I have been living in France on and off for 5 years now. How I ended up here in St. Céré, Lot is something of a mystery, even to me!

I suppose you could call me a professional expat, for I have lived overseas for quite a large chunk of my life. It started early, as I was an "airforce brat", my father being a pilot in the R.A.F. We moved every two and a half years, so settling into a new locality became pretty much second nature. R.A.F airfields tend to be out of the way in the country, so from an early age I came to love the freedom that open spaces afford and I saw most of what Britain could provide in open spaces up until the age of 10. Which is when the airforce, in their wisdom, decided to pack us off to a war zone and, after several gallons of assorted serums and antibodies where injected and scratched into my left arm I found myself in Singapore. Happy days. Not for the up-country communists, or the South China Sea pirates, of course, but for me... happy days indeed.

With the bad guys in Malaya duly defeated we eventually returned to the UK only to be packed off to Malta so that my father could do the same to the Russians that he and others did to the communists guerillas. Except the Russians never came. The Libyans did.

So... back in the UK again, it was time to fly the nest and I embarked upon a chequered career in advertising and marketing in London. To cut a very long story mercifully short, I upped sticks to Spain as soon as decency allowed after the divorce (like the next day) only being dragged back to London when my meagre share of the divorce settlement ran out and I had to earn some money. The world had moved on and suddenly, no-one had a secretary anymore, typewriters did not exist and, with a bit of applied brain-power and an Apple Mac, just about anyone could write and design a brochure or an ad or two on their todd! Which I did.

And then someone invented the internet. Which meant given a roof over my head, a telephone line and a PC, I could work from home.... anywhere in the world.

Like I said, how I ended up here in St. Céré, Lot is something of a mystery, even to me, for I had to build the roof over my head, instal miles and miles of cable, including a telephone one and, having done all that, I now live in constant fear of summer thunderstorms taking out another PC's hard-drive!

I've learnt a bit since the summer of 2003, both about converting old buildings, PC's, the internet, and, of course, the fabulous country I, my partner and our son now live in.

This expat has come home.

At last.

St Céré.com is an affiliate member of Britsnet group of websites.

Britsnet will become a collection of websites designed to provide a networking tool for British expats, wherever in the world they are. Eventually. For this is the beginning and a start has to be made somewhere! That start-point is France.

The fundamental level of any social networking, is the grass-roots community website, edited and looked after by expats actually living in the community they are writing about. Whilst each of these community websites will have the same look and feel and are served from central Britsnet servers in the UK, each will have content unique to the local area that the website is aimed at.

Which is where the local editor comes in, for it is essential that to meet expectations, local sites provide content rich in local information. That means it is down to the person on the spot. As such, therefore, Britsnet community website editors have a great deal of autonomy and can pretty much pick and choose their subjects.

The individual website editors also have autonomy over their local advertising policy.

Similar in content to a local newspaper, the Britsnet community website will also provide detailed information about that local community, including details of accommodation, business etc. It will feature those expats that live and work in the area, together with features on issues that are locally focused. To that extent, these websites are "inward looking" in as much as a great deal of what will be published, will be primarily of local interest. However, these local community sites will build to a France-wide network, which will attract an international audience. An important part of each local site, therefore, will be to promote their local area to the world at large.

The local editor, therefore, is key to the success of these individual websites.

Could you become a Britsnet local community website editor?

Why not? Watch this spece for details or e-mail us and register your interest.