Hi Elaine,
This one is up for sale by some friends of ours, fully up and running small holding, nr St Sulpice Les Feuilles, Haute Vienne
So good to hear, Marie-Antoinette! It's relatively mild here in London today -- or perhaps Shirley has set the thermostat too high!! Been on the computer for much of the day. Keep warm -- and see you both soon.
Anil,
I am in the frozen "tundra" in Illinois. I will return to Charente-Maritime March 30th and would love to meet up with you and Shirley. Larry is home doing little "chores".
What's "fwa"?
Hopefully this link works...
Thank you Norman and David - I have a horse so looking for grazing, also I want to live self sufficiently so small woodland plus water supply. I don’t want total isolation ideally within 45 mins of limoges airport and 15 mins of local sncf station hence reason I am looking around le dorat and will venture into the charante around chabanais - I am staying away from creuse/correze believing they will be too ‘fwa’ but I may be mis-informed…David do you have the reference for the property in your village and I can go online and have a look -
Hi
Welcome 2 sunny France !
Best of luck
Christine Borrow (Vendee), St Julien-des-Landes) since Xmas 2002
French from Perpignan + huband English from L’pool
Or la Creuse? When you say farmhouse does that mean you want solitude? Or would you be ok in a village? There's a house up the road from us on the market en ce moment with Leggett Immobilier which has a reasonable amount of land and we are reliably informed that the vendors (french) would take somewhat less than the asking price. What are you planning to do with the land?
Bienvenue! March 4, today, marks the 10 year anniversary of my arrival in France. Its been an education and an adventure.
That's great news, Christine. Really thrilled to hear that you have arrived at this stage, finally!! I haven't kept up with the details of your move -- so cannot recall whereabouts you are moving to. If anywhere near/in Charente-Maritime, do join us for a drink in April. We do mean to return to our home in France -- and look forward to the joy of the sun and the sand again!!
PS: Marie-Antoinette, we all need to meet up again!!
Congratulations Christine, and the very best of luck for your move!
Christine, one piece of advice don't throw anything away that even smells of Government, even if it is dated 40 years ago ! You MUST keep everything because as sure as 'you know who' made little apples you will need it someday - and that includes every invoice on house renovation!
Unbelievably my French wife had to provide every document related to earnings over 45 years before she could get her Pension. What do these civil servants do if they don't keep these sorts of records? Any piece missing -tough! deducted from amounts due.
Yes we did the same when we moved too. VERY annoying. Finally one insurer agreed to go with the nine years "proof" (ie the fact that the last company had certified the max NCD) we had even though we'd changed every year. Our bank agent looked at us very oddly when we said we changed insurer every year, like we must be hiding something!
Yes things I wish I'd known could be a thread on it's own.....
Don't think I wont bring beds cos we will buy new when we get there, the mattresses alone cost a fortune over here!
Don't burn all paperwork before coming out.
Don't bring the UK car buy a LHD.
Bring tins of paint.
Could keep going but let others have a go
Elaine, try looking in the South Correze - Lot Valley. We found prices considerably cheaper than the adjacent Lot and Dordogne departements. All the benefits - weather and I am prejudiced now but in the Lot I produced a book of Chateaux et Villages which had some 20 illustrations - now combining Correze, Lot and Dordogne more than 100 and still counting! Within 30 minutes drive of our house near Beaulieu-sur-Dordogne - now fewer than SIX of the Most Beautiful Villages of France, and we even overlook one of them - Curemont.
Talk to Peter Elias - sometimes seen here, he knows the region well, and we bought ultimately through him almost two years ago, and very happy!
I wish you well. You are probably making the best decision of your life because we did! That was 15 years ago! But it won't be paradise and you will still have problems.....just different ones. However, somehow they just don't seem quite so daunting here. We are unlikely ever to return to the UK although now 'old age' approaches we will possibly move into a town and as we have to move to do that, we may choose a new region.
We are in the Charente at present but we have been looking around the Limoux area on the internet. Anyone any thoughts about that?
and I'll tell everyone who is starting out on this journey and who hasn't yet bought a French Car or insured a car in France.... Don't do what we did and sort out all old paper work and old car insurance documents and threw it away... cos in France you need 13 years no claim bonus not 9 as in the UK.... fortunately we could still evidence it for Nicholas as he has been with the same company for 4 yrs and came with a 9 yrs no claims bonus so they could give him a 13 yr certificate - but I am a 'changer' and so had insurance documents from lots of different companies which I thought I would never need and so burnt it all..... hope this helps someone. x
Thanks for the advice Christine -)
Christine, PM me your address. I have appointments at the hospitals in Libourne and Bordeaux often enough that at some point in time I might be able to pass by and say 'Hello'.
We did that Elaine - we started looking about 5 yrs ago in Normandy then moved south and kept looking until we reached the house we have in the Dordogne - sometimes we just gave up trying to find the house we both knew would be 'the one' especially when the economy turned and the money we had to spend didn't get us what we wanted to buy... you'll find it.. just don't rush it..
Steve - you are a rascal....lol... we are based in Montcaret, Dordogne - opening the house as a B & B.. yes I know everyone does it - but hey it's got to be done to try and earn some money... Nicholas is a UK Accountant and runs a Farm with huge gardens here (IN UK) - and so he will be carrying on with his accountancy clients and doing gardening over there... all in all we don't expect life to be 'easy' - we haven't come to retire as we've a fair few years off pensions etc - but we do expect our lives to change for the best - better Spring to Autumn weather.. I like seasons so I don't mind Winter - but Up North in UK - it seems to be winter most of the time... I will enjoy opening up the orangery and walking up the garden to look over the vines...watch them change colour .... breath fresh air and watch the deer playing peek a boo...
Good luck Elaine