Hi,
Born in Jamaica, brought up in SE Asia, then to school in the UK where my parents came to retire, neither of them having ever lived in England, I fulfilled a dream and adventured out to France at the age of 19 having inherited very itchy feet. I met the man who was to become my husband then and settled in the North of France. I obtained dual British and French nationality in 2020, 42yrs later..

We had a great life in the North of France for 33yrs. I created and ran my own training, translating and interpreting company with over 27 people of different nationalities working with me, mainly in the very masculine world of heavy industry, seamen and port operations near Dunkerque. My life was very different to what it is today and we were very full-on with a large B&B which gave us a fabulous place to live with our 2 kids, 7 horses, 4 dogs and other animals, a super busy life…

All that may have been a bit too much so when my biggest client went into receivership, I had a major burn out in 2010 after a run of difficult years managing family illness.
It was time to reinvent our lives which we had already done a couple of times before and my husband had always wanted to own an antique shop in Isle sur la Sorgue. I didn’t even know where that was but we were ready for a new adventure. We spent nearly 6 months travelling with no ties as our daughters had both left the nest, dreamy…we had sold up and were off.

Here we are with a rambling hamlet of houses and rooms to let at Le Domaine Saint Jean, our guest house which we run together now, out in the vineyards and cherry orchard hills. A huge project over the last 9 years which will keep us going for another few.

The guest house and cooking for guests is my main activity but I still have an interest in training and antiques, our other business’s over the last 25yrs and I’m happiest when I host organised groups or residential workshops for small teams who come to Provence for coaching weeks, one day art sessions in my art studio, immersion courses for language learning and photography workshops which attract people from all over the world.

If you’re near Saint Saturnin les Apt come and see us, there’s always a warm welcome and if you’re too far to come round you can always pop in and take a look at our website or IG page and I can help you organise your next workshop or maybe just a relaxing holiday here in the Luberon.

Website is www.ledomainesaintjean.com and Instagram @ledomainesaintjean