As I write this blog, baby Emilie is now 6 months old. People told me the time goes so quickly and they were so right! It’s a good time for me to reflect on that experience again of giving birth here in France and what that was like as a British person, a first time mum and self-employed person too. I had wanted a natural birth without intervention if possible, just like my alpaca mums had done in the fields last May. What an inspiration they were to me having witnessed their births. To fully prepare myself for birth, me and my husband Will went to the 7 one-to-one sessions with my Sage-fem ..read more

A little insight into our experience of appearing on the show, and what it’s like in the making. This may be news to you reading this, or it may have been the first place you initially heard of our alpaca farm perhaps, that we were contributors to Channel 4’s series 7 of A New Life in the Sun, which aired in January 2021. We since appeared on their follow up show A New Life in the Sun: Where Are They Now? In February 2022. And why am I telling you about this now… well, we’re about to appear in the new series of ANLITS Where Are They Now this February or March (date tbc). A brief overview, t ..read more

One thing that attracted us to move to France, is the markets here. We fell in love with finding a new market everyday on our french honeymoon back in 2014, and spending hazy evenings creating fresh dishes, usually outdoors. These markets thrive and continue to be a source of great local produce that goes from farm to table, which can inspire even the shyest of cooks to make beautiful fresh home cooked meals. This excitement is ramped up for me when it comes to the numerous christmas markets organised by what seems like every town in France, and they’re all so good, we tend to visit most, an ..read more

No matter how long we’ll have had our alpaca farm, we will always be continuously researching and learning. Unlike traditional farm animals, there’s not untold amounts of knowledge and research into alpacas. There’s a lot, and whilst we know a decent amount, enough to teach responsible alpaca husbandry, for us I think there’s still a lot to know and carry on learning, but the reality is if an animal is not in the mass human food chain, there’s not so much known about it compared to well-known livestock. It is getting better though, but every now and then, something really trips us up and we s ..read more

When you come and stay with us in the glamping tent or Vue du chateau gîte, you get lots of alpaca time and we know you’ll book an experience with us. There’s also so much to explore in our corner of the world and we’d like to show you more of this. Today, here’s Parthenay, a beautiful town with medieval architecture with so much charm, character and places to drink and eat. About a 40 minute drive from the farm ..read more

I imagine most people have heard of therapy or assistance animals.  You probably think of a dog, something small and fluffy, but perhaps not an alpaca? It’s time to talk about working with these magnificent creatures in a therapeutic setting. Spending time with animals has been proven to improve both physical and emotional health in so many studies.  Knowing this and seeing our herd of alpacas naturally acting in a careful and caring way towards more vulnerable people, I wanted to explore, understand and try to enhance this experience. Why have I invested in this project? My previ ..read more

The first step: driving on the right in a right hand drive car! After the easy ferry over to France, it was time for the drive to the farm, which we did in our own time over a couple of days, making sure we only had a short couple of hour drives at a time, making it pressure and stress-free for us with our four month old, Rubén. This was a great introduction to our getaway, with beautiful sights; dozens of impressive churches and chateaux and the tastes of France; pastries in the continental breakfasts! And so we arrived on Monday 6 February! A wonderful catch up with our friends Will and Sop ..read more

Day 3: Today, again was another different day to the other two. First we went to see the alpacas, (they didn't sleep in the barn so no need to let them out), we checked that everything was okay and then went back inside to post the blog and see how the other posts were doing while replying to all of the lovely messages and questions on the posts. Afterwards we had a few things to sort out in terms of bookings and stuff like that, so we made a few calls to answer some questions that had been left on voicemail, as sometimes Sophie misses the calls if she is out with the alpacas or just not av ..read more

Day 2: Today was a bit different than yesterday but that's what I'm there for! When I got there we let the alpacas out of the barn and manœuvred the gates to get them into the right field (the one we did the weeding in yesterday) and returned inside the house to learn how to structure, tweak some of the sentences, add photos that I had taken and then post the blog which took until lunchtime. But just before eating our delicious scrambled egg and lardon sandwiches, we mixed up a sugar beet mixture which Sophie likes to call "mama food", then went out to check on everyone and feed some of the ..read more

If you’ve read my previous articles before, you’ll know my biggest passion is for alpacas. Yet, with a lot of land here, there is more than the animals to look after or maintain on the farm. I am a hopeless, yet aspiring gardener.  Having had nothing bigger than a postage stamp garden before moving to France, and not looking after indoor plants too well, I’m determined to learn and grow as I enter into the world of gardening here in Deux-Sevres. We were semi-lucky with our land in that the previous owner was a landscaper, but had left the property and land unkempt for a few years, so some ..read more