“A year later, priced out of her rented home and studios and exhausted by what she describes as the ‘gentrification’ of her longtime neighborhood, she and her husband, broadcast engineer Evan Calford, relocated to the tiny rural village of Saissac, near the Pyrenees.”

“Now living what she describes as a bucolic idyll, growing plants and finally letting her art run free, looking back at her former life feels like a nightmare.”

“Even with a so-called ‘middle-income,’ she and her husband were barely making it, and they believed they would never be able to own a house — instead remaining trapped in an endless cycle of rentals, waiting to be priced out again and again.”

“Their rent-controlled home in Venice, which they’d occupied for 20 years, was under major threat.”

“Since 1999, she had also been forced to give up every painting studio she had rented in Los Angeles, losing spaces to ‘investor-rich restaurateurs or next door businesses who wanted to enlarge their space.’”

“The idea of leaving the United States had already begun to take shape in 2022, when Boissonnault was invited to stay at the home of a fellow artist in Saissac.”

“The building, which dates from the 1600s and was originally three narrow homes combined over time, offered around 2,000 square feet — more space than they had ever imagined.”

“A full renovation followed, costing under 100,000 euros, or $115,000 — a fraction of the price in Los Angeles.”