We landed in Toulouse and picked up a lovely Fiesta hired from Europcar and drove into the centre of Toulouse (a very short trip). It was cold but the sky was pure blue and the sun was shining. Our hotel was great value (thank you Booking.com) and in a great central location. If anyone is visiting Toulouse I can recommend Hotel le Clocher Rodez on Place Jeanne d'Arc. A cosy room with everything we wanted and friendly staff. We spend the afternoon wandering around Toulouse, visiting the great Christmas Market in Place du Capitole. We could have bought so much but as we were flying we had to be careful of weight limits so just picked up a few pressies which were so different from anything we had seen in England. The architecture was beautiful and we had a lovely meal before returning to the hotel for an early night.
The next morning and more blue skies and sunshine and we set off for Villefagnan. A lovely trip (about 4 1/2 hours). The roads got a bit busy around Bordeaux and we were amazed at the convoys of lorries on the N10. They all stuck to the inside lane though so we sailed on by. We arrived at Villefagnan mid afternoon and booked into the Logis de Tours, a listed building that was once a chateau and will be one of our competitors in the B&B arena.
Wednesday we visited the windmill nearby (the area once had many windmills and this one has been restored and still grinds flour)
After that we had a trip to a nearby shopping complex to look at prices and suss out where to get supplies.
Thursday was Phil's birthday and we spent the morning going around an amazing DIY/builders merchants in Ruffec called 3M. We also looked at some second hand cars. These are very expensive in France but I plan on having a budget of €4,000 to get something fairly decent. We saw a Peugeot 307 that fitted the bill so we'll see if it is still available next time. The alternative is to take my car over and have it registered in France. This turns out to be quite complicated and costly. It involves getting a French MOT (Controle Technique), a certificate of conformity from the manufacturers, having the headlights changed by an authorised person and certified and obtaining a grey card (carte grise). Another option is to buy a left hand drive car in the UK but we are fast going off that idea as it involves a trip to Nottingham or Kent and we still have to take the car over. More on this as the plan develops.
In the afternoon we went to the house to meet the plumber along with Nadia and Justin from the agents. This time we paid attention to the furniture we were going to be buying the following day. The plumber turned up a little late as his morning job had over-run and he had to go and have his lunch. Nothing gets in the way of a Frenchman and his lunch. He was a lovely chap and as we were chatting to him about connecting the house to mains drainage and when he could start work (scheduled for 8th Jan) a little old man turns up and starts talking to Nadia.
I gleaned that he was one of the sellers and he was saying that the sale would not be taking place the following day. It transpired that when they were asked if anyone else had an interest or claim to the property they had said 'No'. But then it had come to light that someone else did have a claim. This claimant had died but had 2 children who had to agree to the sale therefore it was going to take some more time. In spite of this we went to the house as planned the following morning and then to the notaire's office where he ran through the whole contract with us and I signed over power of attorney to him - hopefully for the final signing to take place after we had returned to England. The hope was that it would still happen before Xmas. This was very disappointing as we returned home on the Saturday without my French house.
I am now writing in January 2014. The hope was that as the sale hadn't taken place by Xmas, nor the New Year, that the week commencing 6th January would be the week. Sadly, not so - but we have a date of 13th January and a time of 2pm for the sale to be finalised.
On this basis we have now ordered a made to measure wooden window for the bedroom (currently the attic) and are planning on going to look at bathrooms etc. this week with a view to buying as soon as the sale is complete. At this stage I am not holding my breath but we are itching to get started.
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