Unable to afford a house in Kent (UK), Paul Mappley and Yip Ward (47 years old) spent 14,000 euros to buy an entire small village in France in April 2021. The village, called La Bousliere, in Normandy, includes six cottages, two barns and a pasture, plus a two-storey workshop, cider press and communal bread oven.
However, there was no electricity or running water. The five houses in the village were overgrown with weeds. Clearing the roads to the houses was so difficult that the lawn mower broke down from the work. However, these inconveniences did not discourage the couple, because for both of them, the transition from a cramped mobile home to a large town was a wonderful thing.
As Paul and Yip cleared, they became more overwhelmed by what they discovered. They found three more buildings and a well, which they hoped could be used to flush toilets. They also discovered an oak-framed barn with a functioning old apple press and a stone-built bakery with a vaulted oven.
Paul was particularly impressed by the village's history as an old bakery. Before the French Revolution, it was a shared space for many families, so the baker had to be on duty day and night. The couple planned to turn the village into a resort. They would live camp-style and brighten up village life again.
“Sometimes life in the village makes us stressed but we are grateful to be here,” Yip said.
The couple had been renting and living in a friend's caravan. But when the friend decided to sell the car, they began to worry and had to find a new place to live. That's when the opportunity to buy the village of La Busliere in France came to them.
