A British couple from East Anglia who ditched their careers in the UK to start a cycling business and renovate a farmhouse in France’s Loire region say the move has fulfilled their desire for the simple life.
Denise and Kevin Belchambers, both in their early 60’s, live in the countryside close to Chinon, a medieval town in the beautiful Loire Valley National Park. They bought a formerly derelict farmhouse for £55,000 and spent another £74,000 to renovate the property.
“We fell in love with this part of France in 2003 and bought our first holiday home in 2004. We spent long weekends and all our holiday time coming over to work on our beautiful little French house”, Denise said.
The couple traded in their careers after moving to France, instead deciding to rent out their property and start a bike tour company. Denise swapped her job in catering and hospitality, while Kevin used his plumbing skills on their renovation, before becoming a bike tour guide.
Their original holiday home is now rented as a ‘gite’, a typical French-style retreat and sleeps four guests. It comes after the couple bought the neighbouring farmhouse in 2016 and spent two years remodelling it.
The house now serves as a base for their cycling business, another rental property which sleeps six, and a one-bedroom annex which is their home.
While the location is idyllic, the renovation was difficult with only two rooms inhabitable and no way of accessing the first floor, Denise told i. The property had also lain empty for 60 years.
“We slept on a mattress in one of the downstairs rooms and used the bathroom facilities of a kind neighbour in the early days,” she said.
The couple estimate their 200 square-metre farmhouse with 2,500 square-metre of land would cost between £500,000 and £700,000, in the UK, but said the simple life in France has fulfilled their lifestyle dreams.
“We came to fulfill our dream of being in control of our own destiny by renting out our gites and hosting cycling holidays here in the Loire Valley. We are not retired and have no private pensions but are very happy to continue with what we are doing as we love it so much,” she said.
The couple opened the business to guests in 2019, then Covid hit, affecting their income, but they managed to survive. Denise said the lifestyle suits their simple desires, as they wanted to live a “back to basics” existence.
In their e-bike cycling holidays business called Loire Brakes, Kevin guides guests along country roads and cycling paths while Denise does all the cooking with locally sourced, seasonal goods.
The simple lifestyle and lower cost of living are major pluses, the couple said. In France, high-quality food is sourced locally. Many residents still use independent butchers and bakers to buy their produce from, and keep hens, geese and sheep. They also grow their own vegetables and have orchards of fruit trees.
In the Loire Valley, food and electricity are lower than in the UK, but petrol costs are higher, they say.
“The equivalent of Council Tax is much cheaper here than in the UK. If our farmhouse was back in Suffolk we would be paying £2,485 per year, here we pay £700,” says Denise.
One of the biggest expenses is health cover. Although there is a National Health Service, one has to have private insurance to top up this cover by 30 per cent as only 70 per cent is government-funded. This equates to a minimum payment of £58 a month per person.
They moved here full-time in 2018 and have a five-year renewable green card. But there are still some things they miss about the UK, with road tolls and things done with a slower pace.