Escaping the sun’s glare on the village square in Cazals, northeast of Cahors, I’m sipping a post-lunch coffee with Alice Loftie who, alongside husband Charles, is a FrenchEntrée Estate Agent Partner in this sleepy Lot village. On the walls, there are sun-kissed…
An Update from Val Walmsley,Property Finder in Vendée and Deux-Sèvres
My husband and I fell in love with this little lane near the house we were about to buy. I wish I had then had the help of someone living permanently in the area.
My love affair with France began nearly 20 years ago, when I was 18 years old. I was drawn to France, why – I don’t know. I had never been to France, never experience the French culture or food; I just knew I wanted to be there someday. I used to dream and believe by the time I was 35, I would live 6 months in Australia and 6 months in France…
The recent dramatic shift in the GB pound to euro exchange rate has contributed to a slowing of the French property market. The shift in the rate from around 1.45 to 1.25 has effectively reduced the purchasing power of the pound by about 15%. In response to this shift we are seeing increasing numbers of properties with reductions in the asking price.
The Midi-Pyrenees is the largest region in France, and possibly the most diverse, stretching from the undulating charm of the Dordogne valley in the north to the snow-capped peaks of the Pyrenees in the south…
Glorious Aquitaine, fabled land of many rivers, once stretched from the Loire valley to the Pyrenees, that was many years ago when it was a rich, medieval dukedom, when Eleanor was its Duchess and her court attracted the greatest troubadours of the age…
The recent currency exchange rate fluctuations have reduced the buying power of people moving from the UK to France. But French property is still outstanding value compared to the UK. Sell your detached four-bedroom house in Sussex for £425,000 and see what you could buy in the Lot and Quercy region of southwest France…
Image not found.Leslee Carsewell, originally from the East Coast of the US fell in love with France at an early age and dreamt of one day having a house there. Here she tells the story of her barn purchase and renovation.
Phil & Donna Voice moved to France in 2004 and spent many hours driving around, visiting Immobiliers, viewing websites looking for the right house. In their case the house was found quite quickly but this does not always happen…
Image not found.Bill and Rosalind spent 3 years trying to find their dream home in France. They couldn’t find what they wanted and decided to build their own. In the first of a series of articles they describe finding their perfect plot and why they ended up much further south than they first expected…
The Quercy has become enormously popular in the last few years, and popularity brings price rises. However it is only in the last five years that we have seen a real increase in the foreign population and the vast majority were retired older couples. The situation is just beginning to change again…
Many people dream of moving to France, and as a general rule these dreams include derelict stone houses that within the year look like something out of the pages of House and Garden. It does happen of course but not very often…
Wouldn’t you like to escape from the rat race in the cold north with its cool damp summers and drizzly winters?
Thinking of retiring to some glorious sun-drenched corner of Europe to enjoy a little peace and quiet?
Finding a good tradesman in France isn’t usually too difficult – finding one who can do the work quickly is quite a different matter! It helps to understand how the building trade functions so that you can comprehend why your builder will take a long lunch hour and disappear at midday on a Friday.
