Setting up a holiday business in France
My wife Linda Jane was a teacher at a special needs school, and I was head of technical operations for Chelsea Digital Media (the Internet and TV arm of Chelsea Football Club), whilst my 30-year-old daughter Abbi worked as a software developer. I was away in London for five days a week living out of a suitcase, (unless Chelsea were playing at home and then the weekend was reduced to one day!). Abbi also had a commute from Derby to Nottingham every day. My pension was also suffering, and the endowment was showing a big shortfall, so we decided to pack up, release the equity in the house and start a new life and business in France.
We set up a business, offering holiday accommodation during the peak school holiday periods. For the rest of the year, we offer various courses and breaks, such as video and photographic holidays for keen amateurs, who want to further their hobby whilst having a relaxing break in the south of France. Lord Attenborough, who I worked with on a number of video projects at Chelsea FC, has endorsed the courses, which are designed to remove the mystique of using a digital camera as well as more traditional film cameras. There are also guitar and art courses, as well as ‘themed’ breaks such as Hen parties and pamper weekends, which are ideal in an area renowned throughout France for its thermal spas.
Six months before the move, Abbi had taken the decision to sell her house in Derby and rent closer to work. When we told her about our proposed venture, she saw it as the ideal opportunity to invest the equity from her house in a new property and the business. So in 2006, we pooled our resources and bought a Landais farmhouse with 2.5 acres of land in the village of Pouillon in the South West of France (close to Biarritz) at a cost of €395,000.
Our first year over here hasn’t been without its ups and downs, in particular I’ve struggled to get to grips with the language. Abbi missed her friends, going to the pub and more than anything the ability to speak to people and be understood. But now she has a great social life, and we all have a good mixture of English and French friends. Thanks to the Internet, we are able to keep in regular contact with people back in the UK. The property also required a lot of renovation work, which we did ourselves (and Linda Jane project managed), and we were only really able to kick off things properly once this was completed. With most of the hard work now done, the business is going from strength to strength, and Abbi, who’s main duties have included looking after guests, and helping me market the holiday accommodation, has also launched a hand-made jewellery business (Zéste), which has started to reap rewards. Our business has proved so successful that in its first summer (this year) the Gite was fully booked and we are now looking to add new activity holidays for the closed season to appeal to a broader range of clientele.
There is so much to consider when taking on a project such as this and there was a lot of Bureaucracy involved in the initial purchase, renovation and getting permission for things such as building the pool building and extending drainage systems. But the only real problem was trying to forecast realistic budgets, given that prices differ greatly from those in the UK. However, we found the French people and authorities in the area to be extremely welcoming and happy to help.
We had to make a sequence of lump sum payments when starting out on this venture, and after having initially used as few companies to transfer small amounts of money, a friend recommended Currencies Direct and we used them to transfer the main bulk of the money across to France. They offered us the best rates, and using them rather than the bank saved us about €20,000, providing enough cash to build a swimming pool. It was also refreshing to deal with them – they were friendly and very helpful and offered excellent rates of exchange compared to the banks.
For anyone looking to do the same, it is vital that the area is right for your requirements; you have enough money to see the project through, and have a basic grasp of the language before you start! From our personal points of view however, it has been a decision well made.
For more information on holidays available from the Utal’s visit www.photo-vacances.com, and for more information on currency exchange go to www.currenciesdirect.com, or call the Currencies Direct team on +44 (0)20 7847 9291. You can also email them at london@currenciesdirect.com.