Ann Malnar moved to France after a chance meeting on a Swiss ski slope in 1982.
She had left the UK aged 20 looking for adventure, and had lived in the US, Canada and Switzerland.
Anne Malnar
“I was skiing one day in St Moritz in the fog and banged straight into somebody. And he became my husband,” she said.
He was French, so the couple moved to Orsay, just outside Paris, where he worked in research. After he died in 2000, Ann decided to move.
“I think I wanted the coast nearby and also somewhere less crowded,” she said.
“I found that although I was near Paris on the RER B line, you still had to make the effort to get there, so I didn’t use Paris as much as I would have if I had been living in the centre.”
Anne Malnar
Visiting Dinan, Brittany
Ms Malnar also had an apartment in her home town of Exmouth, UK, and it was through this that she found her new place in France. She joined Exmouth’s twinning association and took one of its annual trips to the medieval town of Dinan, in Brittany.
“I arrived just for a weekend and wandered around and said: ‘Well, this is definitely where I’m going to live.’
“I stayed an extra two days, visited a few apartments, chose one, bought it and moved to Dinan. It’s an adorable little town.”
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Dinan is one of France’s Petites Cités de Caractère – 193 small towns that each have a notable heritage. The designation helps protect them and publicise their history.
Despite loving Dinan, Ms Malnar ultimately wanted to be even closer to the sea, so later moved to a two-bedroom apartment in Saint-Servan, close to Saint-Malo.
Anne Malnar
“It overlooks the river Rance and is wonderful. Property is much more expensive in Saint-Malo than Dinan, so I rent here. I hope they don’t ever want the flat back because I really like it and I’m very happy here,” she said.
“You go up a little hill and I’ve got a fantastic view. I face due west so I see the sunset all year round and look across to Dinard. And it’s not a static view like looking out to sea because lots of sailing boats come up the river.”
After living in various places around the world, Ms Malnar feels her current home in Saint-Servan is ideal.
“There is much less crime than anywhere else in France, and for me the climate is better because I find the South of France too hot in summer, having British skin,” she said.
The people are friendly, and local walks, including along Saint-Malo’s four-kilometre beach and up to its ramparts, are “really lovely”.
The transport links are another benefit of the area, which is served by the high-speed TGV.
“From Saint-Malo to Paris is two-and-a-quarter hours by TGV. It’s quicker to get to Saint-Malo than somewhere like Deauville, which is half the distance from Paris, because that’s a TER service.
“I’ve also got the ferry to England just five minutes away,” she says, of the regular Saint-Malo to Portsmouth route.
Ms Malnar has a busy social life in Saint-Malo: “I belong to two social clubs and we do various activities, including excursions as far as London.”
One group counted many Britons among its members, before Brexit saw most move back.
“It now has quite a few Americans, but I’m the only Brit who is still a member,” Ms Malnar said.
There is only one thing she really misses in Saint-Servan: “British clotted cream.”
