_{Nice in France}

More on downsizing

Downsizing

Downsizing to an easier life

Downsizing to be nearer the grandchildren

A place of my own

A quart into a pintpot

10 tips for downshifting

We wrote the book on downshifting

We live in three places

How we downsized our family home to a UK bolthole and two holiday homes abroad

Narguesse Stevens, 56, a newly retired NHS manager, and Mark Stevens, 55, a GP who is to retire next year, are behaving like a pair of young, jet-setting tycoons rather than a middle-aged couple.

They recently exchanged their four-bedroom family home for a small semi near Duxford, Cambridgeshire, and a flat in the south of France – where they already owned a “wreck”.

The Duxford house is a functional and very convenient bolthole only 15 minutes from Stansted airport.

“Life need not close in as you grow older,” says Narguesse. The couple now spend their summers in a “five-storey wreck” near Toulouse (bought in 2000 for £33,000) and one weekend in four drinking coffee on the balcony of their flat in Nice, with a view of the Côte d’Azur. “Two minutes’ walk and we’re on the beach,” she adds.

Their Nice flat, bought two years ago, comes courtesy of the property boom. The couple’s house in a village near Saffron Walden trebled in value over eight fruitful years.

“We were staggered at the increase,” says Narguesse, who nevertheless has some reservations about selling.

Their old house was more than a family home. Their son, Alastair, lived there with his new wife, Anita, a doctor from Malaysia, for 18 months while they saved for the future.

There, too, is where Narguesse and Mark patched up their marriage. In 1985 the couple divorced, only to remarry a few years later.

“We changed. Our relationship blossomed,” says Narguesse. Also, the house had a wisteria tunnel, French windows, and was the scene of great parties.

However, the couple then saw a neat semi on a new development near Duxford. And it was cheap; half of what they had received for their family home. “We wanted somewhere that was easy, where we could lock the door, walk out and explore the world.”

Narguesse hails from a travelling family. Her mother is Iranian, her father American and she only settled in the UK after meeting Mark, who was then a medical student.

Both have company pensions, but buying abroad is something anyone can do, they say. They are helped by Mark’s love of DIY (the flat in Nice had a disastrous kitchen); by Narguesse’s fluency in French and by having only one child – “it’s not as if we have to accommodate big family reunions”.

They are unsentimental about houses and knick-knacks, and are inspired by IKEA. “Moving between three kitchens can be traumatic,” says Narguesse, “So we put the same IKEA units in all three homes.”

This article was created: 19 October 2006.
This article was last edited: 23 October 2006.

Email  Back to top