First Few Weeks

French countryside

 Well, at long last we are here. The long wait and all the hassles are behind us and we are in our French home and can begin the latest chapter.
As our furniture wasn't going to join us for two weeks we were able to relax a little and take time over rearranging what the previous owner had left behind and making it as comfortable as possible for that period. We had a bed, sofa, oven and hob, plus various wardrobes and such, so it wasn't exactly camping. The electric radiators and the hot water all worked, so we wasn't going to freeze to death either. The only appliance that refused to work was the TV, no great loss.
One job that did cause a certain amount of stress was getting the internet and phone operational. We had collected our Orange "livebox" during our stay at the gite, but we still had no idea how it worked. After connecting it up and a bit of faffing we got the computer internet going but the phone was still a mystery. Luckily our new friend Peter, owner of the gite, popped round for a coffee and he managed to sort it. In Fact they have managed to point us in the right direction on more than one occasion.
We also were reunited with Howard, who we met on our buying trip, and he was able to take us to a house which had some furniture for sale. There we managed to purchase an eight seater dining table and chairs, a dresser and several other decent bits and pieces for a very good price.
Our furniture duly arrived on December 10th, Karens birthday, delivered by the top blokes from Wheadon removals. It all went well with only one vase broken, but that  was probably due to my packing. And since then our feet haven't touched the ground. Sorting through stuff  we'd forgotten we owned and trying to decide where to put it. It's amazing how many books we have that have no relevance out here. "Weekend walks in Britain" and "Footpaths of Britain" to name but two.
But we seem to be on top of it now, the Christmas tree is up and the place almost looks like a home. I say almost because we now have the builders in......

 It was always our intention to begin the work on the en suite bathrooms after new year, with only a couple of minor bits done before. Unfortunately as the builder has other commitments in January, and we wish to open for guests at Easter,  the stud work at least has to be done now. 
So I now have bags of rubble and such to transport to the"Dechettarie" and a previously tidied workshop, in need of a tidy. But they seem to be doing a good job. We've lost a little more space out of two of the bedrooms than I would have liked but I'm sure when it's done it'll be fine. 

Stud Work going up

Me at our local lake

As I said we seem to getting on pretty well in the village. We get handshakes in the Tabac and we are known in the Boulangerie. Our French neighbours are very nice, and the ex- pats are a cheery bunch. The only blots so far is the failure to find a key to fit the side door into the basement, and as we can't open it, getting a new lock fitted is proving a problem.
And the fact that the log burner isn't up to French standards and has to be replaced at some point. We can use it for now so it's not too bad.  
Yesterday we took delivery of a "cord" of logs (3 square meters apparently) and spent over an hour stacking them in our wood store in the rain. But I'll be glad of them come Christmas.
So here's to the new year and whatever it brings. 
Joyeux Noel et une Bonne Annee

Arriving in France

On Our Way

November 16th 2013, at last the day had arrived and we loaded the cats in the car and headed off to Le Shuttle to start our new life in France.
It had been a long haul since 6th September when we moved out of "Melrose" and trundled down to Folkestone to spend the weekend at our son and his girlfriends flat, the first of many temporary homes we would have over the next period of weeks.
I cannot over emphasize the debt we owe these wonderful people who put up with our moans, moods and my guitar "playing". We couldn't have done it without their generosity. We thank them dearly.
At present we are exactly one week away from taking possession of our new house. We have rented a very comfortable gite just outside Meneac, a village which is about fifteen minutes drive from La Trinite Porhoet, our village. The owners Peter and Karen are very nice people, inviting us to dinner on our first night, and a mine of useful information. 
The house insurance is now in place after our appointment with the wonderfully named Monsieur Phillippe Cool, so we now have all we need before next Wednesdays meeting with the Notaire to collect the keys. Tomorrow we collect our live box so we should have broadband and phone as soon as we move in.

Any Wishes

Our Gite

 We have a house sale to attend this coming Saturday, where we might find something of use for a reasonable price. Also on Monday we're going to meet up with Howard, the really nice man we met in August, as he has a friend who is moving back to the Uk and has some furniture to sell. We actually viewed this house back in the summer and it has some really nice bits and pieces, so if the price is right we may find our dining table quicker than we thought.
Today we met the present owner of our house so he can put us in the know on how the heating works, what switch does what etc; wrong. It was quite strange how little he actually knew about his own house. When asked if the side door opened ok the reply was "yes if I knew where the key was". We then said that we thought we had some mail in his mail box and may we have it the reply was "yes if I knew where the key was". I was also slightly surprised to see he was having a bonfire in the centre of what was a fairly nice lawn. Oh well I'm sure it'll grow back.
He was in fact very pleasant and again very helpful. The tools he is leaving behind will save me a fortune alone and many of the other things we may be able to sell at the local brocante.
So we are going to treat the remainder of the time until we get the keys as a mini holiday, because I can see there will be plenty to keep us busy between then and the spring.

