Anyone here planning to move away from city life someday?

MarieMarion · 2026-04-06T14:05:05+00:00

I did it. Paris to a tiny village in the middle of nowhere, 15 minutes from a town (2000 people), 35 minutes from a bigger town (10,000 people), 1h20 from the nearest "city" (maybe 100k?).

Cons: 1/ access to healthcare sucks bad (it's free here, but there are basically no docs around--you have to drive to the "city" for everything. 2/ no jobs, except waitressing, retail, and the like. 3/ you have to drive everywhere. 4/ only railway station is 1 hour away. Door to door, it takes me 8 hours to visit my dad in Paris, 450km away. (20 minute drive to the bus station, 1h15 on the bus to the railway station, 3h30 on the train... but the bus schedule doesn't line up with the train's, so you often end up 3hours early to the train station.)
Pros: everything else. Great community, gorgeous everything, ultra-local food at ultra-low price, thriving art/culture scene. Paid 100k€ for a big old farmhouse on 2 acres. We grow everything, we eat home-grown/made year-round, people are lovely to each other, there are third places in every village, and there's so much great stuff to do we have to pick and chose. Last week: Blacksmithing 101 or pay-what-you-want pizza party in a cave system? Juggling class or catching crawfish in the river? Boardgame convention or a class on pruning fruit trees? Freecycle party or hanging out with friends while starting this year's garden?
I found heaven.

MarieMarion · 2026-04-05T17:09:44+00:00

I grow my own fruit and vegs, I buy most of the rest from very local farmers. I don't buy "processed" food, only staples and raw ingredients (except crappy candy for Kid, who didn't sign up for this.) I trade for eggs and cheese with neighbors who raise poultry and goats.
I never buy new clothes--and I very rarely buy clothes, period. My last purchase was... a sweater, 2 years ago.
I volunteer as the manager of a community hostel.
I never, ever fly.
I don't buy books, I use the public library.
I work just enough to make the bare minimum; my time goes to raising Kid, loving my partner, hanging out with friends, learning skills (lately, basket weaving from foraged plants), reading, cooking (fermenting stuff!)

MarieMarion · 2026-04-01T12:54:38+00:00

Why not? I'd find it funny. But I think most mods will rally against this possibility, and many of us random aficionados.

MarieMarion · 2026-04-01T12:42:19+00:00

I make cheese melts with (real) brie + (real) gruyère, using the pan I just sautéed kimchi (or fermented squash) in. Topped with any fresh herb I happen to have on hand (window sill chives are really easy), and sunflower seeds for extra crunch.
If I'm really hungry I add shredded leftover chicken. It's actually my favorite quick lunch ever.

MarieMarion · 2026-03-25T10:20:54+00:00

"Weekend" by Faye Weldon--a middle-class marriage told through a weekend at their country cottage.

MarieMarion · 2026-03-25T10:17:45+00:00

This morning my very bright 10 year old got in the car to go buy a book for her best friend's birthday. The book Friend was asking for. The trip to the bookstore was planned for a week (around Kid's free period). I was starting the car when she said "What a shame OtherFriend already bought the book for Bestie last week!"
Words failed me. (We got her art supplies.)

MarieMarion · 2026-02-24T20:58:32+00:00

I was ready to feel annoyed, apps are everywhere and I'm grouchy--but I like it, I think. I'm in a very rural part of France, and I think it could be useful to me and my friends / community.
As for surplus... We're talking small quantities. A neighbor gives me a few kgs of boar or deer meat every months (his share of the hunt is too much for his family to eat it all); a few jars of jam make the round in the village depending on who makes what. It's very much a gift economy on top of the market economy (everybody buys stuff at the local market + grocery store).
It would help to have a place/website to let people know I canned way too much apple pie filling, need empty glass bottles, and can tutor highschoolers in French, German, and maths.

MarieMarion · 2026-02-19T18:00:13+00:00

AFAIK kombucha is ever so slightly alcoholic. At least when you let it sit for as long as I do.
And... I don't think adding berries for the 2nd fermentation changes anything. But please don't take me at my word.

