From years of caravan travels to settling in Pas-de-Calais

Beryl Taylor, 76, a retired office administrator and adult education teacher from London, bought a holiday home in Auchy-lès-Hesdin, in the Pas-de-Calais department of northern France, with her husband in 1989. 

“We had always loved France and spent many years holidaying all over the country in our caravan with our three daughters,” she tells The Connexion. 

“In particular, we always loved northern France and the proximity of the Channel made it easy to come and go to visit family in the UK.”

The couple retired to the area in 2009. Their eldest daughter had bought the holiday home to live in with her husband and two small children, so Beryl and her husband bought another house in the area, where she has lived for 17 years. Beryl was first attracted to the area because of its landscape. 

“The red pan tiles on the houses, the green fields, the gentleness of the villages and the rivers meandering through them,” she says. 

“The south of France is fabulous – but coming home to the north is arriving back with a happy sigh.” 

Living in a farming community, the family soaked up local knowledge. “Over the years we realised we had been taught about the farming seasons without even realising we were learning.”

But alongside her rural idyll, Beryl has also faced a number of challenges, from living through Covid and the “stupidity of Brexit” to losing her husband in 2022. 

“But most recently [the challenge] has been having my daughter and her daughter both diagnosed with different cancers.” She credits the French health system, saying it has been “brilliant” for the family. “It is justifiably probably the best health system in the world.” 

Socialising has taken a back seat for Beryl as she supports her daughter and granddaughter through their treatment, travelling to Paris, Lille and Amiens regularly. 

“My daughter and I belong to the Franco/Anglais group but meeting up is almost impossible because of the constant medical appointments.

“We visit the coast, enjoy the markets, but just take one day at a time. My focus is just concentrated on my daughter and her daughter. They are both doing okay and we recently learned that my daughter is in remission. 

“My granddaughter has a bit further to go but has had her last bout of chemo.” 

The youngest members of the family have not always found rural life to be quite as idyllic as Beryl has. “My youngest daughter is a widow with twins, a boy and a girl now aged 15. They came to live with us in December 2021, not long before my husband’s death.”

“Living in a small village can be difficult when there are children involved – especially teenagers!” 

She has found France to be more child- and family-friendly than the UK.

“I think French people are more tolerant of children and young people – weddings, parties and occasions are spent together en famille. In the UK, I remember very often children weren’t invited to events.” 

Has Beryl ever considered moving back to the UK? 

“We have never been tempted to move back; our reasons are mainly political. We have much-loved family members and friends with whom we keep close contact. All of them have been of great support even though in most cases from a distance.”

What advice does she have for anyone considering a move to France?

“Be sure you really want to be here,” she says. “Not just because you had great holidays. Spend time here in all seasons; it can be freezing here in the north during winter. Where we live it is often blowing a hooley!”