A FORMER Evesham couple who moved to France are encouraging others to share in the idyllic setting of their new home through a website.

Lance and Louise Little emigrated to the Dordogne and Lot et Garonne border in South West France in 2001.

Mr Little initially secured a two-year job contract as a web designer, but as that drew to a close, found himself looking for work.

He decided to use his skills in communication to construct an English language tourist information site for their local town.

The site www.eymetguide .com gives information both for local residents and tourists and has been viewed by people in the USA, Australia, South America, Britain and, of course, France.

It now has the fastest growth and highest visitor count of all independent tourist information sites in France. With more than 60,000 visitors, the number looking at the site is approximately three times higher than the official local tourist information site.

Mr Little said: "We lived for more than 25 years in and around Evesham and still have strong links to the area with family there, and visit often.

"But we wanted to try a new life abroad and thought people would be interested to know how we are doing, and about the place we are living in.

"There are many TV programmes dedicated to escaping the rat race, and due to financial and personal circumstances these mainly tend to be of retirement age.

"Our story is different as we have two young children, now aged 8 and 10, and we have to work to enable us to live in France. www.eymetguide.com offers visitors to the site a huge resource of local information including daily updates on the weather, a calendar of events and items and places of interest.

"There is also a directory of local businesses and contacts, even down to the duty chemist and emergency number for the anti-poison centre."

This year saw the launch of a forum, www.eymetforum .com which already has 70 members and more than 133 topics and 310 posts ranging from English fish and chips, to 'Can anyone recommend someone to worm my sheep?'

Eymet (pronounced Ay-may) is on the South East corner of the Dordogne about 20 minutes drive south of Bergerac airport.

The region's growing popularity is evident in the number of visitors arriving at Bergerac airport. The figure grew from 16,000 three years ago to more than 200,000 this year.

Now people can find out even more about it thanks to the creative ideas of an Evesham family, who continue to enjoy the sunshine and their escape from the rat race.