The lower cost of farming α la franτaise:

Price of land:

At an average £700 per acre, Tom Cannon says French farmland is the cheapest in the developed world, about one-tenth the price in Ireland. He pays £25 per acre annually on a 10-year lease; comparable land in Ireland would cost £120 per year, Cannon says. The Cannons rent their 200-year-old stone farmhouse for less than £300 annually.

Installation grants and low-interest loans:

To help them get started, the Cannons received a £24,000 installation grant through the French Chambre d'Agriculture - four times the amount of similar grants in Ireland, says Cannon. He also borrowed £86,500 to buy livestock and equipment, at 2.5 per cent interest - terms available to any European willing to maintain French farmland.

Regional grant:

The Conseil GΘnΘral or regional authority paid £1,920 of the £2,400 it cost to process paperwork for the Cannons' grants and loans. The Conseil also pays £600 annually towards repayment of the Cannons' low-interest loan.

Higher profits:

French farmers receive higher prices for beef and milk than their Irish counterparts. For example, Tom Cannon just sold a calf for £336. He says the same calf would fetch £250 in Ireland.

Assistance for children:

A French government grant pays £600 in annual fees at the nearby agricultural college for 16-year-old Killian Cannon. The family receive £1,000 each September for books and supplies from the MutualitΘ Sociale Agricole (MSA), the government-backed fund for farmers. And when the Cannons moved to France 19 months ago, their monthly children's allowance jumped from £140 to £470.

Health care:

The Cannons stopped VHI contributions in Ireland because they found it too expensive at £1,000 a year. So when Margaret Cannon needed microsurgery for a benign tumour on her pituitary gland in 1997, it cost £8,500 at Mater Hospital, Dublin.

Now the Cannons' £444 annual contribution to MSA guarantees Tom a pension and other benefits in addition to 70 per cent of all family medical bills. The other 30 per cent is paid by additional insurance costing the Cannons £500 annually.

Margaret Cannon underwent microsurgery on her pituitary gland a second time in Saint-╔tienne, France, in October 2000. Cost to the family: zero.