On the 9th December 2020, at around 5 o’clock in the morning, my wife and I packed a couple of suitcases and our cat into our battered Suzuki Grand Vitara and quit the UK for a new life in France. I’ve long been committed to the dream of a united Europe and, while I don’t think the EU is perfect, I support the idea behind it and the importance of building a Europe that wants the best for all its citizens. I knew I didn’t want to stay in a country that had decided to separate itself from the rest of Europe so, with the Brexit deadline looming, there was no alternative than to sell up in the UK and relocate across the Channel.
It was tough going. The Covid pandemic was raging through Europe and both countries were in lockdown. We arrived in Calais, via the tunnel, at 8 a.m. on the 9th and had to be in our rental house in the Northern Charente region by 6 p.m., given the curfew in place in France. We made it, but it was the drive from hell and our cat complained every inch of the way!
We settled down, initially in the Charente department, and after six months, bought our home here in the Northern Dordogne, the Perigord Vert, a little slice of paradise on Earth. At the time, I was writing for online music magazine, Americana UK, and I suggested maybe the readership would like to read about my life here and about my search for Americana music on this side of La Manche. My editor thought it was a good idea (thank you, Mark) and that started a run that has seen me publish 19 monthly columns to date in the magazine, sharing my thoughts on a range of subjects and trying to find Americana music throughout continental Europe. If you’re interested in reading some of the earlier posts you can do so here, where you can access the archive at AUK.
I’ve been writing for Americana UK for 6 years now, starting out as a music reviewer and slowly taking on various feature assignments and then taking on the editor role for book reviews and building that side of the magazine up, while continuing to contribute to various feature series. I’ve loved every minute of it but, recently, I realised I was a little less in love with it than I had been. The music doesn’t sound quite so exciting and I was struggling to find interesting things to say. So it’s time for a change and I’m stepping back from the magazine and taking a sabbatical. I’m sure I’ll return to writing for them in the future - but right now, I need a break from writing about Americana music. But I don’t want to stop writing about my life here in France, so my View From Across La Manche will continue here on my own blog. My column has always been a mix of lifestyle, politics and music and I plan for that to continue, but I think the music will play a lesser part, at least initially, as I find a slightly different style for this particular animal as an independent creature. I hope some of my regular readers will come with me and, maybe, I can pick up some new readers along the way.
At this time, I’m not sure how frequently I’ll post. I’ll aim to continue as a monthly read but I think that may fluctuate. I won’t kick off in earnest until the new year, as I don’t conclude my time with Americana UK until the end of 2023 and I have two more View From columns to deliver before then, so this may be a slow start but, hopefully, it will find a rhythm of its own in 2024.
À bientôt