Bonjour Peeps!

Bureaucracy.

France is well known as a place that takes it's time. It takes it's time over lunch, it takes it's time over breakfast, and it takes it's time when you are trying to pay at the supermarket. Which is fine, in many ways it's the very reason we want to move there. A slower pace and a more gratifying way of life. However, when it comes to buying your dream home it starts to wear slightly thin.
We waited four weeks for the "compromis de vente" to reach us which we then had to go through over the phone with the Notaires office. The power of attorney then had to be witnessed (another £10), before being sent back.  Then and only then did the THREE MONTH procedure commence!
During the conversation with the Notaires office we were quoted a preliminary completion date of 15th of December, well as you can imagine this was a bit of a shock. I know it was a worst case date, but even so! We knew that most of the searches had already been done when the house was almost sold previously, and were still valid. Also the fact that we were not seeking a mortgage would help things along a little. But as I said it was a worse case date and with any luck we'll get the keys a little earlier.
We have made tentative enquiries with the owner to see if we could rent the house for a couple of weeks prior to the signing of the final papers, if only to rid of the payments being made to keep our two cats in our local cattery, which is more expensive than storing all our worldly goods. Still awaiting a reply on that one.

So at present we are in our third week lodging with our (still) good friends Paul and Pauline, constantly scanning the email for the elusive completion date. It seems a long time ago we left "Melrose" and began the big wait. But were getting there. Hopefully by the next post things will be clearer and we'll be getting stressed about the Christmas shopping that will have to be done before we go.

Life On The Road

Waiting For France

Well it's been a week and four days since we packed the last box and dragged ourselves exhausted out the door of "Melrose" and into the wide unforgiving world. Well that's what it felt like anyway.
The first weekend was spent in sunny Folkestone, and very pleasant it was too. The sun really did shine and it was almost like having a little holiday. We took strolls by the sea, drank coffee by the harbour and had a very pleasant night out with my good friends from times gone by. Not a bad way to begin our life on the road.
The next port of call was back in Ashford at my sister and brother-in-law's house.They are having a two week holiday in Turkey (lucky things) and we are house sitting for the duration. And that is where I find myself at the moment, listening to the rain falling on the conservatory roof while I tap away at this computer.

                                                                                                                                                The wheels of French bureaucracy seem to be turning even slower than I thought it were possible. I was warned that this would be the case but even so........
It has taken the notaire almost three weeks to get the draft copy of the "compromis de vent" to us along with the "power of attorney", and that was by email. Mind you good job it did come through the ether as Karen muddled up the numbers on our forwarding address which caused no end of trouble and confusion......Bless her.
The power of attorney has since been witnessed by a very attractive solicitor and has been sent back to France, so that's out of the way, and the notaire can sign the "compromis de vent" on our behalf saving us another expensive trip across the water.
The other thing that has come to light is the existence of a French organisation called "Safer". It is well known that when buying a house in France that the local Maire has the authority to buy the house that you are purchasing if he, or she, decides it can fulfill a need in the community. Seldom is this power used, but it has to be gone through as part of the process.
But it also transpires that the people from "Safer Fr" have the same right, and have to be informed of the house sale so they can make a judgement on weather they would like to buy the dwelling. On reading up on the organisation it seems that, in the main they only deal with farmland and rural properties with a good deal of land attached, so there shouldn't be any problem.
Being the house we are buying has been on the market for over two years, common sense would say that these two bodies could, long ago, have decided if they had any interest in the property at La trintie Porhoet and saved us all a lot of time and heart ache. But that's not how it works, they wait until some one shows an interest, puts in a lot of time and effort, not to mention money, transfers the 10% to the Notaires office, then they send off the details to these two concerned parties and they let you know in due course. How long French due coarse is who can say?
At this moment our new life in Brittany seems a long way off......Keep the faith or "garder la foi" ( Thank you google translate).

Au revoir for now. 
          

Packing Madness

Nightmare

Packing must be like childbirth, if you remember how long and painful an experience it is, you wouldn't do it again. Mind you the last two weeks will not be forgotten in a hurry.

