200 LITRES OF PAINT, AND A LOT OF SANDPAPER...JACK AND JACKIE KENNEDY MOVE TO FRANCE AND OPEN A B&B

We had already made the decision that France was where we wanted to live. That wasn't difficult. But then came the questions - where, exactly? It's a big country, after all. I have two children from a previous marriage - what arrangements would we make for their education? How would we earn a living? Would we be able to cope with the legalities, health issues, and of course, the language barrier?

After spending a holiday roaming the French countryside, my wife Jackie and I returned to England knowing where we did not want to live, but none the wiser about where we did. In September 2001 we visited the French Property News Show in London, looked around and spoke with the Live France Group, explaining that we were looking for a house large enough to run a bed and breakfast (with eight years experience of hotel management, I felt confident about the idea of running a B&B), within easy reach of schools (a must!) and amenities.

We looked at details of a house in the Corbières, and received details of several others over the next few weeks, and at the end of October we spent the weekend in and around Perpignan, viewing properties. We had a good look round and even put in an offer on a house that seemed ideal, but sadly it was not accepted, and we returned home sadder and wiser.

In November we had already booked a holiday in a farmhouse near Le Mans when we got a call from Live France, saying they had found an ideal property for us, in a small village between Carcassonne and Béziers. It sounded great - six large bedrooms, a sizeable kitchen, spacious lounge, a spiral staircase leading to the first floor and up to the attic, and a very large cellar - so we drove the 500 miles from where we were staying to take a look. The house was everything we hoped it would be, and the village was very pretty and quiet, surrounded by vines, with the Montagne Noir to the north and the Pyrenees visible to the south. With the Canal du Midi nearby, and the buzz of Narbonne only a 20 minute drive away, the house seemed ideally located, so we bit the bullet and made an offer, which was accepted the next day - hurrah! We continued our holiday feeling elated, and started planning our move.

With the help of the Live France team, we appointed a notaire, paid a deposit and started looking forward to the completion date. In the meantime, we gave notice on our rented home in the UK, handed in our notice and booked a removal van for the end of January 2002. We sailed from Dover to Calais with my daughters Jessica aged 8 and Prudence aged 12 and drove down to the Live France offices in Fitou, where we checked that everything was in order ready for the signing the following day.

For those who have never bought property in France, it is quite a strange experience, like a cross between a registry office wedding and the reading of a will. A representative from the Live France Group was in attendance to help and guide us as necessary, and with the couple who were selling, ourselves, our daughters plus the estate agent and of course the notaire, there was quite a gathering! After half an hour of "do you take this house to be your own?", "who gives this house away?", "sign here, sign there", we finally got to the "I pronounce you family and house" part. There was no reception. We were given a bunch of keys and it was hand shakes all round, then off to the village of Pouzols to see the house we had just bought, having only seen it for 20 minutes some three months previously. As we turned off the main road we found our removal van waiting for us, and we opened up and got started. Jackie and the girls went off to find a local shop to buy some food, and the afternoon was spent lifting and shifting; by 8 o'clock the removal men had finished and we were left to ourselves.

It was midnight by the time I had got all the beds ready, and we collapsed into a deep sleep - we hadn't even had time to think about the fact that we now lived in a village in Aude. After a good night's sleep we awoke to take stock of our new environment.

Finding schools for Prudence and Jessica was a priority. The local village school was able to take Jess, and Céline from the Live France office kindly made an appointment on our behalf with the headmistress. With some basic French and a little sign language, we agreed with Madame La Directrice that Jessica should start the following morning. She was assigned a very nice teacher who could speak English but who made it very clear that she would only speak English to Jessica at the beginning if she was struggling, and that it was up to Jess to learn French. As I sit and write this eight months later, I think how brave my daughter was; she is now 80% fluent, reads and writes in French, thinks in French and (in my opinion) even looks French.

Twelve year-old Prudence goes to the Victor Hugo College in Narbonne, thanks again to Céline from Live France who made the necessary phone calls. It's a rather large and daunting place, with 800 pupils - very unlike her former village school that only had 35 children. After filling in several forms it was confirmed that Pru could start the next day, and driving her there the next morning, I think I was more scared than she was. We were met by Frank, a pleasant young man who is a counsellor at the school and who guided Pru through her first day; I left her wondering how I would have coped in her position, and whether we had done the right thing. Looking back over the last few months, my biggest worry was about my daughters and whether they would cope, but I had no cause for concern. Prudence has settled in very well, making new friends and taking part in school concerts, and both girls have had no problems whatsoever with what seems to be a very good and understanding education system.

So back to the house; we have taken a long look at all the things we need to do - and there's plenty! We have six bedrooms and a box room, and all the rooms are much bigger than average. Our plan is to install en-suite bathrooms for all the bedrooms, and we've found a local British builder to do the work for us, while we're doing the decorating throughout ourselves. We've stripped twenty pine doors (no mean feat!) and laid a patio in the front of the house, and the next step is to convert the attic into a large bedroom and bathroom for the girls.

It's been eight months now, and we've got my daughters in school, while La Maison des Rossignols as it's now called has been completely rewired, and now boasts six bedrooms and seven bathrooms. We've used 200 litres of paint, persuaded EDF to upgrade us from 6 Kw to 30 Kw, registered our bed and breakfast business and created four en-suite bedrooms ready for visitors, with a fifth on the way - so all in all, la vie est belle and we have a certain sense of achievement!

To finish, I ought to mention some of the things that have kept us going; the wine, the food, the fruit, the cheeses, the wine (again), our lovely new neighbours and friends in the beautiful village of Pouzols, and those nice folk at the Live France Group.