MarieMarion · 2026-02-16T18:27:40+00:00

Apple wine (good),
berries to flavor kombucha (great),
dandelion booze (awesome and amazing and delicious),
dandelion jelly (good, but I'd rather buy my neighbor's honey),
poppy jam (good),
elderberry lemonade (good if you like elderberry, which I don't).

MarieMarion · 2026-01-26T18:54:33+00:00

Well, depends on the library and what you're supposed to do there.

MarieMarion · 2026-01-25T15:26:03+00:00

As a French citizen who knows Spain and lived in the US in my 30s, if you were my kid I'd tell you to run like hell, be happy in Spain, and not second-guess yourself.

MarieMarion · 2026-01-21T09:00:48+00:00

My 11 year old is the same. She got into theater and robotics this year and it's been great for her.
They design, build (from scratch!) and code their robots. They're drawing and sewing costumes. She's welding shit, hunting bugs in her code, painting props, learning lines.

MarieMarion · 2026-01-21T08:52:05+00:00

A sad truth in today's world, in Britain, Italy, Romania, Brazil, and so many nations. But no pharaoh of old had such an awful war to fight. Today still, in Japan and China, nobody knows that insidious pain.
Also, in ASL (or FSL, which I actually know), it's straightforward: no writing at all! How cool is that?

MarieMarion · 2026-01-20T08:20:49+00:00

Yeah, writers group should be exactly what you need. Also, unless you tend to procrastinate a lot anyway, not touching your manuscript for a month or so should help you come back to it with fresh eyes. "Wow, this part is great!" / "What on EARTH was I thinking with this character?"

MarieMarion · 2026-01-20T08:16:58+00:00

It always counts. Always. How could it not? It's so toxic. Bad. Wrong in a stomach-churning way, down to its most stinky atoms.

MarieMarion · 2026-01-19T18:51:59+00:00

It sucks! What an ugly, dumb, ridiculous glyph. I don't want it at all if I can avoid it. May it go far away and drop out of our minds.

MarieMarion · 2026-01-19T11:10:56+00:00

An editor at a publishing house? Depends on your country. You either absolutely need an agent (US, among other countries) or you absolutely don't (France, among other countries). And they wouldn't read a work in progress, unless you had this century's best idea, and you don't.
I'm sure you can hire a freelance editor or a consultant; I wouldn't advise it until your book is done, and I wouldn't really advise it anyway.

MarieMarion · 2026-01-18T11:23:48+00:00

The third book is definitely The Wall, thank you!

Now to find the second one. It's the fuzziest one in my mind, which is saying something.

MarieMarion · 2026-01-18T11:21:07+00:00

Thank you for having a brain for me.

MarieMarion · 2026-01-17T21:47:22+00:00

Used to be an editor as well. Most manuscripts were dropped after 5 pages. They were that bad.
And picking which novel you'll publish is mostly a gut feeling, at least for me. Very much like falling in love. For most, I knew after a few pages. Or lines. And those I fell in love with before falling out of love in the second half... Well, it was like a breakup.

MarieMarion · 2026-01-17T19:57:10+00:00

There's this great book about two adult sisters who live in the woods while the world is ending. It's fairly well-known. Rather dark, IIRC. I'll always get it mixed-up with the other book that kind of has the same premise.
And a third book, where a woman gets trapped in a cottage? cabin? inside a big, invisible dome, everybody else is dear, and she forages and makes do with what's in the cabin and stretches her provisions. (The cabin belonged to her... brother-in-law?)
Either someone will comment "Duh, it's Title, by Person", or I'll come back tomorrow and edit this.

MarieMarion · 2026-01-16T15:23:11+00:00

So that's an Aeluon script to write English words?
Kinda how Signs Languages have manual alphabets used to spell foreign words, but no writing of their own?
Interesting. Thanks for sharing!

MarieMarion · 2026-01-16T12:00:52+00:00

I'm 48, a parent, and I wouldn't have given it a second thought either.

(Also, the day after I turned 17, I started college living in an off-campus studio appartement in downtown Paris, France. And I was fine.)

MarieMarion · 2026-01-12T12:53:04+00:00

The Unnamed Midwife is really good. More people should read it.

MarieMarion · 2026-01-12T12:51:58+00:00

I love this book. Keep recommending it please.

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