Vans & Stuff

We have been given the smallest van ever that could be said to be competition for the basic transit.  It's called a Citroen Dispatch.  It is clearly lower and narrower than the transit I was expecting.  Getting the stuff in was a logistical nightmare, only solved by Pip's three dimensional thinking.  Ending up low on the ground with the heavy fence posts and post cement, the van is now fully packed with nothing left out (at one stage it was full with three pickets, one gate and a wine rack left over!).

Then we have a misunderstanding on the departure!  My friend who is accompanying me thought we were departing on Friday 30th, where the planning had all been going on Thursday...... Oh dear.  Instead of getting the 06:50 shuttle, we will probably end up leaving the country at about half past four.  It will be a long day!

Gates

The fencing company (Fountain Timber from Bristol) have come up trumps.  OK, they delivered the wrong size gate last week, but we were able to alert them quickly, and at 06:45 this morning, a driver came to deliver the correct size and pick up the old one.  Fantastic service, which was rushed through to ensure we were all good for the 04:45 departure on Thursday morning!

So everything is now in place, including the appointment to watch Bordeaux FC and dinner afterwards - we will, of course deserve some recreation time!

We're Almost Set

Fencing has arrived (although they've delivered one gate the wrong way round - hope that arrives before we go), ordered the wood for the window shutters, dishwasher waiting to leave.  Also tickets have been bought for Bordeaux v Toulouse on Saturday evening.

Still have things to do before we go - the wood for the shutters will need to be cut from 5.1m lengths, as they won't fit in the van, chest of drawers to empty and move downstairs.

Orders have been taken for wine purchases to fill the van on the way back - such a rarity to have capacity to bring volumes back.

Can't wait!

The French Legal System and the Move

Once we decided to buy, we then had to try to understand the French legal system as it relates to property.  It is antiquated, and there are Napoleonic laws applied to inheritance for married couples.  In addition, it is not normal to appoint a lawyer - the theory is that the whole process of determining ownership etc is done by the state appointed Notaire.  In order to ensure it all went OK, we did appoint a French lawyer in the UK, to translate the documents and to ensure we were not disadvantaged.

Anyway it all went through relatively smoothly.  On a Sunday in April 2008 we packed up a van with furniture - some new some additional to requirements here - and headed down to Gironde.  We stayed at La Terrasse in Duras, where we had stayed in an earlier visit (for measuring up etc), and then had all day Monday to buy little bits and pieces - mainly for cleaning.  The meeting with the Notaire was not until 17:30; during the meeting, Monsieur le Notaire reads out the contract word for word to ensure both parties understand.  We then had to sign each page individually.......

It was then late, and we needed to start unpacking the van so we could make our bed to sleep in.  We got there in the end.  That trip was seriously hard work - decorating bedrooms, laying flooring, buying and building IKEA furniture.

More on that in following posts.

Duras or Blaye - that was the Question!

So after our weekend trip, when we saw a total of nine properties, we had ended up with two possible candidates one just outside Blaye, the other just north of Duras.  Work needed doing to both properties, although, on the face of it, not much to the one near Duras; we liked both properties, which each had their own charms.

The choice, then was between Blaye, which we felt was relatively quiet on the English tourist front, or the east end of the Gironde department, which has many English residents - we went out to dinner in Duras, where only one table was occupied by French people, all the others were brits!  This then was a dilema.  We needed to be able to rent out the house when we weren't using it to help with the costs, but we were not that keen on an area swarming with English people.  We ended up going for the Duras option, as letting the house was important.

In the end, although you come across English people around, for instance in the various markets around the area, there are not many Brits in the immediate locale.

Duras

Duras is about 15km south of St Foy La Grande.  I knew this area, as my family have connections with a family in St Foy, and I had stayed there a couple of times as a holiday exchange.

The property we liked there was a converted stone barn, which was owned by an English builder and his french wife.  Whilst it had been converted and a lot of work had been done, not many parts had been finished - little finishing touches were missing, such as the skirting board in the glorious master bedroom.  Some of the older rooms, such as the downstairs bedrooms had not been decorated in 13 years.

Blaye

We were really taken with Blaye.  It is a pretty town on the banks of the Gironde estuary, just across from the Medoc wine region.  All the people we met there were very friendly, and there did not seem to be any English people there at all - which is a good thing!

The house we fell in love with there had really large grounds lawns sweeping down to woodland with a stream.  Some work was needed on the house, but it had plenty of charm, including a separate room with en-suite, which you could only get to by putting up some external stairs.  If we had gone with this, we would have needed to build the pool - not a problem given the space available.

The History

How come we ended up buying a house in the South West of France?  Well, back in late 2007, we came into a small bit of money, and decided to do something with it.  We both enjoyed going to France on holiday, and had talked a lot about retiring there.  We had fallen in love with a lovely village called Venasque in Provence, where we had been on holiday at Easter that year, however, prices there were very high.

We started looking in the Bordeaux region, using a property website selling French properties to the English, and focused on two specific areas - Blaye, just to the north of Bordeaux on the banks of the Gironde estuary, and south of St Foy, near the Dordogne river.

We went for a long weekend in October 2007 (actually the weekend that England beat Australia and France beat New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup quarter finals) and went to visit properties.  We started in Blaye, and happened to also notice some properties with an estate agent that we hadn't arranged to meet.  On the first day, we visited three properties which we had already identified.  One of these was really nice, the others needed a significant amount of work.  We made arrangements to come back to Blaye on the Saturday afternoon (we were originally going to stay near Duras for two nights), and visit a further three properties.  None of the additional properties were good enough.

Before heading back to Blaye,we visited three properties around Duras.  One of these had been refurbished although still required some work; it also had a swimming pool.  One other one was also in good condition, but was much smaller, and had no pool.  The third needed an entire refurbishment and was a semi-detatched house.

Therefore the choice was between the one in Blaye and one near Duras.

We're Back!

It was really good to get out there.  The slight concern about any problems was put to rest - all was good.

Measuring done for the fence around the pool, and for the shutters (I hope I can make them ok!).  We have also bought some spring/autumn duvets and some better pillows.

Videos were taken, although they are not very good - they should help to give an idea of what the house is like inside!  Click here to go to the page on the website

On a personal side, we have started the stockpile of wine to take back in May!