'I moved to France and wrote my first book'

 American Judy Kashoff settled in France with her husband Dave after an adventure of a lifetime – five years spent travelling the world, mostly by bicycle. 

The couple, she an accountant and he a dentist, were living in Pennsylvania when they decided to travel full time. 

“We were taking most of our vacations in France – the Alps for skiing and one bicycle trip of two to three weeks each year,” says Judy. 

“We thought when we retired we would like to travel that way for a year. Dave, at 53, was too young to retire, so we thought maybe in five years. 

"But I did a calculation and it didn't look like we would be able to afford it then, either. So maybe 10 years. But that sounded risky: we might be too old, too infirm! 

“So the decision between five, 10, or never was to chuck it all and do it now. We took what we expected would be a year off. In the end, it was five years,” she says. 

They set off in April 2008, and as part of their travels, volunteered at the Quaker Center in Congénies (Gard), near Nîmes. 

“Five months there and we were on the road again, but we did not forget Congénies and the people there did not forget us,” says Judy. The couple returned to France in 2013 and never left. 

From bike tour to book

Living in France helped inspire Judy to document the couple’s incredible journey in the book Five, Ten, or Never, the title referring to that initial retirement decision. 

“Once we were in one place, I started to work on the book, first in Congénies and then in Calvisson (Gard), where we live now.”

The couple documented their adventures across three books, filled with stories from the road and photographs taken by Dave. France provided Judy with the creative atmosphere, as well as the time needed, to write. 

“We continued to cycle locally and ride through vineyards and the garrigue, surrounded by the beauty of rural France. It was definitely inspiring!” says Judy. 

“The fact is, once we were in one place I had time to put on paper not only what I was seeing from my bike seat now, but also everything else we had seen in other places in the world.” 

Sharing advice

For some people who move to France, writing is a way of helping other newcomers going through a similar experience.

This was the case for Jill Fitzgerald-O’Connor, 81, whose book, A House in Brittany, recounts her move to the region and includes tips for others to help them integrate. 

She moved to central Brittany in 2002, attracted by the lower cost of living, and was able to buy her house outright.

Her new region was an important spark for her creativity, and somewhere, she discovered, that placed great importance on the arts in general. 

“It certainly has a rich culture of storytelling, Breton being primarily an oral language,” she says.

“Living in Brittany has given me the time to be creative, and the creative arts seem to be more valued here.”

Holiday inspiration

Other writers may not live full-time in France, but have been inspired to write by their frequent travels to the country. 

Jane Dunning, from Poole, Dorset, the author of several novels set in France, first visited the country in 1978, and has been coming back every year since 1990.

“My resolution was to visit France every year until I die. I’ve kept to it except for 2020 and have now stayed in over 140 places – some for weeks, or months, some just overnight,” she says. 

She long held dreams of writing a book, but it was not until a four-month house-sit on a vineyard near Saint-Tropez (Var) that she was inspired to put pen to paper and write Thirty-five Minutes from St Tropez.

The novel opens with a couple, Richard and Helen, who live on a vineyard in Provence, preparing to celebrate their ruby wedding anniversary. The story branches out to include their grandchildren, siblings and wider family, who are spread out across the south of France. 

Her extended stay in France resulted in a novel that takes readers into several locations in the area. 

“I set the story there, but characters also live in Juan-les-Pins, Monaco and Aix-en-Provence and their travels take them to other places in France and Italy that I know fairly well,” she says. 

She went on to write the sequels Stolen Summer and Sunshine and Shadows at the Vineyard, also set on the French Riviera.