More details about Debbie Bradbury

Understandably, you may wish to know more about me before wanting me to act on your behalf for your request.  I have taken the time to give a brief summary of my background to show you how I came to be working in France as an intermediary between English-speaking people and the French!!

I was born in England in 1968 and had a grammar school education up until my O Levels.  My favourite subjects at school were modern languages and I was especially gifted at French.

Not wishing to study 3 languages in literature at A Level, I left school at 16 and went to a college of further education, where I took a secretarial and business studies course with languages.

I left college with a London Chamber of Commerce diploma with French and German and secretarial and business skills and went out to work at 18.  After working as a bilingual PA in various companies, I was introduced to the French property market in 1988 when I worked for a UK-based French property consultant, assisting British clients hoping to buy property in France and I started a French degree (Institute of Linguists) at evening classes.

From this initial contact with the French property business, I was drawn to France and started work with an agent in the Normandy/Brittany region, carrying out the secretarial work, liaising with the French solicitors (notaires) and translating the French legal documents into English for the agent’s British clients.  I met my husband, Nigel, in France alongside the same agent and returned to the UK when the exchange rate worsened in 1994… to marry Nigel!

After a short spell in the UK, working in the wine business – acting as intermediary between French vignerons and British buyers – my husband and I decided to leave the rat race and return to France to set up our own business in French property.  This was in 1998 when we moved to the Charente with our first daughter, Eloise (we now have 3, the last 2 born in France!).

After the first 5 years assisting my husband in setting up the business and assisting British purchasers to find their ideal property, Nigel took on his own staff and set up his own French agency and I specialised in offering a consultancy and translation service to his British clients, as well as offering a similar service to other British people who needed guidance or translation work.  I worked particularly with French Discoveries (a UK-based consultancy company), offering a hand-held service to their British purchasers who found properties with either my husband’s agency or their Loire associate agency, and sometimes in other parts of France too.

Since April 2004 I have been working as an independent translator/interpreter and consultant in the Charente and in December 2006 I decided to break away from the French Discoveries’ partnership to promote my independent business directly. In June 2007, I obtained my first French diploma Capacite en Droit (General French Law) with Special Credit and in October the prize for "student of the year"!

Today I have a large British clientele and a smaller French clientele, who particularly require written translations or translations of their websites into English.  I also now have a small network of French and English-speaking associates to assist me with my ever-increasing workload and together we can offer a varied but efficient service.

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