{"id":38340,"date":"2025-11-11T13:21:37","date_gmt":"2025-11-11T13:21:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/i-left-the-us-to-buy-a-farmhouse-in-france-on-my-own-the-past-5-years-have-been-a-mix-of-unexpected-problems-and-joys\/"},"modified":"2025-11-11T13:21:37","modified_gmt":"2025-11-11T13:21:37","slug":"i-left-the-us-to-buy-a-farmhouse-in-france-on-my-own-the-past-5-years-have-been-a-mix-of-unexpected-problems-and-joys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/usa\/i-left-the-us-to-buy-a-farmhouse-in-france-on-my-own-the-past-5-years-have-been-a-mix-of-unexpected-problems-and-joys\/","title":{"rendered":"I left the US to buy a farmhouse in France on my own. The past 5 years have been a mix of unexpected problems and joys."},"content":{"rendered":"<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/6900b8820be9845f2dc53722?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Author Jenny Becker smiling in her kitchen\"\/><figcaption>I bought a 17th-century farmhouse in France after becoming a divorced empty nester \u2014 it was falling apart and so was I. <\/p>\n<p>Jenny Becker<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li>After becoming an empty nester, I left my life behind in the US to buy a farmhouse in rural France. <\/li>\n<li>I&#039;ve run into many issues, from finding a cow in my pool to paying for expensive home repairs.<\/li>\n<li>However, I love the life I&#039;m creating here and have made wonderful local connections in France.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I knew my new life in rural France had officially gone off the rails when I found a 2-ton cow in my swimming pool one morning.<\/p>\n<p>I heard a &quot;whoosh,&quot; then saw her: an enormous brown and white shape gliding through the pool. Somewhere between panic and denial, I called my neighbor, who asked me, &quot;What did you have to drink last night?&quot;<\/p>\n<p>Before he could even show up, she (the cow) had successfully climbed her way out and was now standing on the deck like I was supposed to bring her a towel and suntan lotion.<\/p>\n<p>By noon, thankfully, the cow was safe, the pool was not, and my French dream had officially met reality. I then sat down in my kitchen and tried to decide whether to cry or laugh.<\/p>\n<p>Five years earlier, I&#039;d been a business owner in Seattle, in my mid-50s, restless and an empty nester. Before, there had been me, a husband, a daughter, and a cat.<\/p>\n<p>Now it was just me and an old farmhouse in rural France, miles from Seattle, and even farther from who I used to be.<\/p>\n<h2>For me, moving to France and buying a charming farmhouse felt like a new beginning<\/h2>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/6900b8650be9845f2dc5371d?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Stone house with view of rolling hills\"\/><figcaption>Before buying a home in France, I&#039;d visited the country several times over the years.<\/p>\n<p>Jenny Becker<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>My family had a small holiday home in the Dordogne, France, decades ago, and I had always dreamed of returning to the country. I hadn&#039;t planned on a solo adventure, but c&#039;est la vie. I had friends in the area and knew how to tackle the French petrol pumps.<\/p>\n<p>When I was ready to go, I sold my house and car, packed a shipping container with &quot;Dordogne&quot; stamped on it, and prepared myself for an adventure.<\/p>\n<p>Leaving the US wasn&#039;t impulsive; it was an escape plan disguised as reinvention. As soon as I got to familiar ground, I started scouring the countryside for a place to call home.<\/p>\n<p>I stumbled across a listing for a centuries-old house, and the photos looked like a storybook: sunlight spilling across stone walls, roses climbing the shutters, and a goat lounging in the garden like it came with the place.<\/p>\n<p>When the agent told me he didn&#039;t have the key and couldn&#039;t take me inside, I said, &quot;I&#039;ll take it anyway.&quot;<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/6900b8a80be9845f2dc5372c?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Stone door with plants nearb y\"\/><figcaption>I bought the house without getting a tour of the inside. <\/p>\n<p>Jenny Becker<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>I knew that I could always change the interior, and I was happy with the exterior. Plus, I was ready to trade high-speed internet and same-day delivery for ancient stone walls, slow days, and the kind of silence that hums.<\/p>\n<p>However, I didn&#039;t factor in that French bureaucracy is basically an endurance Olympic sport \u2014 one where the medals are paperwork and everyone smokes during the race.<\/p>\n<p>And the inside of the house turned out to be less &quot;storybook&quot; and more &quot;mystery&quot; riddled with issues.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Not long after I moved in, my dream was put to the test<\/strong><\/h2>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/68f799cecc993f9955d090da?