The beginning

It started many years ago.

I have never been much good with the greyness and the damp in England. I love the countryside and I do appreciate how wonderful the seasons are - but more so on blue sky days. For years I have said that one day I will move to a warmer country. This has taken several turns. I love the Greek Islands and for the last 10 years or so have seriously felt that I may eventually run a bar in Turkey. The language is a little challenging there and over the last couple of years the thought has occurred to me that I do, or rather did, speak adequate French and maybe I should consider being a little closer to home. Why waste my schoolgirl French in Turkey!

So we looked at properties on and off and the project came into being then faded away. I think I got a little scared but a very good friend suggested that I at least start the project seriously and go into some depth - if I decided this wasn't right for me then at least I had looked at it and given it due consideration.

So it was that we went over to France on 17^th September 2013 having researched properties in two areas for several months.

I set my budget low as it is dependent on the sale of my house in Bradley Stoke and we wanted to buy somewhere cheap to renovate so need a cash pot to fund the renovations. The plan is to turn a house into a home and a B&B. to earn a living.

We arrived in France armed with about 30 properties we wanted to try and visit – there was no way we were going to get to see all of them. The majority were in our Area 1 as we called it which was a corridor to the left of Limoges and right of La Rochelle that went down to Bergerac, mainly in the Charente and Charente Maritime. This area has the second highest number of sunshine hours after the Med.

Area 2 was a smaller area in the Dordogne that ran down from Bergerac. Property was more expensive generally in this area so we couldn’t find as many to view within budget.

We stayed in a hamlet called L’Age in a little gite owned by Fiona and Derek – a lovely couple who have been in France since 1990. L’Age is near St Mathieu (Perigord Vert) and was a long way from most of the houses we were looking at.

After a cold and wet start to our stay we decided on the Friday to go to Cognac for the day. On looking at the map we realised we could see a couple of houses in Ruffec and then a couple of little houses around a courtyard in Villefagnan before driving down to Cognac for the afternoon.

Ruffec was a lovely town, previously on the N10 from Paris to Bordeaux but now bypassed. There is only one hotel there and NO B&Bs at all. The house we saw there was in a real state and had bags of potential but had no outside area. This really didn’t work for me as it is going to be our home and I can’t imagine not having an outside courtyard at the very least.

After Ruffec we headed to Villefagnan. We parked in the square and had a wander and came across the 2 little houses for sale behind some green iron gates. There was a For Sale (A Vendre) notice on the gates and it told us that the agent for the property was situated in Grande Rue in the village itself. We thought we would try and find the agent and walked all of about 30 yards and there they were. We popped in and some people were just leaving and Joan (the MD had a chat with us about the property and said she could show us there and then. So we went and had a look.

It really was the prettiest property we had seen (out of about 10 at that stage) and we were both quite smitten. 

Pretty 2nd house

Joan could see this and we chatted about the next steps but I determined that we should keep an open mind as were travelling down to the Dordogne a few days later. Joan thought it was a good idea to keep an open mind as we had a bench mark now and we would know that if we still liked this property after seeing others then maybe it was the one for us.

We popped into the town hall (la Mairie) to enquire about whether we they would have a problem with us running a chambres d’hotes in the village.

I was asked to email after a day and she would have an answer for us. She also advised about the options of a cess pit or connecting to mains drainage. In fact the girl in the Mairie asked a man (have no idea if he worked there or not) to go around to the house and see whether it was possible to connect to mains drainage in the road. He came back and said we could.

We popped into the butchers before we left to get some meat for the BBQ. What a friendly place it was and great steak! We also visited the bar / restaurant at the end of the village for a drink just to find is being run by some English. Before we left I stopped just to say we had looked at a little house and were interested in their village. The girl said they had been there 2 years and loved it. So, that’s quite a recommendation.

Anyway we drove away with lots of information and so much to talk about.

We never made it to Cognac that day.

We mulled it over all that weekend and text Joan to say we’d like to come back and have another look on the Monday - and then definitely on to Cognac to do a distillery tour as we leaving the next day for Eymet.

We arrived at Actous Immobilier and Joan was there with Nadia (who I had been in email contact with before we left the UK)

Nadia took us to the houses along with her partner Justin.  They both live in a village near Villefagnan and were lovely. Justin was born in the same hospital as I was and Nadia is from Belgium.

