THE DEUX-SÈVRES MONTHLY
French Adventures... Thanks to Stuart Cook, Co-‐owner of Camping le Moulin & Restaurant des Canards, Chef Boutonne for his “French Adventure”. Some 8 years ago, the family in all their wisdom (that's Vera and Geoff, my mother and father-‐in-‐law, my dear wife Sara and I, the quiz master Stuart) decided on a whim (instigated by myself -‐ oh dear!) that after having numerous holiday's in France, we should make the move here. A change to our lifestyle and vocations past, to ily Stuart with his fam start a new adventure and buy our first business in the tourism sector. A campsite and restaurant by the name of Camping le Moulin & Restaurant des Canards. We found a beautiful little campsite just outside the centre of the small market town of Chef Boutonne, home of the famous and beautiful Chateau Javarzay just 700 metres from the entrance to the campsite. After flying back and forth to complete the never-‐ending paperwork and spending many hours on Google translate and equivalent, we eventually signed our lives away, set for our new way of life and looking forward to the exciting challenge ahead. We soon realised that if we had had the French language down to a tee before moving, this would have made our lives much easier during the early stage of signing for the business. Our lack of knowledge in understanding exactly what we were signing left us with many problems that had to be overcome with the day-‐to-‐day running and even the legal titles -‐ which unfortunately were not complete. We therefore decided to get everything fully legal and running smoothly as soon as we possibly could -‐ thus affecting our immediate business plan for development and improvement. The move from the UK to France was very smooth on the UK side! However, no form of planning could have solved the minor problem of cramming 2 houses into one old small storage room at the back of the mill. After stacking to the rooftop, we needed an immediate emergency contingency plan, so we decided to store for a few weeks the remaining items in the restaurant. Wearing our baseball caps to deflect the beautiful sunshine, we proceeded however, we hadn't taken into account that the average French local, back in the day, was approximately 4’0” in height! I came too on the floor of the restaurant after bashing my head on the beautiful oak beam as the delivery lorry entered the parking area. From then I formulated the first plan of action, to raise the door so that anyone, whatever shape or build, could enter without peril. This would also help with handicap access in one design. Due to our backgrounds, varied as they were (Sara was a manager for a large insurance company and studied for a degree in Insurance + Psychology, myself, ex-‐forces in electronics and an ex-‐engineer in electrical installations, Vera involved in property management and Geoff a shop-‐fitting consultant for Marks and Spencer), we assumed we could cover all the bases -‐ but, “Oh how wrong we were!” We have found all the physical works on site and bookkeeping etc to be relatively easy, but to learn the French for some of the building products has been quite interesting (We have made a few mistakes...but don’t we all?). We wish to this day that we had contacted one of the TV companies to run a program around the family for the first year as I am convinced from an outsider’s point of view, it would have made a great TV Series with very high ratings! It was in contrast, a year in the ‘merde’.
The family has undergone many projects involving the external and internal modernisation of our former flour-‐mill. Even to the point of restoring the mill machinery to its former glory -‐ a satisfying project and in keeping with the 350 year old building. The beautiful River Boutonne runs through our campsite and is diverted underneath what is now a lounge area. The restoration works have also rolled out from the restaurant, modernizing the bar and the eating area that sweeps onto the terrace beside the pool. Many great evenings have been spent with our clients around the pool whilst listening to our French/Anglais Jazz band. We have had live Jazz here in the restaurant for over 6 years. The band members change frequently and our guests love the atmosphere and food created within our mill walls. The demand by expats and our French friends alike are still as high as they were the day we started, both in the high and the low season. We have even hosted a special evening here with our resident French Chef a n d fa m i l y ' s h o m e cooking, laying on a feast enjoyed by the locals with a 22-‐piece brass band on tour from the UK, playing around the floodlit poolside and dancing the night away; Great memories for us all. 22 piece
brass band playing by the pool Due to the demand of our clients, we even run the Restaurant 3 Canards quiz. This also seems to be growing year on year with a combination of great simple food and your slightly dyslexic host (especially after a few beers!). It seems to be a winning formula! Please come along if you love to have lots of fun and laughs followed by a late night swim in the pool for the kids that are brave enough!
Our bizarre move to France to own and run a campsite and restaurant has at times, been extremely demanding with all the things you associate with living and working with a young family. Learning new skills and applying them, utilising your old skill-‐set and developing new ones, and not forgetting overcoming the language barrier; I wish I had studied latin at school! Even though it may be a very long time until anyone can really understand our version! We can say that we have enjoyed meeting people from around the world since arriving -‐ and we are amazed at the people that are still camping and more importantly still enjoying every experience. We have learnt so much from all the members of the Caravan Club and the Camping and Caravanning Club and not forgetting the Fédération Français de Camping et de Caravaning members. Our son, now 8 years old, has fitted into the local school well and has become engrossed in various sports, which in turn has developed our relationships with the local community, which we really enjoy. Camping le Moulin & Restaurant des Canards: Phone: 05 49 29 73 46 ~ Email: info@campingchef.com www.campingchef.com & www.restaurant.campingchef.com (Please see our advert on page 22) Thank you to Stuart Cook for sharing his family story with us.....If you would like to share your ‘French Adventure’, please email your story to us for consideration.
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