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Cow climbing out of swimming pool\"\/><figcaption>The aforementioned cow who ended up in my pool. <\/p>\n<p>Jenny Becker<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>My Seattle home was all right angles, glass, and espresso machines \u2014 this farmhouse sings with history, woodsmoke, and the occasional weasel in the attic.<\/p>\n<p>My electricity flickers every time the fridge hums, and the septic system is older than Napoleon. One spring, a rainstorm sent water gushing out of the bathtub drain like it had ambitions to be a fountain.<\/p>\n<p>The house leans slightly to the left, like it&#039;s had one too many glasses of Bordeaux. Its windows don&#039;t quite close properly, the walls breathe and shed, and the floorboards complain in six different tones.<\/p>\n<p>The upkeep is relentless and strangely intimate. This old house has been through wars and storms, just like me. It tests my patience, my budget, and occasionally, my balance on a ladder.<\/p>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/6900b8960be9845f2dc53727?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Stone arch in kitchen with oven inside\"\/><figcaption>My home has a lot of quirks. <\/p>\n<p>Jenny Becker<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>It was hand-built by monks in 1647, so each repair feels like an archaeological dig \u2014 one week I&#039;m chasing electrical wires that vanish into 400-year-old stone, the next I&#039;m discovering a medieval drainpipe that no one remembers installing.<\/p>\n<p>For better or worse, my house became my teacher. I learned to split logs for the wood stove without swearing (much), and to accept that &quot;tomorrow&quot; from a repairman in rural France can easily mean &quot;next month.&quot;<\/p>\n<p>I&#039;d love to say that moving to France saved me money. In some ways, it did. It&#039;s harder to order packages when delivery drivers can never seem to find my address.<\/p>\n<p>Heading into town is also more of a whole to-do. The nearest caf\u00e9 is a 25-minute drive through cow, chicken, and tractor traffic \u2014 that is, when there aren&#039;t any French strikes in the area where you have to dodge the occasional pile of manure that&#039;s been scattered in the road to make a point.<\/p>\n<p>However, every euro I didn&#039;t spend in Seattle, I&#039;ve since invested in patience, repairs, and mild emotional turbulence. I exchanged the expense of Seattle for the unpredictability of France and discovered that peace costs exactly as much as you&#039;re willing to risk.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Despite the drawbacks, it&#039;s hard to imagine living anywhere else<\/strong><\/h2>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i.insider.com\/6900b82b599d46a4ccc0f733?format=jpeg\" alt=\"Pool with stone house, roses, bushes next to it\"\/><figcaption>I&#039;ve had a wonderful time living in France. <\/p>\n<p>Jenny Becker<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Still, I wouldn&#039;t trade this life for anything. My courtyard glows at sunset, the frogs start their nightly arguments, and the sky fills with stars so bright they light up the entire countryside.<\/p>\n<p>On most mornings, I hear church bells echo across the valley, followed by the low, determined moo of the herd next door as the village baker honks when he drives by with a wave of a freshly baked baguette.<\/p>\n<p>Somewhere between the broken everything, the endless paperwork, and the occasional cow incident, I found what I came for.<\/p>\n<p>Life in rural France is quieter, yes, and fuller too. I sell French antiques on Etsy, run an Airbnb, and write from my kitchen table with a pain au chocolat in hand and Fleur (my dog) at my side \u2014 with a view of the French countryside that looks like it&#039;s from a dream.<\/p>\n<p>If I&#039;m lucky, my neighbors bring along walnuts from their harvest as I bring the sarcasm and ros\u00e9.<\/p>\n<p>I didn&#039;t move to France to find perfection; I moved to find peace.<\/p>\n<p>The house may be older than America, but somehow, it helped me rebuild a new version of myself \u2014 one that doesn&#039;t need everything to make sense to be worth it.<\/p>\n<p>Read the original article on Business Insider<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>I bought a 17th-century farmhouse in France after becoming a divorced empty nester \u2014 it was falling apart and so was I. Jenny Becker After becoming an empty nester, I left my life behind in the US to buy a farmhouse in rural France. I&#039;ve run into many issues, from finding a cow in my [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":38341,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-38340","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-usa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38340","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38340"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38340\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/38341"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38340"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38340"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/agooka.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38340"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}