A New Life: Barry Phelan tells Paul O'Doherty he and his wife Sharon have always had itchy feet but for the time being they are happy with their new home
Barry Phelan has an eye for a story.
Clearly happy and excited charming the locals and tourists at A L'ombre du fort, the chambre d'hotes he manages with his wife Sharon in Villefranche de Conflent in the French Pyrenees, he offers the occasional anecdote close to a favourite run offering snippets of a life like a runner to a companion on a morning warm-up.
Stories zip from his hometown of Carrick-on-Shannon to the surrounds of CityWest's golf course to Fort Liberia that sits like a king atop Mont Belloc.
Staring up at the snow-capped peaks from the citadel of the rural village that acts almost like a gate lodge to the great house of mountainous Pyrenees, Phelan contemplates a life without stress and intrusion and the next great run in the morning or afternoon.
Already, the chambre d'hotes, or B&B, is attracting a steady stream of experienced joggers, charity runners and half-marathon wanabees to an area better known as Paula Radcliffe's altitude-training base camp. It's also a good staging post for anyone with a serious winter or summer outdoor activity wish list.
The Phelans have just celebrated their first anniversary in the Languedoc close to the Spanish border and the strong influence of Catalonia. They met at college in 1990 where both were pursing careers in health and fitness management, before a time in England allowed their relationship to develop and "an itch to travel".
Australia, Hawaii and a stint working in the Olympic village during the 1996 Atlanta Games followed, before the couple returned to Ireland, where Sharon worked for Ben Dunne at WestPoint, among others, and Barry set up the leisure facility at CityWest and took over "the responsibility" of running the campus's two golf courses.
"But then we got an itch again. Sharon always gets worried when we start talking about moving because we never know where we might end up. We've always liked the outdoor lifestyle and fancied Australia since we were there, but it was too far for family," says Barry.
"So Sharon said 'maybe we should look at France?' which got us thinking. We were originally looking for an apartment but when we saw the price of property we said "God, we could have a different lifestyle here and for the children in particular."
"Our circumstance had changed greatly from being single, young, socialising in Dublin to suddenly, married, having a mortgage, changing jobs and looking to move up the career ladder," says Barry
"And then we thought there has to be something apart from this busy Irish lifestyle. We were beginning to see a lot of people around us who wanted so much more and we thought this isn't how we were brought up or what really made us tick".
For the Phelans, France offered a different experience and a simpler lifestyle that put a lesser emphasis on career climbing and ownership of the next great fad.
"In July 2004, we got Sharon's mum to look after the kids and we went off to France to have a look. We linked up with a number of agents through the internet to look at different properties.
"And we touched base with a couple of them on the phone to tell them exactly what we were looking for as well. We flew into Gerona, north of Barcelona with Ryanair one Sunday afternoon and travelled up across the border to France and stayed in the lovely picturesque arty village of Céret [ where during the Spanish civil war and the early years of the second World War, artists and writers on the run from oppression would congregate in the cafes] and sat out on the 'place' and had two pizzas, a carafe of wine and two cappuccinos, all for €22 and we thought: 'this is the life'."
The following morning they met an agent intent on sussing out apartments, gites or a bed-and-breakfast with a business potential. They looked at three properties and were not impressed.
Disillusioned and mindful that getting a dream property in France might take a little longer than they'd expected, they were reluctant to meet another agent in the afternoon that was going to show them probably similar over-priced out-of-the-way untouchables.
However, they took a chance and were taken to a place where the agent knew the owner. "The house was originally on the market for €700,000. In France, the prices are quite high in the hope that someone will give them the price.
"There's usually a lot of negotiation normally in some of the more expensive properties." The house, a bed and breakfast, had been run by a French couple up until the husband had died," Barry says.
"When the wife found the enterprise too much for one person, she'd put it up for sale.
"We were in the place about 10 minutes and we started to fall in love with it. It was 100 years old but in perfect condition, parquet floors, wood-panelled walls and a chandelier inside the door. There was also two acres of land and a nice swimming pool," he says.
Seeing the potential, recognising that a similar property in Ireland would cost three times the amount and that they would never get such an opportunity again, they made an offer. Two days into their French search they were in business for €490,000.
Three months later, the family moved to France and have since renovated the house, adding extras rooms in the cellar and attic and allowing the property to function with Chambre d'hotes and self-catering capacity.
They have developed their own website and now, a year later, the business, up and running and enjoying welcome success, offers a range of rooms with views of mountains, river or pool.
While still focusing mainly on the Chambre d'hotes, Barry's interests lie in organising specialised walking and activity holidays for anyone with an interest in outdoor pursuits.
"We only started taking in people in April and May, and managed to fill half of June, were full in July and August and half of September.
"By the time September came we were beginning to get repeat bookings, particularly from people living in Barcelona. We've had a lot of English, Irish, French, German and Dutch people and others from Australia and New Zealand."
Language-wise, Sharon's French is "very much fluent", Barry's continues to improve and the children, Sarah and Katie, are having no difficulty making themselves understood.
"One of the biggest reasons we moved was to give the kids an opportunity to learn two languages, and to experience something different."
Impressed with their daughter's new standard of life, Sharon's parents have also sold up in Ireland and are currently renovating their own house not far from Villefranche de Conflent.
Barry also sings the praises of the local village with its wonderful architecture, local markets and Michelin-star and other less formal and enticing restaurants. And then of course, there's the proximity of the Pyrenees.
"I've joined up with a local running club where we go running on a Sunday at this time of the year. And there's the local mountain-bike club that goes out two or three times a week, and the ski slopes are only 40 minutes away.
"This is all something we're never had an opportunity to do before and we're really going to try to embrace it and make the most of it."
Barry and Sharon's Chambre d'hotes A L'ombre du fort is contactable at www.alombredufort.com or at 0033 (0) 468971653.