'Astro farm' in France!

[Gasman]

Hi folks

Just watched an interesting program on channel 4 called 'A New Life In The Sun' its about Brits who choose to live and work abroad and one couple called Sue and Andrew have made an astro venture called Astro farm in Confolens in France. I thought of Ollie while watching this and I must admit to being a bit envious of the skies you peeps across the Channel seem to enjoy. Hope all goes well for Sue and Andrew in what looks a beautiful part of the world.

Steve

 

 

 

 

 

[laudropb]

Saw this too, but there has not been much of a follow up.

[Mick J]

Nice review from Cjg in supplier reviews the other day,  will have to look out for a new life in the sun, thanks gasman.

[Cjg]

I've had the good fortune to spend 5 nights there earlier this month; having an attempt at a Messier Marathon from http://theknowledgeobservatory.com/.

Have left a review in the suppliers section and a write up in the observing reports ...

Fabulous skies, a superb venue and the owners very very helpful....served Breakfast up to Midday, perfect if yo've been up till 0630am...I missed the second program, believe that there's another later this week. I'll be going back!

 

Chris

[mapstar]

Our society has a trip out planned this year.

I'm not going myself but the ones that are cannot wait 

[Cjg]

Think this Thursday is the latest episode featuring the AstroFarm, not sure of the time. Confolens is a lovely town, there's an excellent cafe called ARThe where the food ( and beer ) is lovely....run by Brits too. 

Chris

[adavies660]

Thank you Gasman and for the thread and Chris for the clarification on final episode. Yes it is on Thursday at 4pm (UK time) Channel 4. They are talking about a return visit this year to do a "One year on" episode. They started filming us back in July last year, just after we started, so they left us still in the middle of building Astrofarm. Lot's has changed since then. 

Looking forward to welcoming WADAS this year. 

Cheers

Andrew

[Paul M]

The MD called me in to watch the Astro Farm feature. I did wonder if it was an SGL member. Really nice to see them covering your venture.

The problem with those programmes is that they either fill an hour with repetitive, padded out content or try and feature too many items in the time given. I'd have rather seen more about the Astro Farm than the scuba diving school that has been heavily featured. Even though I'm a keen scuba diver I thought they got a lot of coverage.

 

[zicklurky]

I also had the chance to visit Andrew and Sue at their Astrofarm. It was amazing! With our rubbish weather here this last season I decided to go abroad to do some imaging. They have incredible skies, and Andrew and Sue are fantastic hosts. Highly recommend anyone thinking of an astro holiday to give them a visit.

[adavies660]

• Trailer Trash, we thought the same about the Scuba school and the Spanish bar... We came late to the filming so they only spent 6 months with us over the July to the November/December. We did manage to get three episodes though which isn't that bad and they are coming out to do a "One Year On" bit this July/August so we get a double crack at the proverbial whip..;-)

[laudropb]

I will look forward to seeing your progress.

[swag72]

I've really enjoyed that programme and as a Brit living abroad (albeit not working at all) I have shaken my head in disbelief at some of the people featured and what they are planning on doing with only £1 in the bank as a backup. 

@adavies660 - It was good to see you featured and I'm glad that you are still out there and the business is going well

[ollypenrice]

Well done for making it onto the telly at all! Nobody ever approached me. When I was setting up here 13 years ago I was endlessly told of horror stories people had seen on telly programmes about going abroad with a new venture. Well, that's telly.

'I came here, I bought a nice house, I was well received, I set up a business that, with a bit of adjustment, worked fine...'  That's not telly, not what they want. They want disaster, muck ups, catastrophes, villains and clowns. If you speak the language (that is so important), fit in with local ways and ask rather than tell, then you should be as happy as we are.

Olly

[andrew63]

Just watched the programme, looks like a great venture. I wish you both well.

 

 

andrew

[adavies660]

Thanks Andrew.. Very kind

 

[adavies660]

Hi Olly, thanks for your comments. We anticipate that the publicity from the programme will have opened up the idea of, not just astronomy, but also astronomy-holidays to a whole new audience, especially the possibility of astronomy holidays in France. :-)  #promotingastronomy  

[Scott]

17 hours ago, ollypenrice said:

Well done for making it onto the telly at all! Nobody ever approached me. When I was setting up here 13 years ago I was endlessly told of horror stories people had seen on telly programmes about going abroad with a new venture. Well, that's telly.

'I came here, I bought a nice house, I was well received, I set up a business that, with a bit of adjustment, worked fine...'  That's not telly, not what they want. They want disaster, muck ups, catastrophes, villains and clowns. If you speak the language (that is so important), fit in with local ways and ask rather than tell, then you should be as happy as we are.

Olly

I thought tv stations advertised a concept program and it was up to the "stars" of the showto apply to go on it? I may be wrong though

[ollypenrice]

12 minutes ago, Scott said:

I thought tv stations advertised a concept program and it was up to the "stars" of the showto apply to go on it? I may be wrong though

If they advertized it on TV I wouldn't have seen it!!!

Olly

[JB80]

Actually the best place to look are on forums for expats. They normally have a section dedicated to media requests of just this sort and are all the time looking for people in various places doing various things.

[brantuk]

On Channel 4 Now "A new life in the sun"

Looks nice!

[adavies660]

2 hours ago, Scott said:

I thought tv stations advertised a concept program and it was up to the "stars" of the showto apply to go on it? I may be wrong though

Hi Scott, Jarrod, yes you are both correct. They advertised it on a forum for ex-pats that we had been following. The agent then contacted us, we chatted for about half an hour about our project, told them when we get to France and will be starting work, they then came and started filming..:-)  

[adavies660]

32 minutes ago, brantuk said:

On Channel 4 Now "A new life in the sun"

Looks nice!

Thanks Brantuk.. :-)

 

[andrew63]

Just watched the latest episode - seemed a much better balance overall. The film crew did a good job showing the observatory in action, and will hopefully generate a lot of interest.  Not just from the astronomy community but perhaps from inquisitive individuals looking for a different kind of holiday.

 

andrew

[laudropb]

The latest episode was very good. My wife even suggested I try it after listening to me moan about the cloudy skies here for years. I am sure the venture will be a success.

[laser_jock99]

On 30/03/2016 at 11:27, Paul M said:

The MD called me in to watch the Astro Farm feature. I did wonder if it was an SGL member. Really nice to see them covering your venture.

The problem with those programmes is that they either fill an hour with repetitive, padded out content or try and feature too many items in the time given. I'd have rather seen more about the Astro Farm than the scuba diving school that has been heavily featured. Even though I'm a keen scuba diver I thought they got a lot of coverage.

 

Funnily enough SWMBO called me in to see the show......something like "there's a man building an observatory like yours on telly".

 

Looks like a good venture- I have the dark skies at my site but too many clouds sadly.