Annabel Langbein's dream life: 'I JUST FEEL SO RE-ENERGISED!'

The celebrity cook reveals the importance of continuing to grow and how her hunt for a piece of paradise in France nearly turned to ruins

- Wendyl Nissen

Last year was meant to be the year that Annabel Langbein set up a home in France with all that entails: centuries of history, access to wonderful markets full of nutritious and inspiring food, and a chance to indulge in her passion for taking long walks through interesting countryside.

Speaking to the Weekly as she headed off for her four-month trip, her plan to buy a home in France was very much a post-Covid one.

With both her children, Sean, 31, and Rose, 29, living in the UK and Portugal, Annabel and husband Ted Hewetson could spend more time on the same continent.

But one year on, there is no home in France and Annabel is happy to admit it was a nightmare four months.

"I could probably write a short story about the whole thing," she says. "It was just like every single thing that could go wrong went wrong."

Although she can laugh about it now, enduring eight weeks of 42°C heat meant she was often unable to do anything and then there was the home they were supposed to be buying.

“Ted and I had slightly different views on the kind of house we wanted,” she laughs. “Ted fell in love with this property which was described to us as an imposing fort with seven cannons. It was in the middle of nowhere, so that was quite stressful.”

While Annabel didn’t want to break Ted’s dream, she could see some very practical reasons for not owning a fifth-century fort with nine bedrooms, each measuring 60 square metres.