Ryan's French business has been in Financial redressement for 18 months (public available information). This means at some point he has not been able to pay his bills supplier/contractors or most likely his social insurance contributions which I believe to be the case. Basically a financial agreement to try and pay off the debt before you go bankrupt. This coincided with their down sizing, I doubt they paid off his debt and most likely the remaining funds pays for her delusions of grandeur. All of their previous businesses in uk went into liquidation so I'm guessing its just a matter of time here in France.
Is there any way to tell what's going on with this financial redressement? She posted a vlog today that was a little surprising. Ryan has been renting a villa for the workers who work for him and has decided that he's going to end the lease or not renew it because "the workers want to live further in town". I believe it's also the home where Ryan's brother lives, so I guess he won't be living there any longer, either. He wandered out onto the balcony, as if he lived there. Towards the end of the vlog, she said that they were going to have a bit of a reset in the new year, simplifying "compartments" (meaning stuff in their heads, especially - according to her - Ryan's head, because he has so much to juggle work-wise) and said that Ryan would even be changing the direction of his business. Not majorly, apparently, still staying in the construction field it sounds like.
They had also been using the rented villa to store some of their stuff - this must be the place they always go to so that they can retrieve their own things in storage, always calling it "Ryan's brother's house". As they were going through that, there was some sort of picture with Ryan's sports medals and Fern said something about being able to use it when they got the loft done in their apartment. Ryan laughed and then pretended he was a grandpa, using a grandpa voice, talking about the medals, as if to say he'd be old when that loft got finished.
Their whole existence there is very curious.........always stuff that seems off, like them storing stuff at Ryan's brother's house, then finding months later that it's rented for the workers. Maybe pay your workers enough money so they can rent their own place.......he said he was paying something like $37,000 euros a year for that villa!