Somewhere in the French countryside, a former bank worker from the suburbs is luring feral chickens into a pen with sweetcorn and lettuce. It's the latest chapter in a very French story of abandoned city plans, rescue animals and a life rewritten from scratch — and it captures exactly why so many travellers fall hard for rural France.
Janine Marsh, editor of The Good Life France, moved to France with her husband Mark intending to tour the country on a motorbike. That plan lasted about five minutes: a rescue puppy came first, then more dogs, stray cats, and eventually a small menagerie of ducks, geese and chickens — all pets, none destined for the pot. The bike was sold, the itinerary shelved, and a very different life took root.
The newest arrivals are four feral fowl spotted for weeks scratching around the local forest with their parents and ten siblings. Numbers dwindled — foxes, polecats and buzzards are an occupational hazard of free-range chickenhood — and when the survivors started eating the garden vegetables, Janine hatched a plan. The birds were too fast to catch in a field of nettles, so she baited them into the chicken pen instead. They're now quarantined in a large cage until they're given a clean bill of health and introduced to the existing pecking order, which includes hens with names like Kim Kardachicken and Joan Crawford.
Beyond the poultry drama, the newsletter is a lovely snapshot of autumn in the French countryside: cooler blue-sky days, crunchy leaves underfoot, wood fires lit, shutters closed in the early evening, and gardens groaning with fruit and vegetables to harvest — the leftovers going straight to the flock. It's the France of slow rhythms and small surprises, far from the museum queues of Paris. And speaking of museums: Janine is heading to Nice and Antibes next, promising sun, seafood and wine along the Riviera on her Instagram.
Why does a chicken rescue story matter to a traveller? Because rural France is best understood from ground level — from someone's garden, on a forest walk, over a neighbour's fence. Newsletters like this are a genuine resource for planning a slower, more personal trip: they surface the seasons, the food and the small-town texture you won't find in top-ten lists. If your image of France stops at the Eiffel Tower, consider pointing your GPS at the middle of nowhere instead. Life there is rarely dull — just ask the chickens.
