ABOUT US
We
are Lorraine and Jeremy Millington - Lorraine from Loughrea in County Galway,
Ireland, and Jeremy from Bristol. In early 2002 we decided to take the plunge
and hand in the towel on our "fairly okay lives" in Bristol, UK. Something
clicked suddenly and we felt the entirely unplanned urge to leave behind the
daily grind of a life teaching in Bristol schools, the constant feeling of
turning on the TV and hearing people bemoaning their lives and how hard done by
they have been because of the government, having to pay too much for this and
that, the weather, the state of youth today etc etc. We were sick of Britain's
climate of moaning, and by being so, we discovered that we were becoming part of
it. They say the British moan behind closed doors but never do anything active
to change things. Whether or not this is true, we decided not to accept this
maladie for ourselves. We too were complaining incessantly about money, the
local council, having to walk to the local shops and have abuse hurled at us by
the youths of the delightful Henbury district of North Bristol, and so on. Thus
the decision was made: we would follow our noses to a better existence, which
legend told us existed on the continent.
So we packed it all in - jobs, our home, our
friends - and started feverishly scouring the internet for alternative options.
To cut an extremely long and frenetic story short, we settled on buying a house
in Western France and seeing if we could let our creative side (Lorraine is an
artist and Jeremy a musician) make us a living. Three years or so later, we have
just begun to come onto this original plan, after months of doing up rooms,
sorting out papers, etc.
We were married in April 2005, and our first
child, Ciara, arrived at La Rochelle maternity hospital on 20th March 2006.
Whilst all of this was going on, we were having two new apartments built next to
our home in La Rochelle for holiday makers, with a swimming pool (see
"La Residence du
Puits") and trying to
complete
work on a new CD album of our own songs. We finally completed all of these
things - you are presumably reading this because you are interested in French
property in one form or another - renting a holiday place, or perhaps seeking
our advice for buying something here. We are more than happy to help. But we
also have a music career burning away in the background, hopefully coming a
little more into the foreground during 2007 and 2008. You can hear our music by
visiting our website:
www.theportraits.info and we even have our own Myspace!
www.myspace.com/theportraitseurope If you happen to be staying in the
Residence du Petit Puits in the second half of August, you may well get invited
to a big outdoor music party we host each summer!
As you can tell, we are manically busy with our
relatively new lives here - but in short, no regrets. Life IS better for us
since moving: you ARE just that bit different, and people do take notice and
help you. Well worth it.
LORRAINE AND JEREMY, FEBRUARY 2007