Pleased to be here

[Fran Connor]

Hi Katy-Ellen, thanks for the welcome. I see you are a Lancashire lass. I'm from Rochdale originally. It used to be in Lancashire but now it's in Greater Manchester but I'm still a Lancashire lad at heart.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Hah, those county boundaries. How dared they take such liberties. Everyone knows where they should be, anyway. I am a Lancashire lass, sort of Born and grew up in Durham City, came to live in Lancs with husband's job, lived near Preston some years. My mother was born in Bolton...uncles in Burn-leh Grandfather was curator of Bolton museum many years. I really like Lancashire folk as a generality; Pendle pulls, and if more people knew how stunningly beautiful the Forest of Bowland was....if only t'were hotter.

What helped you decide upon your chosen spot in SW France?

 

[Fran Connor]

Katie-Ellen, I know the Forest of Bowland. Beautiful. I was lucky to be able to retire in my early fifties but needed something to keep the old grey matter and body active so we moved to France and spent a few years renovating an old house and barn. We initially looked at the Med coast but you don't get much for your money down there and in the area we were looking at around the Gulf de Lion up to Carcassone it seems to be permanently blowing a gale. Cannes and that part of the coast require a huge bank balance and it is crowded. Then we looked at the Pyrenees. It is stunning. The roads have snow poles to tell you where the road is during the winter months. It rains a lot up there in summer and it's cold half the year. So we went north from Toulouse and found a quiet little valley near Agen. France is a great place to live with a better climate and no traffic in our neck of the woods. The lifestyle is good too with a strong sense of community. Having got here I decided to take up writing.

 

[Katie-Ellen]

Bowland sshhh. Our secret! The roads are great in comparison. That's what brings it home, ours is a little country, though wonderful in its variety. I have a sister living in Sete. She started out in Rouen, teaching English, then moved to Montpellier but, you get more for your money in less des res Ste, which she loves. Interesting that, about the gales in Carcassone. A friend has got a place in the Pyrenees, not at all my idea of heaven, the way she describes it in winter, and even in summer, some valleys permanently in shadow. So far in France, I've only got as far south as the Dordogne and La Rochelle, but Bordeaux beckons, and Arles, I'd like to see the border area too, between France and N Spain. Top of the Costa Brava.

Place matters so much in writing. It does to me, anyway.

 

[K.J. Simmill]

Nice to meet you.

 

[Fran Connor]

Hi KJ,

Thanks for the welcome. I have to admit my education is lacking in some areas and I didn't know what a tetralogy was so I looked it up. Good luck with your series of four fantasy novels. That's what I like about forums: one is always picking up things they never knew. I don't mind admitting my lack of knowledge. Regards Fran