Nature & tranquility, all year round, a piece of paradise in the Gorges du Tarn

Andy has Scottish roots and I, Welsh, but we now live in Sainte-Enimie in France, and love living here more each and every day.

The French way of life, it's food, culture and maybe the odd glass of wine :0) all resonate with the two of us and we both feel more at home here than we ever did in the UK. Our lives have changed immeasurably since we moved here, we've been welcomed here by the local community and are in the process of applying for citizenship.

Come and see our little corner of paradise for yourself - we're sure you'll understand why we feel the way we do!

My husband Andy has holidayed in the Gorges du Tarn for around 12 years and, after we married in January 2017, brought me here in June of the same year. I fell in love with Sainte-Enimie immediately and on our second evening here, over a glass of wine, we decided that we should have a ten year plan to live here.

The next night, over another glass of wine, we came up with our wish list; by the river, woodland (Andy is an ecologist and has a masters degree in Agroforestry) and space to grow our own food and be as self sufficient as possible. Our wish list felt like an impossible dream!
The next day we thought we'd take a look at property prices just to help set our expectations - and we saw a listing that ticked all of our boxes - and we could afford it if we sold up in the UK.

To cut a long story short - the day that we viewed Malagratte we put an offer in, called the UK and put our property and our holiday let business property on the market and that was that! We viewed the property on 3rd July and less than 5 months later we were all sold up in the UK and arrived with all our worldly goods and our 2 dogs!

It's hard work living here - the land had been kept tidy but 'unloved' for what we think may be decades. Horses had been kept on the land to keep the grass down and whilst they kept the grass down, they compacted the ground and ate all the vegetation. Since the horses were removed in late 2017 our land has literally bloomed with 8 different types of wild orchids, wood anemones, wild tulips and many other flowers...

We have an artisanal boutique in Sainte Enimie (recognised as one of 'Les Plus Beaux Villages de France) just 3.5km away which has a great choice of bars and restaurants. Andy makes beautiful hand made cutting/charcuterie boards and I make stained glass along with jewellery in silver and fused glass and other glass items .

We've never regretted our move for a second - we are sure that you will love it here too.

Our gîte is a unique position alongside the river - our land runs for around 350 meters along the River Tarn, which you can see from the property and can often hear babbling its way through the gorge. At the height of summer it is always tranquil and in winter the tranquility is even more incredible.

We have recorded numerous sightings of birds/animals including; peregrine falcons, golden eagles, vultures, kingfishers, roe deer, wild boar, beavers, badgers, otters and more...