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The good life The Auvergne Terry Marsh talks to a couple who've downsized their life in the UK and moved to France to run an Auberge
During the years of my doctoral research, rather than do combat with the university students for whom parking a car was looked on as a martial art involving an exquisite lack of spatial awareness, I opted for the less hazardous parking available through the good offices of the manager, Tim Bell, at the adjacent hotel. The Lancaster House Hotel is a 99-room, 4-star establishment, complete with its own restaurant and a bar menu that serves arguably the best fish and chips in Lancashire. Tim was manager here for more than a decade. Be that as it may, when, a while ago, I rang to speak to Tim, I was told he had gone to France. He’d moved lock, stock and barrel to the nether regions of the Auvergne and the Puy-de-Dôme; to a small and typically rural French village (Auzelles), on the rim of the Livradois Forez National Park, an area of pristine afforested countryside and with the wildlife to match. There, he and his partner Ingrid, had bought a 5-roomed auberge wherein they sought a revitalising richness in their life experience. Now that’s what I call downsizing...with a vengeance. Their destination, the Auberge de Chabanettes, has a long and colourful history, a familiar landmark in this part of rural France for over 150 years. In bygone years, it served as a butchers shop, an abattoir and a petrol station, but never lost the inherent purpose of all inns, to provide good food and lodging for travellers who pass through the region, as well as warm and welcoming place of refreshment for the local community. After a devastating fire in the 1980s, the Auberge was sadly left in ruin for many years until it was completely re-built and renovated in 2004.
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Our Contributors Karen Booth-Burns
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