facilities, she explains many local traditions along the way and gives plenty of information on some of the many French bureaucratic traditions too. Despite being here for eight years I learnt some new things, although I still find bells with wings just a little creepy.
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Stephanie is one of those seemingly like minded women who writes things I enjoy reading and one day if we happen to find ourselves on the same cafe terrace I'm sure we could sit and natter for hours, and I would be a very happy lady. I can't wait for the next book! Mar 12, Sandie rated it really liked it Shelves: Stephanie and Chris Dagg are adventurous.
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In their 40's, they decided to move to France, taking their three children. Their plan was to purchase a fishing farm where they would rent to fisherman on vacation. They located a farm with three large lakes and purchased it. Then came the adjustment. The farm had two houses close together, neither of which were actually habitable. The family spent months cleaning and renovating the houses, dealing with French contractors to get heat, electricity and ru Stephanie and Chris Dagg are adventurous.
The family spent months cleaning and renovating the houses, dealing with French contractors to get heat, electricity and running water. In the meantime, they had to get the children started in school. Actually opening for business took quite a bit of time, as there was enormous amounts of work to do and forms to fill out in order to be legal.
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Heads Above Water is Stephanie's account of their first years after the move to France. She describes the work needed to get the farm into shape to function as a business. The family had to be resourceful and thrifty, growing food as well as foraging for it. They bought lots of animals, and started a side business revolving around llamas. Other animals such as guinea fowl were not successful, or like the stray cats, quickly overran the place. I now consider myself a European rather than 'belonging' to any particular country. The last ten years have been interesting, to put it mildly. Taking on seventy-five acres with three lakes, two hovels and one cathedral-sized barn, not to mention an ever increasing menagerie, makes for exciting times.
The current array of animals includes alpacas, llamas, huarizos alpaca-llama crossbreds, unintended in our case and all of them thanks to one very determined alpaca male , sheep, goats, pigs, ducks, geese, chickens and turkeys, not forgetting our pets of dogs, cats, zebra finches, budgies and Chinese quail. Before we came to France we had was a dog and two chickens, so it's been a steep learning curve. I'm married to Chris and we have three bilingual TCKs third culture kids who are resilient and resourceful and generally wonderful.
I'm a traditionally-published author of many children's books, and and am now self-publishing too.