Sunshine, a 35-hour working week, wine, cheese, croissants, baguettes, a lower cost of living, miles of tempting, clean, coastline – how many of us haven't come home from a holiday in France and wondered should we pack it all in and move there permanently? But how many of us have actually done it?

Last year, one Irish family finally made the move. Having spent three years in the Middle East, it was time for a big decision for the Grant family – return home, or fulfil an enduring dream of living in France.

“It was a long-held dream since we came on holiday here in 2004. We had talked about it seriously a few times. We were close to purchasing a big refurbishment project in 2007 but our own house sale in Dublin fell through, but never got the nerve since,” says mother Helen.

Then last March the family, husband Adrian and children Caitlin (16), Jamie (14) and Aisling (8), made a list of reasons to move back home, and another list of reasons to move to France. The latter was longer.

“We had just spent three years in the Middle East and decided to go for it as we were making a move anyway, what could we lose?” recalls Helen.

The decision for the family was made easier by the fact that Adrian works as an international banking consultant, so has some flexibility in where he can be based. Moreover, as fervent Francophiles, the family’s three children went to the Lycée Français in Foxrock before moving to Dubai in 2014, so they had the language skills to varying degrees.

Regular holidays to the Charente-Maritime region made the decision on location an easy one. The region, in the southwest of France, will be familiar to Irish holidaymakers as it encompasses the popular tourist spots of La Rochelle and Châtelaillon-Plage, and it's southerly enough to enjoy regular sunshine.

The Grants opted to set up 30 minutes from the sea in the small, rural town of Pont l’Abbé d’Arnoult, close to the bigger town of Saintes, and 40 minutes from La Rochelle.

"The climate and long sunshine hours meant it would be less of a shock to our systems than moving back from the UAE to Ireland. "

Cost of living

It’s an area where you can expect a lower cost of living. “Property is better value here in Charente, especially compared with Dublin,” says Helen, adding that while grocery shopping is typically on a par with Ireland, “of course a nice bottle of red wine is way less expensive”.

The family are renting an old manor house for the moment, but have started househunting in the area.

“It’s a popular area for expats and we have made friends so we will be staying local,” Helen says.

The average property price in the region is about €230,000, according to the French property index, with better value to be had outside the larger towns and cities, although it gets more expensive closer to the sea.

For the children, the move has been great. “We were lucky our 14 year-old Jamie was bilingual so he fitted in very well in terms of the language at school,” says Helen, adding that the local school really helped Aisling, who had forgotten much of her French during her time in Dubai.

“They have gone out of their way to settle the children into the system. I’ve never before had a teacher ask “what else can I do to help your child?”.

Simple life

The pace of life also appeals. "It's the simple life. It really is; there are no takeaways, or Starbucks, you cook from scratch or eat out locally and enjoy beautiful French dishes. You need to buy a trailer to collect your logs."

Food is a big part of French life, and at school the children enjoy five-course lunches, with an hour and a half set aside for the meal. It’s a healthier way of eating. “I don’t have a snack box in my house any more,” says Helen.

And for parents of two teenagers, the emphasis on family is another attraction. “The quality of life is much different. Kids don’t meet up so much with other kids; Saturdays are for sports and Sundays for family. No one [teenagers] is going off drinking or smoking and there’s no hanging around. It’s very much an outdoor life.”

Of course if there’s one thing any expat soon discovers, it’s that holidaying in a country and living there are two completely different things. “We found opening a bank account a real challenge and were subjected to an extensive interview process even though we were not asking for credit facilities. The whole area of communications has been a problem, and our houseful of teenagers had to survive on wifi through a mobile dongle for what felt like eternity, but was probably just a few weeks. Nothing appears to happen instantly here.”

Acclimatising to local customs also takes a bit of time. “Everything closes between noon and 2pm – and sometimes 3pm – so you have to remember this if you want to dash to your local shop for a pint of milk,” says Helen, adding that the language barrier has also been a challenge for her.

“Understanding the French paperwork you definitely need a good level of French, and she would urge other families thinking of making a move to get acquainted with the language first. “Learn French if you can before you come,” she advises.

Getting home once a month to visit their older daughter Caitlin, who opted to stay in the Irish education system and is a fifth-year boarder in Dublin, has also been challenging, with no routes operating from nearby La Rochelle to Dublin.

“We have been surprised at how difficult it can be to travel from Charente, having been unaware that certain of our favourite airports either close down or have severely restricted services out of season.”

Making the dream a reality also means being able to make a living – something that can inhibit many would-be ex-pats. Indeed unemployment in France is of the order of 10 per cent, and the rate is even higher outside the main metropolitan areas, which means it can be very difficult to secure a job in rural France, what' s known as la France profonde.

“If you come looking for work you won’t find it,” says Helen, adding that her way around this was to start her own business. And it didn’t take too long to come up with an idea; after all, she has seen first-hand the benefits of bilingualism in her own children. Now it’s something she hopes to offer to more Irish teens, by bringing them to France for intensive 11-day summer camps.

“I was working in education in the UAE and loved it. I wanted to continue in education but knew my French would not be up to teaching here, so I decided to branch out into setting up frenchforteens.com working with Irish and French teenagers here in Charente,” she says. Her new business will offer camps for Irish children aged between 14 and 17 in partnership with a school in Pont l’Abbé d’Arnoult. The children will live locally with host families, attend classes in the school and participate in activities.

Are they there for the long term? Even the best of moves have their downsides; with their daughter boarding back in Dublin, the family misses her. If she opts to go to college at home, it could be the draw that will bring the family back in two years.

“If she was here with us we’d definitely stay.”