"Both of our parents became isolated for different reasons,in their old age," says Jim, "It wasn't what I wanted for myself. We lived in the same little street in Reading for twenty years and some neighbours we never knew. They didn't speak to us, and I suppose we never spoke to them!"

As retirement approached, they realised that France, a place of many happy family holidays was where they wanted to be. They didn't do it the easy way, though. "We sold the car, sold the house, got the ferry and walked to our new home in the Languedoc." The walking bit was Jackie's idea. Jim thought it a crazy proposal, but comforted himself with the thought that if it all went wrong, they'd hop on a train.

"So on 23rd August 1992, we set sail from Portsmouth to Northern France. Nine weeks later we arrived at our new home in the Languedoc," says Jackie playing down the fact that an awful lot of planning had gone into it.

Neither of them had done anything like this before, "It was 1268 kilometres to walk from La Manche to La Méditerranée - it sounds better in French. It was fifty-five days walking with eight days off during that time, with thirty-three days of rain!" says Jim. "We looked on this journey as kind of pilgrimage to a new life. Some people find that word a bit strange, but we very much felt that it was the end of one phase in our life, and the beginning of another." The couple walked about 25 kilometres, which is around 15 miles a day, and learned the hard way that French shops close on Mondays, leaving them a short of food, "We bought some tins of pate so we had reserve rations, but the idea was to carry as little as possible, so we did go hungry once or twice."

"When we finally got here," says Jackie, "we crept up the road in the pouring rain, and a few brave souls stood under umbrellas to shake our hands and take our photographs. Somebody organised a little reception for us in the mairie (town hall) which was very nice! We met a whole host of villagers we'd never met before, and from that moment on we were part of the village."

Jackie and Jim have lived in the village for nearly nine years. They have been completely accepted by the villages, to such an extent that this year, something remarkable happened. Jim has become one of the first non-French counsellor to be elected in the whole of France. It was the Maire (mayor) who had put the idea to Jim, "I'd never ever thought of it, and to my astonishment, got through on the first ballot!"