France from Many Windows

France From Many Windows is a memoir of accidental belonging.

Leaving New Zealand with little more than curiosity and courage, Toni Izzard arrives in rural France and stumbles into a new way of living. What begins with an invitation to "come and meet our cat" unfolds into years of house-sitting across the Dordogne and beyond: châteaux, farmhouses, hotels by the river, and homes rich with history, animals, and unforgettable people.

Seen through many windows, literal and emotional, this is France at ground level: village fêtes, markets and meals, bureaucratic absurdities, language mishaps, kindness from strangers, and the quiet intimacy of caring for other people's homes and beloved animals.

Warm, observant, and often wryly funny, France From Many Windows is not a guidebook, but a lived experience. It is about travel as immersion, solitude as freedom, and the unexpected ways a life can open when you say yes to uncertainty.

Perfect for readers who love reflective travel writing, memoirs of reinvention, and stories where place becomes a companion rather than a backdrop.