TEACHER SWAPS CITY FOR FRANCE
ON the face of it, Basia Gordon’s book is about her decision to swap teaching in Glasgow for renovating a crumbling farmhouse in the depths of south west France.
But in fact, From The River to The Sea: Aquitaine, A Place for Me by the Shawlands Academy modern languages teacher is a funny, moving memoir about childhood, family and a disappearing way of life.
“This house has come to be my point of reference – somewhere I have experienced joy and despair,” she explains.
“It is more than a house, it is a presence, a backdrop which charts all the varying stages of my life; from happy child to truculent teenager, from anxious young adult to married mother and grounded woman, happier as I age and mature: I am like wine and cheese…”
Coutal is the name of the farmhouse Basia’s father George bought in 1973, in Lot-et-Garonne.
“He was from Poland, an engineer who had always wanted to be a farmer,” smiles Basia. “He couldn’t afford to buy a farm in Scotland, so he found this place in south-west France.
“It sounds glamorous, but it was not. It had no roof, no toilet – as children, when we went there, we were feral.
“When I was 13, I remember helping my dad repair tiles on the roof. No thought for health and safety back then…”
She laughs: “It was like camping indoors, but we all loved it.”
After the death of her father, Basia’s mum Joanna continued to take her young family to Coutal.
“It was somewhere she could take us on holiday, where we could meet with her family and my father’s family from Poland, and I have many happy memories of reunions there,” she says.
“My dad built an orchard – we had figs, cherries and apples, plums, walnuts. At that time, when we were children, it was part of a fast-disappearing world, when farmers still wore blue smocks and the countryside was full of haystacks. There were little villages everywhere.
“It was, ironically, just after
Britain joined Europe, everything was opening up….”
Basia, who lives in Ruchill, touches on Brexit in the book, and the difference between the Coutal of her childhood and contemporary France, sweeping readers along in her tales of everything from football and political activism to local history and her Polish heritage.
And of course, the restoration of a much-loved childhood holiday home.
“In 2019, my partner Gerry and I were wondering what to do about the farmhouse – it was in need of renovation, but we knew we couldn’t do it in a couple of weeks,” she explains.
“So we took a year off work, thanks to our hugely supportive employers, and headed over to rebuild it.”
The couple stripped out the old barns, put a new kitchen in, replaced the septic tank and repaired the roof.
“My mum hoarded everything so we had to get rid of about 10 broken bikes, old lawnmowers, and piles of rubbish,” Basia groans. “In the winter, we lived in one room – it was very, eh, rustic.
“It became a labour of love. And it is a work in progress, of course, we will always be working on it.”
The book is dedicated to Basia’s friend Sharon, who loved Coutal, and who died recently of Covid and cancer.
“It’s not really about the house, it’s about the people who spent time with us there, who mean so much to me,” says Basia, who has a son, Ziggy, and daughter Irena. “My grandfather, who walked across Siberia to escape during the war; my family, my friends – all of their stories are there too.
“Sharon never got to see the renovation finished, sadly, but I know she would have loved it. She’d have loved all the excitement.”