To start with it was hot, very hot, pushing 30 degrees for the most part, not making working conditions easy. Two weeks sounds along time but it very soon disappears and everything becomes one big rush.

We started on our books, that probably accounted for the first three days, I didn't realise we had so many! Piles of them being crammed into boxes which we then found difficult to lift. That's without the two large holdalls full I lugged up to the cancer shop.

With Karen's assistance (supervision) week one went fairly well, at the end of each day we would look around the house, nod sagely, and proclaim "we were getting there". How wrong we were.

At the start of the second week it was obvious we were getting behind. Karen had to return to work leaving me on my own franticly packing and transporting and stacking all our stuff into Lok n Store. But at least the size of our storage unit looked to be about right. that assumption proved to be a little off the mark as well.
More troops were required and in the shape of my esteemed brother in law, Mr Terry Abbott and a very good friend Norman Drewitt I found them. Also Karen driving to Tesco at 7am every morning to keep us supplied with fresh boxes was crucial.
So we worked and worked, and on Thursday evening, having rented another small unit, we finally saw the light at the end of the tunnel. The packing did become a little frenzied towards the end and box labelling went out the window, but needs must. Good thing too as we had to be out of Melrose by lunch time the following day.
So on Friday morning we took the cats over to the cattery that was to be their home for the next eight weeks or so. Dismantled  the bed and took it with the last few bits down to the store. Even then, when we finally packed the car to leave we could barely get it all in.
But it was done, we were out, with about an hour and a half to spare, and it wouldn't have happened without the help of Norman, Terry and Mr. Colin Newton who drove the van for the large pieces of furniture at the beginning and looking after our bicycles and a double mattress that wouldn't fit in storage.
Well that's it we are now homeless and will spend the next part of this adventure dossing with various friends and relatives. I hope were not going to be too much of a nuisance. 

Right Move

38 Rue St. Yves La Trinite Porhoet

 Wednesday was always going to be special because that was the day we were to view the house in La Trinite Porhoet. We found the place on E Bay of all places and had been in constant touch by email with the owner, Jim Allen, ever since. He had supplied us with many photos, plan drawings and ideas for what was possible to make the house fit for our purpose. The only problem being it was quite a lump over our budget, but we just had to take a look.

But first we had an appointment in Saint Gilles (or village flowery) and it certainly was. Very, very pretty place with a large lake.
The property in question was an old hotel/ bar with twelve, yes twelve bedrooms, four bathrooms and four toilets. The bar it's self was still there complete with pumps and everything. I know I've used the word huge on many occasions, but this place was simply.....Huge. And all for 74,500 euro, but you would need twice that again to get it looking anywhere near it's former glory, evidence of which was all around in the shape of photos of the former proprietors standing proudly outside their flower festooned establishment. Quite sad really.

Downstairs living room

   Then it was on to La Trinite Porhoet where we had an hour to wait for the estate agent to finish their lunch (we were beginning to get into the laid back way the French fill their day) So we took the opportunity to check out the local bar and sample their coffee.
That done we went off to view the property, and immediately fell in love with it. Lovely entrance hall with marble staircase, big front room, big kitchen and four bedrooms and a bathroom on the ground floor. Self contained two bedroom apartment with fitted kitchen and bathroom and a large lounge on the second floor. Then a basement with double garage, games room office another fitted kitchen, shower and loo. Also there is a large detached garage at the rear of the house. Now if that isn't perfect for a B&B I don't know what is.

Lake at La Trintie Porhoet

Another little bonus was the beautiful lake three minutes walk away down the lane to the side of the property where you can fish or stroll, there is also a sailing club. So all in all we think we have found the place of our dreams. Four en suites to install and we should be good to go. The estate agent contacted the Marie and they have no problems with our plans and also gave us the thumbs up for solar panels if we can afford them.

Now it was back to blighty to pack our stuff and prepare for France.

  

Buying Trip Deuxième partie

Long house featuring Howard

Day two of our viewing trip saw us head off to the village of St Nicolas du Pelem where we were to meet Doug, our agent for the morning. We arrived, parked up, and made our way to the village centre to find the rendezvous.
Whilst waiting this chap came along and remarked, "you look busy", to Karen who was stood there with her clipboard and pen. Well, we got chatting, as you do, and it transpired he knew Doug well, and gave us lots of good tips and advice to help us in our quest. Doug duly arrived, we said our goodbyes to our new friend Howard and set off to the first property.
This was a huge townhouse in the village of St. Nicolas du Pelam which was at one time a wine merchant. Hence the presence of a number of massive oak barrels in the store at the side of the house. We looked round with interest, and I must say I liked it alot. But it would have needed more Euro than we had to restore it to former glories.
The next house Doug took us to was far too small for what we needed, and to be fair Doug told us as such before we went, but the owner was expecting us so off we went. On the plus side we got to drive through some beautiful countryside.

