Hi new to site and to France! Looking to furnish a house - nearest town Eymet - any recommendations/advice gratefully received! Many thanks.
Thanks Brian,
I have my eye on a Stanley errigal here in the uk only a £100 ATM (ebay) heats hot water too. Also a new haas sohn £350’ also heats water, sadly raeburn bit out of my price range currently.
My property has two parcels of woodland both around 1.9 hectares so I am hoping that vendors leaves me some seasoned to give me time to cut and dry out my own!
All in all wood burners are cheaper there. We imported a Rayburn Supreme. Even reconditioned it cost well over £2k. Expect a new one to cost around 3k. They might come up on ebay. For cooking, central heating and hot water the Rayburn is best, Esse will not do all and then you have to go up range on German/Scandinavian makers and pay a lot more. France cannot compete for prices at all and looking on the used goods offers like ebay and le bon coin could take a long time, then you will probably need reconditioning, transport and so on.
The economy is worth the investment though, this winter we have not once put on the electricity to heat either the immersion heater or bathroom towel rail and last year, very cold here, perhaps only once because the stove kept the water hot. Wood is not cheap and one used a lot but far cheaper than electricity or oil.
Brian and everyone, how about wood burning ovens? I am moving over in July and now collecting my furniture for one big ship over. Have been buying my miele white goods (ebay) and now keeping a eye on wood burning oven with back burners… The house currently has a wood burning stove but I want to cook on wood… So do I buy off ebay and ship over or is this one ara where France can compete on price?
Is there an Emmaus near you? They sell second-hand furniture to help the homeless.
Ah furniture, yet another topic where value for money does not spring to mind, at least not in France (although I found Germany to be similar in that regard too at the time). Other than the ubiquitous Ikea for the "cheap" (and I use that word loosely) and cheerful, which may or may not be within economical driving distance, we try the Depôts Vente, places like the Troc de l'Ile if they have one near you, sometimes have reasonably priced second hand furniture, but even there, in my area, I've noticed that prices have gone up quite steeply over the past two years. As someone else has said, doing the rounds of the brocantes, etc, is also a possibility, but very much down to luck on the day and time consuming.
I would add that I've always bought my furniture wherever I happen to have lived, but the attraction of large UK outlets in Kent and now the availability of a van big enough to put stuff in have made things more appealing, at least for our personal home furnishings (although we haven't done anything about that yet).
Yes, I forgot leboncoin, always worth a visit but if you are in a hurry go for it now since it appears the French habit is to replace furniture or decorate the house in the spring.
Hi, also try looking on le bon coin as we've seen some good designer furniture sold on there recently. I have to be honest though, we've bought our stuff in the UK (lots of gr8 stuff off Ebay) and paid to ship it over with a man and a van at a reasonable price which has easily covered the difference in the price between France and UK. Yes it's not local but when local is IKEA or ridiculously overpriced furniture then I'm afraid I will choose quality and price from elsewhere.
Furniture is prohibitively expensive in France. New is terrible and second hand can be, in fact we have experienced things more expensive than they are new although they could never qualify as antique (couple of year old IKEA things!). I am not that far from Eymet but know too well that anywhere near there. Issigeac or Beaumont is more expensive than a bit further afield because they are prosperous towns and there are those, including non-French so as not to blame them, who exploit that to the hilt. As a market stall holder I use told me, Eymet and Issigeac are the top prices down to the market I use and one other being the lowest. Her point is that everybody does the same, so be forewarned.
If you have time and patience it can be done using vides grenier, vide maison and such weekend 'markets'; however that is often dependent on negotiating skills. Better still is to look out for a good sized depot vente. There are several around Bergerac, we have used none of them though so I am not sure how good, the best one we know is just outside Bordeaux which is a bit of a way to go. If going that far then there is IKEA too of course. However, the used furniture market overall is great and only things like electrical and gas appliances should be avoided.
My wife and I are very discriminating and always find what what we need, but then the combination of a Scot and a Swiss and financial transactions... ;-)