Our house only has windows facing the rising sun, apart from a small upstairs window. We’ve not spent a winter there yet, to find out how cold that makes the house, but it certainly helped during extremely hot weather.
Depends how much south facing glass they have. If they don’t have a good (read expensive) solar control glass then solar heating can be a real problem in summer. We have a very well insulated house with large south facing patio doors plus a few windows. Shutters are your friend here. On the other hand, in winter we get a lot of solar gain which means our heating requirements are minimal.
Nah, I reckon you demolished the rest of the cliffside to put in the veluxes 
seriously, this looks a lovely spot but I enjoy my 360 degree views from the comfort of indoors… 
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I’m always sad when I see an old house fall into ruin, France is slowly losing some of its heritage bit by bit because the costs involved in renovating some of the most dilatated ones are too much. There are towns near me where 40% of housing has been abandoned for at least 30 years.
Couple that with a decreasing population in rural areas.
I figure if a house has stood for 200 years, then it could well stand for 200 more. Not sure you could say the same for new builds. Old houses are essential money pits though; I experienced that when I required a new roof installing, but at least it gave me the opportunity to properly insulate the roof too. Don’t think it will ever register much on the DPE, but then if I’m living there and not renting it, it doesn’t matter much to me. 
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Sounds like mine, hardly had any heating on at all this winter because the big window lets the sun in from midday to dusk making it very warm some afternoons which then stays in the house until I go to bed.
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That’s a nice house!
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I would agree.
From taking to folks in my 7 years here in 47, it would seem there’s 2 main causes for houses being left to decay.
- The inheritors of the property can’t agree on what to do with it and it becomes a “Last man standing” deal as the inheritors die off one by one.
- The young rural French are busy working and starting families and thus haven’t got the time/energy/funds to renovate old properties.
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and 3. they don’t want to live out in the sticks in an ancient shed like romantically-inclined (and often retired) rosbifs.
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When I went to look at the house that I bought I drove past a ruin on an S bend 100 metres before the hamlet. The hamlet itself consisted of four houses, three of them lived in. One was a run down but working farm, another was a small cottage owned by an elderly man, the third a tumbledown large house occupied by another younger man and the ruin I bought.
Move the clock forward 25+ years and all has changed.
The ruined house on the corner has become the beautifully renovated home of a local farmer’s son and his family, the two boys are now in their early twenties.
The farm transformed into a stud farm and livery and they have worked tirelessly to make their business attractive for visiting clients.
The old man died 10 years ago and his small cottage is now a holiday home for one of his granddaughters with their land being tended by the stables.
My ruin has been renovated and turned into a comfortable home.
The other man sold his large tumbledown house to a woman who has turned it into a beautiful country house with matching immaculate gardens.
A sleepy hamlet has evolved into a thriving community.
I am the only real incomer.
The farmer’s son was born 250 metres from his renovated home.
The stables were improved by the drive and energy of a local girl who first visited the property when she was a student at the local agricultural college. She now owns the property herself.
The granddaughter with the holiday home comes from elsewhere but now owns the home that her grandfather lived in for over 30 years.
The woman who bought and renovated the big house and gardens was born 1500m away in the adjoining commune.
The theory that the locals and particularly the younger generations don’t have the time or ambition to buy up and renovate local property really doesn’t add up here.
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It’s in your favourite area as well.
Bet you’re not selling, and I probably couldn’t afford it. 
I’m not but from what I think I’ve read I’m sure you will be able to find something really good in the area.
I hope so! I do keep checking the listings on Bien’Ici and SeLoger and there is at least some choice of reasonable places under €120K.
It’s frustrating that I can’t even start the process until my mother pops off, but of course I’m not looking forward to that happening either.
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Prices in the area remain fairly stable. If that’s the price range you can afford now I don’t think much will change between now and the time when you are able to look seriously.
No I’m sure you right - but it’s annoying to see a property online and think “that’ll do!” knowing that even on French property sale timescales most likely it will have sold by the time I am properly in the market.
Like this one for €109K:
It even has a poster for my favourite film (Casablanca) on the wall of the dining room
But hey ho, them’s the breaks.
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That’s in a lovely area too. A postscript to my tale about the ghost hamlet being revitalised by local people is I discovered there was actually a fifth house hiding behind the farm. It was owned by the carpenter who did a lot of work in my house and apart from a couple of short term lets has been empty for almost 30 years to my knowledge. Last December it was sold and a couple have moved in and made it comfortable very quickly. They haven’t moved far and have lived in the town centre five km away for a long time. My neighbour asked the carpenter why they wanted to move from the town centre and the answer would have interested you. The new owner is retired but has a photography business and was particularly keen on the house here because it had an outbuilding that was perfect to convert into a photo studio. 
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Yes that would be cool! Although I will be on a retraité visa so any photography I do will be strictly for fun, and probably will be landscape stuff for stock, and maybe pics of local events for the community, rather than portraits…
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Though after 5 years, when you’re French, le monde sera ta huître