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!!!