Matt & Will

We met in London in 2002. A few years later we moved in together. In 2009 we decided to take a 1-year sabbatical in the Dordogne. And we never left. This blog was originally created to be a souvenir of that year off.

After renting a gîte for a year or so in a village near Brantôme, we fell in love with the French lifestyle and decided we were going to stay. The aquisition of two cats, Sméagol and Louis, pretty much sealed the deal. After much searching, we found a house in Milhac-de-Nontron and moved in in 2011. We named the house Port 80. There are two reasons behind this name that we’ll leave you to guess at.

We work from home as web designers. We started off as auto-entrepreneurs before becoming a fully-registered SARL business in 2020. Our business is called Port 80 Services.

Since moving out here, we made lots of new friends and started to play music in public (very badly). Over the years we got less bad and now play regular gigs throughout the summer months as part of a 5-piece group we call Mazerock.

We got married out here in 2017 – the first (and to date, only) same-sex couple in our commune to do so.

Matt

Matt is an American from the state of Minnesota. He left there as soon as he could to escape the unreasonably frigid winters. After moving around the States for a few years, he came to live in London at the end of the 90s.

In our band he is lead singer, bass player and keyboard player. He is a huge fan of the Clash and loves peanut M&Ms.
Will

Will is English and comes from the south-east. His family moved to the Dordogne for three years when he was a kid so he picked up the language easily.

He moved to London as a teenager and had 10 fun years there before deciding that it would be nice to live somewhere cleaner, calmer and less crowded.

In our band he is the lead guitarist. He’s a gigantic David Bowie fan and did not enjoy 2016 at all.

Mazeroux

Mazeroux is a wee little hamlet on the outskirts of a wee little village in the northern Dordogne. It's been our home since 2011 and we've no plans to leave. It's green, peaceful, and full of fun and friendly people.

When we first moved here, roughly half of the houses in the village were empty. As happened in many rural areas, the young people all left to find work in the cities, and once lively communities dwindled.

We’re pleased to say that this trend has reversed over the last few years. Driven mainly by the pandemic which opened up remote working opportunities – and made the idea of urban living less appealing – the countryside has experienced something of a resurgence.

Our once dwindling village is now full again and even boasts some residents in their 20s! In addition to us web designers, a vast campsite and an equestrian centre, our village is now also home to a beekeeper, some organic green grocers, and a kinesiologist. As of December 2024, we even have a decent internet connection when fibre finally arrived.

View on Google Maps. Our GPS: 45.485584, 0.810957
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