Inside the longhouse

For the afternoon appointments we travelled to Gouarec a particularly nice little town with some beautiful buildings. Here we met Eric, who took us to see the longhouse pictured above.
The biggest surprise of the day was that having arrived at the property the key holder was none other than our new friend Howard who we had met previously that morning. He was good friends with the owner and again was very helpful.
The house itself just blew us away, it was achingly beautiful  was almost perfect for our needs. In reality it was two cottages made into one, with four bedrooms and two bathrooms  upstairs, two in each cottage reached by two staircases, and a large double downstairs with it's own bathroom. It would photograph well and was on the edge of a village, we were  very tempted.

The field

There was one slight problem, the field. The property came with the field included in the price. And what a view it provided, you looked straight over it from the garden, but what could we do with it. At present the owner lets it to local people to graze their horses on, but how much income that would generate I'm not sure? Also I believe in France you are taxed by the amount you own and this is a lot of land. The lack of any outhouses was also a concern, but that didn't stop us mulling over the various options as we made our way to the last property of the day.

Plounevez Quintin

  

Plounevez Quintin surprised me big time. Looking at the details before we left I wasn't too hopeful. however I was quite wrong. The house was, and still is deceptively big, in good order and overlooks the village church. It was one of the cheaper places we would look at, and as such was terrific value. If our budget was more limited this could well have been the place. Karen even found a rifle in a cupboard, how weird is that. 

So that was day two over and we had the longhouse on our radar along with the first house from the day before, we had also met Howard, which was a major plus. Things were going pretty well....Roll on tomorrow.  

Buying Trip

Base Camp

Well here we are back in Brittany for perhaps the most important visit of them all, for it is on this trip we hope to decide on the property that our future will depend. No pressure then.
We based ourselves about 2k north of the town of Huelgoat, where we stayed on our first trip way back in March. In fact, it really was too far west for our purpose but it was cheap and available, so beggars can't be choosers.
As it turned out it was very pretty and comfortable, so we unpacked and made ready for the weeks adventure.

Mael Carhaix

The very first place we saw set the bar pretty high. Just outside the village of Mael Carhaix was this splendid pile. Five bedrooms, the top two already boasting en suites, the rest of the house in good nick, this place had "P" big time. and the view from the gardens wasn't too shabby either.
Also there was a stone cottage to "renovate" (spend lots of money on) and a very large barn for storage, presumably my combine harvester it was so big.

Well if this was the kind of stuff we were going to be viewing the next few day would be very interesting indeed.

La Feuillee

 We saw four properties in all on Monday, and they were all pretty good but we had to discount them for one reason or another, either too remote, too much work or queries on land boundaries we didn't want to get mixed up in.
The house at La Feuillee was one we were really looking forward to before we left England, and was our last appointment of the day, but on inspection I was a little disappointed. Don't get me wrong the house was fine, nothing particularly wrong with it, it just didn't grab me. Karen on the other hand was much more impressed, and I must admit, for the price it was a lot of house. Situated on the outskirts of a pretty village it was very well placed as well, so it ticked all the boxes except the "you have to buy me" box......Oh well.
We did get convinced to have a look at one more place which, as it happened , was back in Huelgoat near where we were staying, so in for a penny.....
The house turned out to be a huge money pit and far to bigger task for us or our budget.

So with day one done and one contender in the bag, we set off back to our gite, for a cold mistakenly purchased non alcoholic beer, food and wine (alcoholic).
Roll on tomorrow, when we would get to meet our new Brittany best friend, the venerable Howard, top man.
  

Done Deal

Well, yesterday evening at 6-30 pm it actually happened, we exchanged contracts on our house sale, that's it done and dusted, farewell to "Melrose".
I'm  not saying those words don't come with a certain amount of sadness on my part, but our future doesn't lie here anymore. Our time in Victoria Crescent has been, on the whole, very happy, it's the house that Sophie and Tom grew up in and I'm sure they will always remember  it  as their home. 

