Janine Marsh

I’m a British writer living in the middle of nowhere rural France, with 72 animals and a husband. It wasn’t always this way! On a freezing cold day in February 2004 something happened to me that changed my life. On a booze cruise to Calais, I fell in love with a run down old barn about an hour’s drive inland – and I bought it for less than the price of a very posh handbag. Eventually I moved there (it’s a long story of love, loss and taking a risk). I gave up my office job and became a writer. It started with a blog called The Good Life France (my friends said I was like Felicity Kendall in the TV series, giving up the rat race to try to live a self-sufficient, if mud-filled, lifestyle). I wrote about the things I saw, the people I met and the places I visited. It started as a fun way to keep friends up to date with my new life and the enormous renovation job we’d taken on. When other people started to read it I was thrilled. The blog grew and grew, I was like Forest Gump, I just couldn’t stop writing! And my audience grew and grew too. From here I started to write for magazines and newspapers, I travel all over France discovering off the beaten track places, falling in love with cities from Paris to Bordeaux, meeting interesting people and getting to learn all about my adopted country, the food and wine (I’m permanently on a diet), the language, history, traditions and the quirky side of life in France - if not downright odd (like jam filled cakes that are meant to look like the gouty finger of a long dead emperor – seriously!). I grow most of my own fruit and veg and I’m the maid to umpteen stray cats and dogs, chickens, geese and ducks (one year we had 52 ducklings hatch). I am a total sucker for animals! To find out more about me, you can visit my website: www.thegoodlifefrance.com Or connect with me via social media where I post every day. Follow me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/goodlifefrance/ Follow me on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thegoodlifefrance/ Follow me on Twitter: https://twitter.com/lifefrance Look forward to chat to you there from my little pigsty/office in France!