Holiday Accommodation in the South of France for Charity!

Greca and Jamie Sandford are renting out their Languedoc home this summer in order to raise funds for two great organisations: the Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity (UK) and Adventure Ashram (India).  Here Greca shares their very personal story why…

We started our adventure in the south of France when we moved to the village of Puivert in the Languedoc-Roussillon in April 2006.  We had spent a year planning the intricacies of the move, and when anyone asked us why we were moving from the bright lights in London to a tiny French village, we would both chime “to start our family!” 

I had turned 30 the previous year, and with that milestone I knew I was ready to fully settle down now with Jamie.  We’d married two years earlier, had bought a flat and done it up, had a great social life and OK jobs, and knew that becoming parents would be the best job ever.  The only problem was that we didn’t feel that our lifestyle or income would give us the best environment for raising children in London.

So we came up with the “living in rural France” plan. We rented out our flat, packed our belongings and the cat in a van and headed south! We were delighted that the village we had quite randomly selected to rent a house in was full of friendly people who all had the same idea as us: raising their families within a wonderful community and a simpler way of life. We soon found ourselves fully involved in village life and, with little previous experience, taking on the serious challenges of running a business here.

We immediately also got on the case with the baby-making! However, nature has its own pace, and it took a full two years for me to actually fall pregnant.  When I did, in July 2008, it was quite honestly brilliant!  We had spent the past two years watching loads of other people be inaugurated into the parenthood club.  Finally, we would be part of the club – finally the hard work of settling in a new world and the sacrifice of leaving our friends and family behind would pay off!

But that’s not how the story was meant to go, it seems; three weeks before my due date, after a perfect pregnancy, our baby girl died and was stillborn.

People rarely talk of what happens when your dream life in France goes horribly wrong. We were and still are devastated. 

There are many things that are helping us get through it.  By far the most important of these has been the fantastic community we have here, who have supported us every step of the way – from helping us get through the bureaucracy of funerals and such, to simply making sure to check in on us from time to time.

Six months after our baby died, we felt we had to distance ourselves just a little from our village that was so full of dreams, but at the same time we were not ready to give up on those dreams. Our experience of living through a tragedy here has only made us more madly in love with this place where people look after each other. So in October 2009 we bought a house in the next village along!  We got cracking with updating the décor and a few, small renovation projects, and in January when we got back from holidays back in England, we had a brainwave.

You see, for me the worse thing about loss, is not knowing how to bring positivity back into your life.  But it is not in my, or Jamie’s, nature to be blind to the blessings we do have. And even when the greatest waves of grief hit, we often come round in our heads to the knowledge that, however devastating our ordeal has been, there are millions of families all over the world dealing with things that are far worse.

To this end, Jamie and I have decided to participate in the 2011 Karma Enduro Road Challenge charity event, which will see us driving over 2000km in wild terrain across southern India in a 1950s style Ambassador car! The charities that we will be raising money for are The Rainbow Trust Children’s Charity in the UK who support families with children who have terminal illnesses, and Adventure Ashram in India which aims to provide health, education and development services in the villages we will be visiting during the challenge.

And in order to raise the minimum target to participate in the event, we have decided to rent out our new house this summer! 90% of the income generated from the rental will go towards our Karma Enduro challenge.

The house which sleeps four and has a private roof terrace, is located right in the heart of our new village Rivel, tucked away in the foothills of the Pyrenees about an hour south of Carcassonne, in some of the most lovely scenery you can imagine! It’s a great spot for enjoying the simple pleasures of rural south of France – country walks and horse treks, picnics overlooking magnificent views of the mountains, swimming in lakes, visiting local artisan food markets, tasting award winning Languedoc wines, exploring Cathar heritage and such.
We are really looking forward to sharing both the house and this special place with others – we hope that they will also enjoy taking time out from their busy, stressed and hectic lives to come and enjoy our place as a home away from home.”

For more information please visit our house website:
http://houserentalsouthfrance.com
or contact Greca on +33(0)4 68311954