TEENAGER Ben Nolan vowed he would never set foot in France again.

“My parents Philip and Evelyn (now of Almondbury) took us on holiday there most years, but I have to admit that I wasn’t a big fan,” he said.

“I found the weather too hot, the food strange, and the language incomprehensible.

“At the age of 16, coming home from my last French lesson at All Saints High, I vowed to my mum that I would never set foot in France again and that I would never speak another word of French.”

Yet this was not the last word, French or otherwise, on the subject, as Ben’s story reveals.

“I could hardly imagine a better place to live than West Yorkshire, with friendly people, beautiful countryside, football, rugby and cricket to watch, good pubs and great Indian food…

“Well, I have now lived in France for most of my adult life, my wife Stéphanie is French and four of my five children were born here. So how did it come to this?

“After finishing my A-levels 23 years ago, I decided to take a break from studying. A friend of mine was spending a volunteer year at L’Arche in France, and what he told me about his experience intrigued me,” said Ben.

“In L’Arche communities, assistants and people with developmental disabilities live, work, and spend time together.

“It’s an international federation with nearly 140 communities in 40 different countries around the world.

“The L’Arche ideal of helping each person to find a place in society, whilst at the same time giving me the opportunity to spend some time abroad, really appealed to me.

“Living with people with learning difficulties certainly wasn’t something I had dreamed of doing, but it struck me straight away as an opportunity to do something really different, and to help people less fortunate than myself at the same time.

“In the end the experience was overwhelmingly positive – during the best part of a year I came to see beyond the handicap and discover the beauty of people whose fragility means that they will never be stars or appear on the cover of a glossy magazine.

“I became fluent in French into the bargain, so I was able to spend a year at a French university as part of my degree course.

“At the end of my studies I decided to go and spend another couple of years at L’Arche, where I met my wife Stéphanie.

“Although I spent four years working in industry after our marriage, and three years living in Huddersfield, we have come back to settle in France and I have devoted the best part of my career to running a L’Arche community about 50 miles north of Paris in a village on the edge of the beautiful Compiegne forest.

“I am responsible for six group homes which each welcome seven or eight people with learning difficulties, and three sheltered workshops.

“My work is both challenging and rewarding and our family is now happily settled here. We have four girls and a boy, Thomas, who was born in Huddersfield and hopes one day to play for England – some comfort for me in my voluntary exile!

“The things I miss most from home are my family and the friends I grew up with, who I would like to see more. It would also be nice to have a good Indian restaurant and a cosy pub, but you can’t have everything!

“My children do sometimes ask if we will ever go back to live in England. Well, I don’t know, but I shall never say never again…”

To find out more about L’Arche, visit the L’Arche International website at http://www.larche.org/ or contact dir.cuise@archoise.org for volunteering opportunities at L’Arche in France.