In January 2002, Nick and Lynne Mumby and their then 3 year old daughter Rebecca, 'lived the dream' and moved to France.
Now referred to by friends as "Dreamsville" they live  in a beautifully renovated 'longère' in the Loire-Atlantique region of France.
It wasn't the usual story of why move to France? It wasn't based on watching endless TV programmes on living abroad, or that friends had done a similar thing…
One evening in June 2001, in the midst of the 'foot and mouth' crisis, Nick arrived home late after a day working away and announced that he had had an idea. Based on the prospect of a better education for their daughter, better health service, no mortgage and a better quality of lifestyle and weather, the grounds for his reasoning were founded!
Lynne was not totally convinced, but agreed to a week 'having a look' around France. The first trip took them 2000 miles in a week of prospecting, they had a criteria to fill; Close to a school, a hospital, a town for shopping, yet a place in the countryside with land and stables for horses (their life & income until this point).
This first trip determined the area; too far South and the journey from England would be too long and not as easy for friends and family to visit, too far North and it wouldn't seem far enough into the 'heart' of France.
By pure chance, Nick had seen "La Roulais" advertised privately in a property magazine he had bought. It fitted the criteria and typically he insisted on 'having a look', an address at the bottom of the advert found them knocking on the door of a Notaire's (lawyer's) office, and a visit was arranged.
A second trip just one month later was a serious schedule of visiting numerous properties: they looked at some in need of complete renovation through to those that were habitable immediately.
With a young child, the prospect of living in a foreign country and moreover the fact that neither one of them possessed very good DIY skills, it soon became apparent that the latter would be the right option!
Towards the end of this trip, they arranged to visit "La Roulais" for a second time… Their thoughts were confirmed, out of all the properties they had visited nothing came close to this one.
Since their move, a heated swimming pool and two self-catering cottages in the grounds of "La Roulais" have been added. The fact that there are no horses yet amuses them both!
The family just feel very lucky to have found 'dreamsville' - "La Roulais"