Couple swap three-bed semi home in Manchester for a whole French village

A couple escaped the rat race by swapping their three-bedroom semi for an entire French village.

Liz and David Murphy sold their home for £400,000 and used the money to buy the historic rural hamlet of Lac De Maison, in Poitou-Charentes, south west France.

The hamlet includes six 400-year-old houses, two barns and three acres of land as well as two 10m x 15m swimming pools.

The couple, who both worked in radio, spent £300,000 transforming the ruined buildings and pools to create homes for their family and a potentially thriving holiday let business.

They family say they now live "like millionaires" following their move from Manchester and have no plans to return to the UK despite not speaking French.

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The Murphys moved into the main house in their hamlet with their two children Tom, 12, and Charlotte, eight, late last year after buying it in January 2021.

In the house opposite lives Liz’s mum Helen Diaper, 73, and stepdad Terry, 72.

The remaining four houses and two barns in the hamlet have been turned into holiday homes which they plan to rent out for hundreds of pounds a week.

Liz, 45, said: "We were both working 9-5 jobs in England, with busy lives and the kids were in after school clubs and it was like we were on an endless treadmill.

"It wasn’t until Covid came and we were on this furlough and we realised we were in a rat race and life was passing us by.

"We realised we hadn't spent much time with the kids and we decided we had to do something to change all our lives.

“We had talked about moving to France for years. We had this sudden feeling to do it and we suddenly did it."

Dave Murphy, 54, who is a trained hypnotherapist, said: "Some people decided to buy a dog during Covid but we decided to move to a different country.

"We were amazed at what we could get for our house price in Manchester, we could get a hamlet.

"We kind of made the decision to move in August 2020 and we came over in the Covid break in travel.

"It was really quick. If we’d have thought about it too much and we just said ‘yeah’.

"We're living like millionaires here. You'd have to be in the UK to own this. It takes two-and-a-half hours to mow the lawn on a sit on mower.

"In Manchester I could do the lawn in ten minutes. We've got two pools as well."

But his wife said it hadn't all been plain sailing - with the couple having to deal with flooding, issues with their septic tank and no electricity, along with living in a caravan while they carried out renovations.

Despite that, she said overall the experience - which was recently featured on Channel Four's Help! We Bought a Village - was "like winning the lottery without realising it".