Dreams rarely come true in ways you expect. When Philip Dixon returned to his first love of dairy farming, he chose a farm in central France. Although he loved the life, his wife hated it and they divorced. When his British farmer neighbours also parted, it was the husband who left. Philip and his remaining neighbour at first disliked each other, but time soon changed that!

You need tenacity and foresight if you want to make a dream come true, but often on the way you may lose something you hoped would be part of that new life. Made redundant from his job as manager of the largest dairy farm in England, Philip Dixon decided to return to his roots and acquire his own dairy farm once more. But rather than England, he chose central France, a country he had never visited, let alone lived in. What's more he barely understood a word of French! But where he totally immersed himself into the life, his scientist wife hated it and she soon departed.

A similar situation was happening with Philip's farmer neighbours, who were also expats, except in their case it was the husband who left and returned to England. Disliking each other at first, the friendships that grew naturally between their children drew them together and before long they recognised they were a natural couple.

Philip mixes his personal story with his experiences of farming in a very different climate; using his experience and solid common sense blends some of his own farming practices with established French ways to bring a run down farm back to efficiency. He describes some of the many fascinating characters and local customs with a real appreciation of them. through all his stories, his love of farming and of his cattle - his "girls" - shines through.