When  we first moved here it was never our intention to move again, but after the children moved on it seemed to lose a little bit of soul and the lure of a fresh start, when we are still fit enough to make a go of it, seemed too good a chance to give up. 

The last couple of weeks has been pretty stressful. The information going backwards and forwards between the various solicitors and estate agents was really beginning to make my head hurt. And having to cough up £300 for an insurance policy that I know no-one will ever need, just to make our buyers solicitors happy, was annoying to say the least. But we paid up just to try and keep the cogs turning. The thought of anything going wrong, and having to go back to square one was not on the agenda.
Well, as I said, it's all signed off now and we can go to France tomorrow as cash buyers, and as so have a little more clout in the bargaining arena.
And lastly a massive thanks to Richard Ottaway and his pals at Martins Estates and all the hard work they've  done on our behalf, money well spent.
So it's on to Le Shuttle tomorrow with 17 houses to view next week....Wish us luck.  

The next post should have lots of news and pic from our week in Brittany and maybe even a new address!!! 

Progress!!!!

Ashford Parish Church

Well, the last month and a half have been pretty tough going. We still had a steady flow of viewers but no-one seemed to want to put in an offer. With my "job seekers allowance" rapidly coming to an end things were starting to look slightly desperate with financial limitations being added to the stress of not seeing an end to our situation. Leaving Ashford looked along way off.
Just making sure the house ad garden was spick-and-span was becoming a real chore and I was becoming increasingly restless around the house and finding it difficult to concentrate on anything apart from willing the phone to ring. Even my beloved guitars were being neglected.
Then, out of the blue the middle of last week, the tide began to turn.
We had a viewer last Tuesday who obviously wanted the place badly. He had grand plans to keep birds of prey and the house and garden suited his purpose perfectly. They were young, but you got the impression that the price wasn't a problem. So you can imagine our disappointment when they put in an offer a full 30 grand bellow the asking price. But we thought we'd end up agreeing a price somewhere in the middle and all parties would be happy..........Wrong.
They did up the anti but only by 5 grand and said that was as high as they would go. So we had a weekend agonising over weather we could take the hit and so put an end to the saga. In the end we decided to give it a week, and if there was still no interest we would, (working on the premise  happiness is more important than money) begrudgingly, concede and get on with life.............This turned out to be one of our better ideas.
Along came a wonderful lady that quite obviously felt exactly the same about the house as we did fifteen years ago. When she asked if we'd had any interest I told her of the low bid on the table and that we were going to run with it unless another one came along by the weekend. She told me not to agree to anything and she would bring hubby round that evening. Next day we had a very nice offer on the table to which we said YES PLEASE!
Now I know that nothing is over 'till the fat lady sings, (this particular fat lady being "exchange of contracts") but at least we can see a light at the end of the tunnel, and we can begin to look at French properties and plan another viewing trip in August.
Our lovely buyer is off to Marmaras for a holiday and we told her all about Turunc, so if any of my Turkish friends read this look out for an English couple who are excited about a new home, be extra nice to them they might  be our newest friends.  

Killing Time

Backgammon 

As I said in the previous post, waiting for an offer on your house is a pains taking exercise, and I'm afraid I'm not very good at it. So as a way of re-leaving at least some of the boredom I've taken to learning the art of Backgammon.
This is a game that rather past me by when I was younger, and apart from a couple of games with my friend Matt, whilst cruising down The Nile,  (how posh is that), I've never really played.  But I know it's very popular on the continent, including France, see where I'm going with this? And it's  my thinking, it would be a good thing to be able to take on the locals and not look a twit. Thus helping the integration process, and making new French friends.

We purchased this board whilst on our Turkish holiday, and it's very beautiful, and by English standards well priced (read cheap). It's hand made and was ours for a little under thirty English pounds. It will also be good to have around the B&B for our guests to use along with Scrabble, Cluedo and whatever else we can gather together.

Last week we had three more viewings, but nothing more this week. But to keep us interested we've decided to have a bit of a move round with the bedrooms. At present we sleep in the loft room which, to be honest was always going to be best with either one or two single beds. And when we (finally) get to France we are going to need a twin room. So we've ordered a bed to match the one we already have in the box room, and we are going to move down to the second floor into the room vacated by our lovely lodger Betsy. The thinking is it will make the house look more balanced.

That does however mean putting away my beloved Scalextric that has had pride of place in that room  for the past month. Oh well, you can't have it all.

