3 Years Ago We Bought a Ruined Farm in Rural France. Here’s What Happened

Three years ago, we left the Netherlands and moved to rural France to renovate an old French farmhouse and build a completely different life in the French countryside. Now, after three years of farmhouse renovation, DIY building projects, family life and plenty of mistakes, we’re looking back at what moving to France has really meant for us. Would we still move to rural France if we knew then what we know now? Why did we choose the Dordogne? How do we afford such a huge renovation, how did we learn to do so much of the work ourselves, and is life in rural France actually what we expected? In this video, we share the story behind our life in France. From renovating our farmhouse and rebuilding a partly collapsed roof to creating a greenhouse, restoring our old stone barns and starting the conversion of our first barn into guest apartments. We also talk about the part of our story that doesn’t always fit into a renovation vlog: how we met, what twelve years together and several renovations have done to our relationship, raising our daughter Nox as two dads in rural France, and what it is really like living on the same property with three generations of our family. And then there is the money. We explain how we were able to buy the property, why doing most of the renovation ourselves is so important, where we save money, how YouTube and Patreon have become part of our life here, and why the apartments are such an important part of our future plans. Our current barn has permission for four apartments, and another barn has permission for three more in the future. Right now, all our attention is on apartment number one, which we hope to have ready for guests in summer 2027. If you’re new here, we’re Bram and Simon. We’re two Dutch dads renovating an old farm in the Dordogne in southwest France, where we live with our daughter Nox, our dogs Archie and Luna, and Simon’s parents. We share the reality of living in rural France, renovating an old French farmhouse and stone barns ourselves, converting the barns into guest apartments, growing more of our own food and slowly building a new life in the French countryside. If you enjoy life in France, French farmhouse renovation, DIY renovation, barn conversions, rural living and family life in the French countryside, subscribe and follow along. There is still a ridiculous amount left to do. Bram & Simon #RuralFrance #FrenchFarmhouseRenovation #LifeInFrance