From convents to craft breweries: How this sleepy French region became cool

I was 20 when I first moved to France. Long before Emily Cooper waltzed in, I had grand Parisian dreams, although mine were shaped by a mix of Amélie Poulain’s artsy Montmartre and Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen zooming around the city on mopeds and falling in love in Passport to Paris.

Finding work with my ropey French proved more complicated than anticipated. After a brief stint au pairing for a Parisian family, a long way from Montmartre, I found myself teaching English for a term in a little Auvergnian town called Monistrol-sur-Loire. My au pair mum described it as “le trou du cul du monde” (the world’s arsehole), and I was fairly sure Amélie had never set foot here, let alone Mary-Kate and Ashley.