Buying Property in France

Then came the happy February day our appointment with the notaire to sign up for our French house. We booked in with Bob and Cheryl once more and Elizabeth Nixon (who now runs Limousin Property Shop) accompanied us to see the notaire in Bellac. This takes much longer than going to the solicitors in the UK. Usually both parties are there but in our case the vendors lived nowhere near the area so had appointed the notaire to act on their behalf. We could of done the same thing but we wanted to experience everything to do with the house.

The contract was read out in French with Elizabeth translating and we signed or initialled every page. The notaire was slightly concerned that we were buying land some of which we hadn't seen so Elizabeth explained that we weren't actually mad (we hope). He rang the vendors to check a few details (like the land wasn't let out to a farmer )and was then happy for us to do this.

The three of us then went off to the cafe over the road for a celebratory coffee and a glass of wine. The owner had been to Wales but couldn't eat the food as the meat was boiled (that's another mystery then) so obviously thought we were doing the only sensible thing to buy a house in France.

Because the vendors hadn't turned up we still had no idea where the "wood that legend spake of" was so Elizabeth took us round to the Centre de Impots (can't guarantee that spelling!) where the staff were really helpful and obliging copying us the relevant bits of plan cadastral till we had a jigsaw that led from the house to the WTLSO. Not that that has helped us find it, but it isn't their fault.

Living in France March 2007

The French story has languished for two years now as we've tried to fit in the odd week in France around work, debt and pet commitments. So we've packed in the jobs, cleared the debts and we're in the process of getting pet passports for the Gang. Look out France here we come!

Finally we have moved in and we now live in France. By March we felt the weather would of improved to the point where it would be chilly but not approaching freezing indeed the first two or three days were quite pleasant. A text came from Martin saying it was snowing in the UK we smugly replied that we had a bit of rain here in Haute Vienne, France but it was OK. The next morning we had a bit more rain the next door neighbour was talking about the weather and said something to do with snow which we didn't quite catch (more accurately we caught one word in ten) but assumed she meant the snow they'd had a few weeks before. Then the next time we looked out of the window we realised no the snow was now. We have to admit that panic set in a little for the city dwellers. Having no fridge we had been buying food day to day and we suddenly had visions of being snowed in. This resulted in a panic drive to the Shoppi supermarket to stock up with food that would go off without a fridge this was in a house that was actually by this time no warmer than a fridge but when we panic we panic.

Haute Vienne weather April 2007

We have had long periods of warm weather and when this ends our house returns to its natural condition which is cold for some reason. With the fire on full belt it was still warmer outside. At least now though we have stopped obsessing about the French weather and started to do some work on the house and vegetable garden. The plumbing is almost finished and bathroom and kitchen are starting to take shape. We had no idea what a hard slog it would be creating a home out of well basically a box with windows and a door and at first we didn't pace ourselves. Now we have rest days. We don't meet many French people as yet as we spend most of our time in DIY stores looking at plumbing parts or digging the garden... more...on our new life in France

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