This visit I videoed the houses and garden and Phil brought his electronic laser measuring device. He measure up every room and I wandered around giving a running commentary on each room.

We could see clearly the masses of potential the property had. Several entrances to each of the houses and an attached barn, so as B&B or even gites, guests could have their own access. 

Barn with lots of potential

We could see there were small attic windows in the second house and we all looked for a hatch to see if we could get up there. Phil found a hatch and Justin went in search of a ladder which he found. Justin climbed up and found that the floorboards went across all the way to the barn and were solid.

The rooms are big enough to put staircases in so potentially we have another 2 storey house.

At the end of the garden there is a little path that belongs to the property that leads up to the centre of the village by the church. How quaint!

The first house is in better condition - but not quite so pretty - and was where the lady who owns it lived till she went into a home 3 or so months previously. In the end her bed was brought down to the ‘entrance hall’. How she managed with an outside soil toilet and one cold tap in the kitchen I really don’t know.

Bed in the 'Entrance Hall'

Nadia and Justin were so friendly – Nadia wouldn’t have needed much encouragement to crack open a bottle of champagne there and then to celebrate.

Before leaving Villlefagnan we had a little walk around again and we must have looked at home because a French woman stopped to ask us directions. It was lunchtime and all the shops were closed but we were thirsty so we stopped outside the general stores to debate what we were going to do next. Whilst deliberating the lady from the shop came out and asked if we needed something and ushered in so we could buy some water and biscuits. So friendly.

And we did get a great afternoon in Cognac and did the Hennessey tour. This was great – only 6 of us on the tour and it included a lovely boat trip across the Charente to their old distilleries on the other side of the river.

The following day we left L’Age and drove down to Eymet. This village is a medieval bastide town, famed for a TV programme called Little England. Apparently over 50% of the population are English. Whilst this didn’t appeal to us as a place to live, it was a good base and I found a lovely gite where we could base ourselves and walk to the bar and restaurants in the evenings.

We saw a few houses but spent a lot more time relaxing this week.

One of the best properties was one we didn’t even know about until we walked into the agents in Duras. This is a pretty town in the Dordogne with a chateau and vineyards all around. There was a wonderful property – masses of space with wonderful views and right by the old town walls. It had a garden with a fig tree and plenty of room for a swimming pool. Right on the main road into town – perfect for a B&B and also a hundred metres from the Chateau and within walking distance of a huge winery. Bottom line though was it was on at €107,000 and although we could maybe have got it for €90,000 there wouldn’t have been any available cash to spend on it. And it certainly needed lots throwing at it. We were still talking about Villefagnan and I dropped an email to Chris (Phil’s estate agent brother) asking what I may achieve for my house in Bradley Stoke. Phil put in a call to see if he could free up some cash if my sale took a while so we could still proceed if we wanted to. All our figures were being based on Villefagnan.

Having spoken to quite a few English people who had moved to France I realised it wasn’t such a big deal and that if they could do it then so could I. Nobody was any better at French (certainly initially and many moved without speaking a word.) And no one was nay more dynamic than me. The nerves started evaporating and it started to seem doable. So many people said they wouldn’t return to the UK. Traffic, pollution, grumpy people, etc. They all love the pace of life and of course the sunshine. We weren’t under any illusions though as temperatures nosedive in winter but I think that when the sun comes out it is quite warm, pushing the average temperature up. I love how they measure distances in minutes – because they can accurately say how long a journey will take.

So nothing was measuring up to Villefagnan. Nadia had been trying to find a plumber to give us a quote to connect to mains drainage and on the Saturday came back to us. The quote was for €2125 so wasn’t too stupid and she suggested at this point I put in an offer.

We had seen all the properties we were going to and at this point (although we were only going to France to have a look around) I did! I offered €50,000 – they were after €53,580 and received an email on the Monday morning to say it had been accepted. I was just about to became a house owner in France.

We went onto Amazon straight away and ordered some A3 graph paper to be sent back home so the plans could commence when we got back.

We had a wonderful last day. Phil took lots of photos of the inside of the gite for inspiration. It was a great little gite and they did have some great ideas. We also visited a Chateau where Josephine Baker once lived; a great day out before returning to England on the Tuesday, our heads buzzing with what we had to do and so many plans.