Scalextric

  I hope the next time I write on this blog I will be talking about an offer and that things going forward...........Fingers crossed.

Still Waiting.

This house selling, or not yet selling, is much more stressful than I thought it was going to be. We came back from France full of what we want to do, and how we are going to do it, and it's difficult keeping the levels of excitement up whilst waiting for the call from the estate agent.
We haven't been short of viewings, I think, after tomorrows appointment we must be up to eleven or twelve, which we are told is very good for the current climate. But it's still hard when it's not just another house we are looking forward to, but another way of life, and a dream of a new start, that seems to be on hold.
Karen finds motivating herself for work more difficult, and filling my day is not easy, (you can only hoover and cut the grass so many times). And every time the phone rings I can't help but think,"this might be it" only to find it's a dental check up reminder or some-one trying to tell me that I'd had a car crash in the last two years and would I like to claim, which I haven't and I don't.
I know there are many things to get sorted before the big day, furniture storage, transport etc, but until we at least get an offer, I feel we can't get too deep into the move planning, if only not to jinx things.

So as a de-stress exercise we took ourselves away for a short holiday........to Turkey??
Yes I know it should have been France, but we have been visiting the pretty seaside village of Turunc for the past seven years and have many Turkish friends out there. And our plans being what they are we will not be getting a holiday for a good few years, so it was a case of "now or never", and we chose now. So we went back for eleven days to drink Efes and say goodbye to some fab friends and make a couple of new ones. And thanks to the wonders of face book we can keep in touch and maybe one day one or two of them may decide to come and visit us in France and we could show them some of the hospitality they've shown us over the years.

Turunc Turkey

 

Waiting for the sale



For Sale

 It has now been just over a month since we returned from France. And after a few frantic days finishing off the decorating we finally got our house on the market.

As the thing that will hopefully make our property stand out is the garden, we decided to place an extra "for sale" board  against the willow tree hoping to garner interest from the people using the path on the other side of the river.





View North

 Over the past three and a half weeks we've had seven or eight viewings which, everyone tells me is pretty good. However, as always with these things, you seem to get an inital surge of interest, which tapers off  after a while. Which, unfortuneatly, is where we find ourselves at present.

View to river

Having been unemployed since the new year, and having completed all the cosmetic work on the house, I now find myself constantly awaiting the phone to ring. I'm not coping very well with all the sitting around waiting for our new life to begin. ( You can only hoover,polish and mow the lawn so many times).

Let's just hope our buyer will find us soon and we can get this thing moving again....Fingers crossed.

View from Pond

P.S If anyone wants a look inside they can find the deails at the right move web site.

Homeward Bound

French Roads

When we are in another country we do try to "go native"as much as we can. But given the length of journey in front of us we decided to go for the "full English" option offered by our host. Having looked at the B&B details that we had downloaded prior to  the trip, it seemed there was no extra cost for this service..... Wrong! Having consumed said breakfast and paying the bill it seemed that an extra 24 Euro was now required. The first time we thought we'd been had during our trip, and it took another Brit to do it. But as true Brits ourselves we didn't make a fuss and paid up and went on our way. But that particular B&B will not be getting any recommendations from us......so there!

Having a navigation nightmare in Rouen last time we were over here we decided to make our way back to the tunnel via Caen, this would be a longer route, but we were in no real hurry and it had two big pluses, 1 we would get another go at the magnificent Pont de Normndie and 2 we wouldn't spend hours lost  and going round and round Rouen's one way system. I still have the vapors about the place, one day I'll go back and face my demons, but just not  today.

The first hour and a half or so of our journey was spent touring through the beautiful Normandy countryside. I've never seen so many dead straight, empty roads. It's like driving in England thirty years ago, but without your car breaking down every few miles obviously. Though we did wonder quite where Declan was taking us every now and then we stuck with him and just followed the road.

Pont de Normandie

Going up

 The Pont de Normandie is quite a sight, you can't help but be impressed. In fact one day I would like some-one else to drive me over so I can get a better look. It spans the Seine between Le Havre and Honfleur, and even on a murky day like this one was it looked great.

Apparently there's even a cycle and  foot path as well which I found surprising.


 It's a pretty steep climb up and over but I would pay good money for the experience, oh come to think of it I did.

