I came to live in the Creuse in 1991 when there were just a few British families here and my daughter, Olivia, who was 13 at the time, was the only British pupil in her school.

I suppose we came for all the usual reasons – cheaper houses, some land for animals and a bit of an adventure. All those years ago we started doing what many people do now – Bed & Breakfast. We had a lot of French visitors which was pretty scary as I considered my French not that good, but I found the French very easy to cater for and the conversations around the table certainly improved my language skills.

In the beginning I felt that I was speaking French for all the family so it was a little tiring as a lot of concentration was necessary. I admit that I did work very hard at studying French, I had passed exams in it in the UK, but written exams aren’t the same as full- blown conversations.

Teaching English

A little while after arriving here I applied for a job as the English teacher at the Chamber of Commerce and to my surprise I got the job, I did have the ubiquitous TEFL Certificate.

I was rather nervous about starting my job but confidence came, little by little, and after 15 years of teaching I felt I could teach anyone English! What a wonderful varied job that was, travelling all over the Creuse and the Haute Vienne teaching various groups, businessmen and young people studying for their BAC, plus many translations, written and simultaneous and even teaching teachers to teach English! When more and more British people arrived in the Creuse I also began teaching them French at the Chamber of Commerce.

News for and about the English Community

It was during these lessons when talking to many British people that I realised they wanted to know what was happening in the Creuse - events, exhibitions, clubs and associations, where they could meet French people to practise their French – that the idea of Creuse News was born. A monthly newsletter in English to help people integrate, give advice, news and information. I had been a journalist in England so I felt I knew a little about newspapers.

October 2007 was our first publication with 4 pages, 4 advertisers and 400 copies, now we have over 70 advertisers, 20 pages and 3,500 copies printed and distributed around the Creuse and neighbouring departments.

Creuse News is an amazing success, the feedback has been very positive, with comments like ‘we can’t wait to get the next one’, why isn’t it bigger?’, ‘keep up the good work’. As you can imagine producing Creuse News takes a lot of time but I now have a wonderful team of helpers and we threw a First Birthday party in October 2008 to thank everyone for their support.

Television and Radio

We have had coverage on TV on France 3, interviews on Radio France Bleu Creuse, Radio Pac in the Corrèze and Magic Radio in Limoges – not forgetting RPG, Radio Pays de Guéret where we now present a fortnightly, 1-hour long programme in English, every other Wednesday from 7pm to 8pm. We have guests in the studio, news and music, all on frequency 96.5.

I was also lucky enough to be asked by the Editor of the French daily newspaper La Montagne to write a weekly column in English. The ‘British Corner’ appears every Wednesday and has produced many favourable comments from both French and English readers.

So, my life has taken a new, interesting direction and to find myself so busy with such a rewarding job when perhaps retirement should be looming is just wonderful. I feel a very lucky (but also very hard-working) person.

You can contact Julia on 05 55 64 43 34 or via email and you can read Creuse News online at the website