Pitfalls and pleasures in France

Michele Guiness and her husband had always dreamt they would one day live in France and when a series of extraordinary miracles occurred right before the last sabbatical of their pastoral ministry they were able to buy a new house in the Limousin region.

Securing the house was just start of what turned out to be a very challenging but ultimately rewarding spiritual journey for Michele that brought her to new realisations not only about her only faith but also the state of the church in France and the responsibility that Christians here in the UK have towards it.

The French may be the UK's nearest neighbours but the language and culture are still different enough to make a move there a bit of a bumpy ride. For Michele, the shift to rural life along with local feuding and wrangling, the threat of an expensive legal case, the responsibilities of owning land and the moral dilemmas of how to deal with unwanted visits from some of the local wildlife added to the stress of moving to a new country.

Michele speaks candidly and with humour of those difficult three months in Autumn Leave, charting all the pitfalls and pleasures of life in France and a “who-done-what” mystery as she meets a host of extraordinary characters and tries to piece together the truth behind some of the hamlet’s tortuous relationships.

"I had just given up a fairly high-powered, full-time career," she says, "and was catapulted into three months alone with my self and my marriage, facing imminent retirement, the end of our official ministry, loss of status and the blessings of the ageing process.

"Where had my life gone? How abundant was it? How much of it was left and what could I do with it now? Could we really cope with the French with their funny ways, and a tiny, beleaguered church - the only one for miles around - where worship was accompanied by a single recorder or an out-of-tune guitar?

"If anyone ever thought that a calling to France was all sunshine, croissants, fantastic cheeses and good wine, it is. But it’s a great deal more besides."

France makes for a great holiday destination but how many of us can say we care about the church there? That's the question on Michele Guiness' heart.

"We go on holiday there, enjoy all the benefits of that wonderful country, but rarely bother even to pray for or support the tiny French church that has so few resources. It could well be time to give back a little of what we have taken," she says.

The Jewish sages say that we will be judged for all the best gifts of God we failed to enjoy. Michele’s diary reflects her journey of self discovery as her life in France started to shine a light on just how much British asceticism and workaholism had robbed her of those simple gifts.

"We Brits have tried to assault the French with the best of our culture - fast, processed food, the working lunch, complacent, silent democracy, the no-such-thing-as-society - but so far, they’re resistant to it all! In fact, I’d been preaching Sabbath for years - but never really lived it. Not like the French. They know how to do leisure. We learnt so much from them."



Autumn Leave is out from Authentic Media priced £8.99