The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful, just lots of well surfaced, uncrowded  motorways, just like England...Not. We did have one diversion off coarse, by taking a wrong exit but Declan came good and soon had us back on the rails.
We arrived at Calais with enough time to take in City Europe and all it's delights. So stocked up with wine beer and this evenings dinner we set off to find the terminal. This proved to be Declan's downfall, he was totally bewildered. So we had to turn him off and us the signage. What a come down. 
So I totally blame Declan for missing the VERY LARGE STOP sign and thus incurring the wrath of, I must say,over zealous gendarme. Ooops.

Well that was it. We are now home and stacked with information and dreams. The house has been on the market for a week and a half and we've had six viewings so far, not bad.
As soon as we get a buyer we will be back to France to view more places and if any of these are still available we will have a second look mat those.

Watch this space. 

Wednesday. Off to Normandy.

The House at St. James

So it was time to say goodbye to Finestere and say hello to Normandy. It would be a fair drive, so we fired up "Declan" the sat nav and made an early start.
We were to meet the immobilier in a small place called St. James, which was also the location of the first property of the day.
Now St James turned out to be a quite beautiful little town, with narrow streets and many nice shops, of which we saw a good deal of as we went round and round the one way system trying to find the spot where we to meet our guide.

Neglected Garden

A reminder of home

In the end we gave up on that plan, found the first available parking space and phoned the lady and said she would have to come and find us. Which she duly did, bless her.
The house was but two minutes drive out of the town centre and was in a wonderful location.The view across the valley to the neighbouring  chateau was lovely. It would quite obviously make a splendid B&B, but only for some-one with a larger bank balance than we could muster. It was crying out for lots of money to be spent on it. Apparently the current English owners had bought it some four years ago and never come back once, very strange. 
So after a good look round, (the cellar was pretty spooky), we made our way back to the car taking in the view one last time.

Just to show your real life is never far away, as we were heading back to the car a Brake Bros; lorry sped by. Karen was most pleased to be reminded of her current employer whilst in the depth  or rural France. Me I saw no-one from the job centre once.

Montreuil Poulay

Extra Cottage

The final property of our trip was about 1 1/2 hours away at Montreuil Poulay, a small village in the Pays de la Loire. Now this place got me very excited.
It consisted of a large stone built house facing straight on to the village square and the church. There are only two bedrooms at present but even if the larger one was split into two, it would still be more than big enough for purpose.
Also, the loft, already divided into two parts would make a good bedroom and bathroom.
The rear of the house also ticked many boxes.

Home for chickens

I was very taken with the presence of a large chicken area with a very nice walnut tree at it's heart. There was also a decent vegetable patch and parking. Not that that would be an issue as the square at the front was mostly empty.
The other aspect of this property was the self contained cottage next door. (Seen to the left in the main photo). Which was in with the price.
Access at present is through the garage at the rear. Opening this proved a slight problem, so after I managed to break off the handle off we had to call the owners son who duly arrived and showed us our error....we'd been pushing it the wrong way. Oooops.
Anyway it turned out my little mishap wasn't a problem and he showed us around.
It consisted of one extremely large downstairs and an equally large upstairs. And it didn't look although it had been used since d'artagnan and his mates were at large.
If we sold our house in England for a good price, and managed to knock the owners of this place down a little, it could be a goer. But we'd have to be very sure of ourselves and more than a tad brave.
Plenty to think on for our trip back to Blighty in the 'morrow.      

Tuesday Afternoon..........

After what was a a very enjoyable and laid back morning we drove off towards Pordic blissfully unaware of the stress's and strains we were to encounter during the afternoon.
We were to meet the immobilier at his"office. To get there we had to get off the sleepy rural roads we were becoming so at home on and back on to the major duel carriageways. These were quite the busiest we'd had to deal with especially around St. Brieuc. But Pordic was reached without incident  and we set about trying to find the office, which unlike the previous office we'd visited was on the outskirts of an industrial estate on the edge of town. We were feeling along way from Huelgoat.
At the office "he" turned out to be a "she", because the person we'd had the appointment with was out with another client. This wasn't helping our mood. And that was further compounded when we were told, despite having a four door Peugeot, there was no room in the car for us and we would have to follow her and her father in our own car (She didn't drive). Now i'm not keen on following other people, especially erratic Frenchmen, who don't use their indicators, going round large roundabouts in pretty heavy traffic. But what can you do?
But after a deal of swearing and cursing on my part, we got back on some sensible roads and arrived at our first property of the afternoon.

Allineuc

 
      I was very taken with this place. It was set in a pretty little village quite close to the church. It defiantly had B&B potential Apparently there was also a good fishing lake on the edge of the village which could be bait for any guests we might reel in. Ho Ho.

