Welcome to the LFN web site, fund raising for the Royal British Legion, Poppy Appeal. Expats who live in our part of France, even though the numbers have dropped off the past few years, due to Brexit, still get involved with our fund raising via the book exchanges.

There are two most months, but one a month in the Carcassonne area at Janet Horsley’s house. Some of the new supporters who are coming to live in the Aude are from as far away as the United States of America. Also, in the garden or garage of LFN depending on the weather.

Our support for the Royal British Legion is via the nearest Branch to where we are based that being the Royal Bordeaux and South West France Branch. It’s five hours drive away. The Branch give us the help we require to continue with our local activities.

We have a number of local tradesmen and other services who advertise in our LFN Digestive, this provides revenue . Also, donations from our membership is often via their wills.

Our fundraising goes back some 20 years and you can see from the following article where we came from and what we have been up to.

We’d like to thank our current and past supporters who contributed to the amount shown on this website.

The LFN Digestive is a non-profit newsletter and web site; www.lfn.org.uk for ex pats who live mainly in the South West part of France. There are many other readers who live elsewhere but have an interest in this area of France because they own a holiday home here or are regular visitors.

Some 20 years ago LFN had a British Food business with stalls on a number of markets: Scott Goodall who is the author of a book called The Freedom Trail asked if we would sell poppies on our stall. The Chemin de la Liberté or Freedom Trail is the escape route across the central Pyrenees into Northern Spain used during WW2.

The amounts raised in the Poppy boxes were quite small in those days, but it was noticed that there was and still is a lot of interest in the Royal British Legion by the expats in our area.

The LFN Digestive has become a popular information outlet for expats and has been a tool for raising funds for the Royal British Legion from the sale of the Poppies during the October and November poppy weeks. Some ten years ago we held our first Poppy Fair, a three-day fundraising event, and our main attraction a very large model railway which had been built by Cliff Marker, former Senior N C O with the Royal Signals regiment .

Fund raising for the Royal British Legion has now become a way of life.. We have held other events to raise funds for worthy causes including; 7/7 London Appeal. The Salvation Army in Regent Street London, and for “Young Jack” the son of Lee Rigby, the British Army Soldier, Drummer Fusilier who was murdered on a London street, and locally Cancer Support France.

We have a team of volunteers who help at all our fund raising- events. A number of Chelsea Pensioners in their scarlet jackets have flown in to help also Two Beef Eaters from the Tower of London helped us increase our poppy sales by welcoming passengers at both Beziers and Carcassonne Airports.

Adverts placed in the LFN Digestive from local English businesses are paid for by donating to the Royal British Legion. Expats can exchange their books and DVDs for a donation into the Poppy Box.

Life over the past few years in our part of France has changed dramatically. A large number of our supporters have returned to the UK mainly because of Brexit, then Covid and family reasons.