Was Moving to France a Delusional Leap?

From scraping by in Scotland to owning a creative residency in France

Apr 05, 2026

How did we change from thinking that being able to afford a fried egg sandwich in a café on the East Coast of Scotland was ‘Living the Dream’ … to realising that living in a mansion in the South of France was ‘Living the Dream’?

The grass is actually greener over here!

We’d managed to find a gorgeous wee cottage to rent in the countryside, about a half-hour drive from Edinburgh, and had welcomed a couple of Labradors into our family. We were happily adjusting to the rural life, but, to be brutally honest, every month was a huge financial challenge.

I was working from home as an artist, web designer and administrator for an arts society. All of my clients were self-employed artists, which meant that they paid on time (most of them being in the same boat, they understood how crucial it was for cash flow to be predictable). My husband, Colin, on the other hand, was working for corporate clients, and he was constantly having to chase to get an invoice paid. It seemed to be a game to these businessmen to delay payment for as long as possible.

‘You’re on a what? A ski holiday?’ I heard Colin ask on the phone one day to the (self-titled) CEO. ‘A ski holiday? A ski holiday?! I can’t even afford a f***ing ski yoghurt!’

A change was needed.

When his friend invited him to join him and another guy in a tech start-up… let’s call it Lemonade…it was a no-brainer. Not only would he get a decent wage for being their digital designer, but he’d also get shares in the company. It was certainly worth a gambol (when life gives you lemons, right?).

But weeks of early starts, to drive in the dark during rush hour, sit all day in a depressing office staring at a screen, and then drive home again, in the dark, in rush hour… it all started to take its toll on his health.

My life was fine. But it was just that…fine. I’d work at the computer, walk the dogs, and repeat. I wasn’t really excited about anything. I wasn’t BUILDING something. I was in my 40s and didn’t have any kids (well, not that I knew of!). Having a family was definitely off the cards now. I’d never been bothered about having children, but somehow, knowing that it definitely wasn’t going to happen, did make a difference to how I felt about my future.

‘Is this it then? Is this what the rest of our life looks like? Same old, same old? Forever?’

We yearned for a new challenge. Something that was ours, that we could really get our teeth into and build from the ground up, and something that would set us up for the rest of our lives.

We had no investments, no pensions, no safeguard for the future. We agreed that firstly we needed to try to purchase a property. Not just because buildings and interiors are my absolute passion, nor just because I longed to have stability in my home having moved countless times over, but also because, from a sensible and mature point of view, paying into a mortgage would be the start of our pension pot.

What if we could purchase a home that could also be our new business? My mother had always made additional cash by renting out rooms in our house, so I’d learned this trick from her. What if our house could also provide us with our income and pay its own mortgage and bills?

‘Let’s open an artist residency?’ I suggested.

I’m a professional artist and have done four residencies myself, so I understand how these work and the value of having the supportive space and uninterrupted time to develop new work. Colin and I have so much to offer in terms of creative skills (Colin being a designer, photographer, and musician himself), and we love to meet, chat, and laugh with like-minded people. It was a brilliant idea, and we felt excited and motivated.

Ok, we had the What, now the How.

How on earth could we achieve this goal with no savings (in fact, a fair few debts!)? Even if we did manage to save a deposit, any property we could afford in central Scotland would be teeny! A studio flat at best. Certainly nothing that would work as a residency space.

‘We’ll just have to wait and hope that Lemonade sells soon. It’s the only way.’ I resigned myself mournfully.

That business was already four years old and doing amazingly well. It had grown from just the three of them to a staff of twelve, and, the way it was going, Colin could well be looking at a six-figure payout!

‘You could get hit by a bus tomorrow!’ Colin replied frustratedly. ‘We can’t just wait. It could be years before I get any money. No, we need to work this out NOW!’

‘How do you feel about France? Have you seen the price of the properties there? It’s about a third of the price of the UK, AND I’ve heard that you can get a 100% mortgage! Maybe we could both continue doing the jobs we are doing remotely while we get going, and if it doesn’t work out, we can just come back and rent again in Scotland. We’ll be in exactly the same boat, but at least we’ll have tried! What have we got to lose?’

‘We don’t speak French.’

‘We can learn!’

He was right. I just needed his boot up my arse to jump on it and see how far we could get.

We got to house hunting and dreaming, thinking and planning.

Today, I’m writing this story from an incredibly beautiful 1830s Maison de maître in the South of France, with eight bedrooms and over an acre of land. We’ve hosted over two hundred residents now, met some fabulous people, had many adventures, and not missed a mortgage payment yet.

Lemonade was indeed integral to the success of this story, but not as you’d imagine.

I thought we needed that financial boost to move to France. We didn’t.

I thought we needed that financial boost to buy the property. We didn’t.

I thought we needed that financial boost to start the business. We didn’t.

Despite Lemonade having grown exponentially over its 13-year existence, and having finally just sold, we’re still not clear how much we’ll be getting. What is clear now though is that it won’t be anywhere near six figures and certainly won’t be a life-changing amount.

Yet, we’re still extremely grateful for the part they had to play in this journey of ours. They gave Colin a good wage initially that helped us secure a mortgage in France. They also were the carrot dangling in front of our noses to give us the courage to make this move and buy this enormous house.

What we learned though was that we hadn’t needed that money after all! We got here by taking the risk, envisioning the end goal, working hard and smart, and quite simply making the move towards our dream.

Maybe you can see some similarities in my story to your own? Maybe you too need to make a change to improve your situation. Maybe you’re also waiting for one thing to happen before you can make a move towards that goal? Maybe you are stuck… waiting?

What would happen if you did go today though? Can you at least start to move in that direction?

From my experience, even making the decision to make the change, doing the research, making the plans, simply dreaming the dreams about how the new life’s going to look, can make all the difference to how you feel today. Get excited.

You could get hit by a bus tomorrow!

I realise there’s a few things I’ve mentioned here that I could come back to in future posts. I’ll tell you more about our experience of applying for a 100% mortgage (we never got one by the way), how we did get a deposit together and a mortgage secured, and about learning French and some of the hilarious misunderstandings that came about through our lack of language. Like the time I thought I told the gardener that I was hoovering, but it turned out I told him I was shaving!

Maybe you know of someone else in a similar boat to me? Please do let them know I exist.

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Julia Douglas

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