In the spring of 1992 we took a weekend trip to Normandy and by August we were the owners of a rural wreck in the Suisse Normande. At least we had a loo when we viewed but when we returned as owners the loo had gone!
Lots of water under the bridge since then, now happily retired living in our 4th French renovation.
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Was this your first French reno?
Do you do the work yourself?
Yes, first in France following many more in England!
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Where? In Ireland as a youngster where I grew up.
When? Whenever the original Maigret series was on the box.
I was captivated by this chap smoking his long pipe, descending into the Paris Metro amidst all the sepia air billowing out with the accordian background music.
In all the 50 odd years since, France was my spiritual home!
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For us it happened quite late, weād met and married in our fifties and first had to deal with getting my wife into the UK and finding her appropriate work. However, one of our wedding presents (in Joāburg) was a stay in our Capetonian best manās other place in the Gard. Iād stayed there before ,but in a professional context of planning an international art research project.
At the time and even more now, the rand was tumbling against hard currencies and we decided to take as much as poss out of SA and buy a retirement home in SW France. My wife had previously had a couple of artistās residencies in the area, whereas I fancied the Pyrenees. She was unconvinced but we researched both and the Aveyron came out tops. Weāve now been here twelve years and increasingly realise that despite knowing comparatively little, we made a very god choice.
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Freudian slip or divine intervention?
Love it 
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First holiday in France. Le Havre to Cannes, via the Alps, in 1980. Instant āthis is our spiritual homeā experience. We had to wait for a few years for it to become realisable but we werenāt wrong.
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IMO lapsed Catholics usually make very good āgodā choices ā¦
āWish you were hereā and Judith Chalmers was blamed for our french adventure when we watched one of the programmes and it showed her in Dinard. That looks very nice said OH so we got the brochures (no internet back then in 1989), found a holiday rental further along the coast and had a weekās holiday for half of what we previously paid for the same in Cornwall including ferry crossings. Whilst there we were amazed at the petty cost of property and six months later in November we returned, found our eventual renovation property and bought it there and then as we got the finance in place ready to do so. Never looked back and just a few years later, moved lock,stock and barrel as the recession hit the building trades in the UK and OH had been inundated with demands from the village locals to do work when they saw him renovating the old house. There was a lot of paperwork to do, carte de sĆ©jours were obligatory and so was changing the driving licences and registering to work with the course on accounting at the Chambre de MĆØtiers but we both managed to do it and never looked back.
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Gap year summer job (aged 18) as a courier on a luxury campsite in Calvados (the sort of camping where the tents are already erected, with electricity,double beds etc!). I was effectively paid to get to know the area, to be able to advise the 900 clients during the season, so was āforcedā to visit Honfleur, Deauville, Trouville, the Pays dāAuge countryside. I had to eat in as many restaurants locally as I wished, sample all the varieties of Calvados etcā¦ I thought the area of orchards, half timbered houses, and glorious food was sheer heaven, and I became a Francophile overnight.
Immediately afterwards I spent several weeks helping to restore a crusader castle on the cliffs overlooking the RhƓne, and I was blown away by the history, the scent of wild herbs in the hills around the castle, sight of my first TGV below the castle, and above all seeing Ray Charles perform in the astonishingly well preserved Roman theatre at Orange.
I vowed to live in France one day (in fact I have now done so twice !).
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Snap our first holiday in Normandy in 1982 Never went anywhere else . Then in 2004 we ventured south to Burgundy and bought the third property we saw and decided to take early retirement.
Any before and after pictures???
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Iām not sure Iāve ever had a French dream TBH, and sometimes following the conversations here I want to sell up and get my money back.
But when weāre there it very much feels like our second home, and Iām glad weāve done it.
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Was your first immobilier in Clecy by any chance, Christophhe? Bought our property in 1993. Still own it but now resident and recently moved, albeit only 15 minutes away. Lots of areas of France that I like but love Normandie (dad here for D-day) and locals are friendly and accepting.
I presume your question is to me?
Our agent was in St Lo although our house was very close to Clecy, lovely town.
Our agent was called Geoff and he had a young sidekick with him that may well have been called Christophe, perhaps tge same one who at the time was probably mid 20s.
We saw our home on āEscape to the Continentā in mid 2015 - after viewing we were hooked and completed the purchase in Sept 2015. As it was priced in euros we got an added bonuse as the exchange rate we got was 1.41 euro/GBP. Despite being stuck in the UK during COVID we managed to undo most of Mother Natureās handiwork and now the grounds are looking much better (just under 2 acres).
If you are a Brit and live in France there are opportunities, if you wish, to tell your story in the Facebook group Brits living in the EU27 (7 years after brexit).