Over the moon, Brian ..

Oooh, that looks good in the window!..

We had a lovely surprise in Saturday's post. A big blue envelope containing a certificate and this window sticker announcing the fact that our gîte, La Galerie, has been rated 9.8 out of 10 by the Booking.com website. Talk about elated! We're over the moon! And did I mention that we've become "Superhosts" on Air B'nB? Not bad for our first year as gîte owners, eh? ..

 

Weeks ..

And that was that! Two weeks in France, and they went in a flash. Much like the sunflowers covering the fields around our house, already gone over and looking rather sorry for themselves. What a great two weeks, though. I've got lots more work done on the house, have met and greeted three more new sets of holidaymakers at the gîte and had a shoot at another gîte nearby.
In fact, I've been so busy I need a holiday ..

Not much chance of that, of course. I've been busy editing a Wedding I shot just before I went away, and am gearing up for this Friday's Wedding over in Liverpool. I only have one more Wedding to shoot in the UK later this month and then that's me done .. it'll be time to pack all our worldlies and head over to France full time ..

Just weeks left. Can't wait .. 

If Carlsberg did weekends ..

I have had an absolute blast of a weekend, with two fabulous Weddings, another booking to photograph a gîte in France and some lovely words of thanks from couples whose Weddings I've already shot ..

The Weddings were fantastic. One in a cricket club and one in a golf club. Not ideal for Wedding photographs, you might think, but I've come away with some of the most relaxed, loved-up shots I've taken in a long time ..

I arrived home on Saturday to a lovely thank-you card from 'one of my brides', saying "Our guests loved you! We loved you!" .. and another couple tweeted "Great evening looking at the wedding photos. Great memories Thanks @MoTakesPhotos"

Nice!..

Oh, and to top off the weekend, I received another booking to photograph a gîte in France.
Life is very bon ..

No time for a lie-in ..

Good Lord, it's just gone two weeks since I last wrote my blog. What a slacker! I've got lots of good excuses, though, so please bear with me ..

The main excuse .. sorry, reason .. for my absence is summed up in today's photograph. Our French gîte is now well and truly up and running, and I've been over to France twice in the last fortnight to tend to its successful upkeep. I must admit it was rather odd to go into what was our pristine new project and see all the signs of it's being used. Beds unmade, coffee pot on the draining board, the smell of cooking in the air. Still, that's what we bought it for, so cause for rejoicing all round. I'm actually off to France again next week to greet our fourth booking, so it's all going really well ..

I have managed to squeeze in a little photography, too. I was up at a lovely place called The Fisherman's Retreat to photograph a Wedding last weekend, and I've shot another house for a local estate agent. I also had a nice picture used by the Times Magazine last weekend, and - a bit of really good news - I've had some great conversations with a couple of my clients, who are committed to carrying on using me to photograph their events, even though I'll be based in France ..

It was great to be back there again this week. It felt like I was on holiday, even though I was really busy. I certainly didn't get time for a lie-in ..       

Sharp exit ..

A Ryanair jet approaches the north coast of France, and more guests flock to our new gîte for their holiday. We woke this morning to news of our eighth booking - a fantastic start to the day and one that amazes me considering our standing start! Ironically it's now costing us money. Because we're not yet there full time, we have to pay somebody over in France to clean the gîte and turn it round for new guests. Still, we're doing our bit for the local economy ..

I'm at Manchester's Trafford Centre tonight to shoot a PR event featuring five .. er .. celebrities. Folks, I haven't heard of a single one of them. I think I might be getting out of this game at just the right time ..  

One thing leads to another ..

Well, the fresh green shoots are certainly budding, and I don't just mean the arrival of Spring. The start of our new lives in France is really taking hold. Yesterday we took our seventh successive gîte booking, meaning we now have guests to stay every month from now until September, and I've also made a contact over there who's putting me forward for press work with a couple of the UK's national papers. Hey, we're even being considered to appear on a TV programme. Sacré bleu ..

I gave the first ever 'public' reading of my new book on Monday, to a group of youngsters at a children's book club. I wasn't sure how it was received until the leader of the group told me "They stayed quiet .. that's a good sign!" This first reading has now meant that one of our local primary schools has booked me to give a reading there and, amazingly, the owner of a local pre-school group has booked me to come in to photograph the kids. Isn't it funny how one thing leads to another? ..



 


  

And we're off ..

Say hello to a couple of bona fide French gîte owners! Yes folks, we have the first ever guests at our place in France, and I went over at the weekend to meet them. Man it feels fantastic, after all our hard work, to be finally renting out the house, and I hope Julian and his family (and his dog) have a blast whilst they're there ..

So now our 'change of direction' feels real. Our next guests arrive next month, and we have bookings up to September already. The ball is rolling and there's no looking back. It is bloody exciting!
Allez les bleus ..

Goodbye Europe, Hello France ..

It's so ironic that, on the day the UK says tatty-bye to Europe, Lesley and I are getting closer and closer to living in France. We've got the house, the gîte and near-as-damn-it a leaving date, and my God it's exciting! ..

Our first ever paying guests arrive at the gîte this weekend, and I'm off across the channel tomorrow to greet them. I'm thrilled and nervous all at the same time. It's the start of a whole new life for us both so we really hope our visitors kick us off with a most splendid visit. You can follow my progress by reading our 'gîte tweets' ..

Funnily enough, my car's been at the garage all this week and I've been given a courtesy car whilst it's being fixed. What kind? A Citroên. It's a sign! ..

Taking the plunge ..

I'm moving to France!..

How's that for the start of a blog? You may have already read that my partner and I bought a gite over there, and we now aim to move out full time later on this year. The gite's called La Galerie, and we already have six bookings for it - not bad from a standing start! In addition, I'm going to be running One-Day Photography Workshops for our guests, and I already have two people booked on that too, so I'm going to have to go to France just to do it. Any excuse, eh? .. 

Exciting, or what? It's a whole new change of direction for us both, and we cannot wait! In the meantime, I have a summer full of Weddings to shoot, and then my focus will be on getting bookings for Weddings and property in France ..

So, if you fancy a great holiday in France, with a day's professional photography tuition, then please get in touch. We'd be delighted to see you. Ooh la la ..

C'est bon ..

I don't want to turn into a 'gîte' bore but I just wanted to let you know that our place in France has had its first review on Trip Advisor .. and it's a cracker! It's really made us feel good after all the work we've done on the place. You can have a read of it here and don't forget that, as it's our first season, we're still offering a week's rental from only £250 ..

Mixed bag of a week ahead - a couple of PR jobs, at least five studio portrait sessions (Number 6 is trying to juggle his diary) and a Wedding Fayre at Willington Hall. A week at the gîte would probably be very tempting after that lot ..