Anyway it's one on our "would have another look at" list should it still be on the market when we are ready to take the plunge.  

Plourhan

Loft to convert!!

 Our next port of call was not on our original itinerary, but was found by our guide for the afternoon.
It was situated in a town rather than a village but was very close to the coast, which could be a plus for us helping to pull in trade.
The layout was a little bizarre though, in that it had a large bathroom downstairs with access from both the dinning room and the kitchen, meaning if you wanted to avail yourself of the facilities, as Karen says, you would have to make sure you locked both doors......Strange.

Lanvollon

    This place was a real disappointment it ticked none of our boxes at all.
To begin with it faced straight on to a busy road, the above photo is taken from the rear. Also the small triangle of garden allocated to the house was very small and the owners, who lived next door had put a swimming pool on their side, imagine the noise! If I don't like living next door to a trampoline I couldn't possibly cope with a swimming pool.
The inside also wasn't exactly inspiring, so we put that one down to experience and made our escape.

By this time we were quite knackered and had along drive in front of us back to Huelgoat. We'd left at about 9 O'clock that morning and wouldn't be back at our B&B until after 6. We'd covered many miles and taken in allot of information. We would recount it all that evening over a pint or three, whilst watching France get stuffed by Spain with our new best buddie in the local bar.

Here's to tomorrow and Normandy........

House Search Tuesday Morning...

So our search continued. As Tuesday was such a busy day, With five properties to view, and many miles in between, I'm going to break this into two posts.
We were beginning to feel at home in our French surroundings, driving was much less of an issue than i thought it would be, and we seemed to be getting on pretty well with the few locals we were interacting with, mostly bar shop keepers and bar owners I'll grant you. One bar owner in particular was very memorable. A biker/ Olympique de Marseille fan, we quickly bonded with a love of beer, football and most importantly Didier Drogba. It was a fun place to spend the evening and we made a special note to return the following evening to watch France take on Spain.

Entrance Hall

Nice Kitchen

Enjoying a cup of tea

The first view of the day quite took our breath away. Situated in a very quite village about twenty minutes drive from our base in Huelgoat and right next to the church, it was quite simply beautiful. Strangely enough, it is owned by a very nice couple from Pluckley, who knew Ashford very well, gave us tea, and looked after splendidly.




The house was in very good order, the only possible down side was that we would have to use the third bedroom as the on suite bathroom for one of the other rooms, thus reducing the amount of rooms we could B&B to two.However the loft was all but converted and a good size workshop at the back this place seems very promising. And at a good price as well, so good we fear that the chances of it still being on the market when we sell are very slim indeed.




Right next door is a bar/ shop/ just about everything else. And in the very French way the owners told us that in the three years that they'd lived there they hadn't quite worked out what hours the bar was open and what hours it wasn't, but I wouldn't have it any other way.
Also in with the price was a decent size piece of land, just down the road a little, ideal for a little veg plot and keeping a few chickens......... Move over Tom Good!

Trying to get in

We were shown around the above property by the owners because the very dippy English immobilier got her wires muddled and thought we were an afternoon booking and was miles away in her office. So we arranged to meet her at the next location.

Infinity  Garden

 

 After a pleasant drive we  rendezvous with Miss Dippy, who straight away couldn't get the front gate open. So after a little gentle persuasion from yours truly we got on the site only to find the back door wouldn't budge. So Karen and I went off to explore the garden. Now I say garden, perhaps I should say field, it was huge, we only ventured thee quarters of the way down and when we turned to look back the house was just a speck in the distance. Apparently the local farmer comes once a year and makes hay and takes it away and that's the only time any one sets foot on it.
   

Small Room

 We made the long trek back to the house to find our new friend had eventually sorted out the lock and we were able to have a look round inside. It wouldn't take long.
Where as the out side area of the property was roughly the size of Romney Marsh, the inside wasn't. It seemed like the house was the Tardis in reverse, all the rooms were small, including both sitting rooms (two ??) No way would this place be any use as a B&B, but it was useful to see a different type of dwelling and more of the beautiful country side.


We left our guide fumbling with her car keys, ( I shouldn't be to harsh, she was very sweet and perhaps it just wasn't her day), and went off in search of lunch. I can say the town of Bourbriac is very nice We parked in the town square, free again, just in time to see the last market stall packing up. Found yet another pizza bar run by another very entertaining guy, and enjoyed some great food, great coffee (and tea) and a little light banter with the host.

So to the afternoon.......................