View from the Foothills of France Some personal views on living, working,
bringing up family and making the dream happen in the most beautiful region of France. View from the Foothills of France also includes some personal and professional thoughts and tips on finding and buying the perfect property in the Ariège and Haute Garonne regions.
|
By nadia, on 5th July 2014 For those who missed it, here is my last article published in FrenchEntrée magazine:
Everyone has their own reason for loving France and wanting to own a piece of it but I find that most of my clients have a couple of things in common; either they are too far away to do their own property search or they have already been looking for the perfect house for a long time and have been unable to find it despite hours trawling the internet or endless viewings trips to see houses which turn out to be completely unsuitable.
I sometimes wonder how anyone manages to buy a house in this region without using a property finder. I live and work here,I know all the agents and I know the region inside out and still the whole process of finding and getting to see the right property is sometimes a bit like trying to get blood out of a stone.
Last week, I went in to see an agent because I had noticed that he was advertising a new property which looked very interesting for one of my current clients (there is no point just telephoning – everything works better face-to-face here.) The property – a mountain barn – appeared to fit my brief but the most important thing that I wanted to find out was where it was situated, location as we all know being the vital element, especially for mountain properties. The agent told me in which valley it was located (one of my favourite) and then suggested I could go and take a look and pointed a finger at a map as a vague illustration as to where I might find it.
I have fallen for this ploy before – and then spent a few frustrating hours trying to work out exactly which isolated barn I am supposed to be looking at. So I suggested that maybe he could even take me to see the property and perhaps take along a key so I could look inside. Eventually I managed to persuade him to make an appointment for a viewing at 2pm the following day. Of course, the next day he didn’t turn up and I had to go through the whole process of finding a time and making an appointment again, something that is not uncommon when house hunting here.
I did eventually get to view the property and it turned out to be very much worth the effort; two well-looked after barns, one of which had been renovated completely, in a great plot of land with lovely views and very peaceful. There was even vehicle access which is certainly not a given for many of these mountain properties. The majority of houses I visit, however, do not come up to scratch – I usually see at least ten properties for every one that makes it to a property report. Normally I will view up to 50 – 80 properties during one search, of which only around eight are likely to reach the short-list. The reason that many do not make it is that, as anyone who has done any house hunting in france knows, many estate agents are very good and imaginative photographers, expert at cropping out the less salubrious aspects of the immediate vicinity and hence photos do lie. This is why it helps to be local, to know the lie of the land, know what to look out for, what price a property should be and to be close enough to view every property which might just prove to be ‘the one’.
For this client, I now have a very strong short-list. I am just in the process of organising a viewing schedule for them. All they have to do is turn up for three days, knowing that I have done all the preliminary work, research and viewings for them and will take them around and organise every element of the search and buying process for them. They are all great properties and I am looking forward to seeing which one these clients are going to choose.
By nadia, on 18th June 2014 
1. The internet
A great way to start but also a great time waster; it is very easy to idle away many hours of time you haven’t really got looking at houses that frankly are not going to suit your needs. In France there are no multiple listing sites so you will need to trawl through hundreds of sites to come up with a list of potential properties and then spend many more hours trying to persuade agents to return your calls or emails and arrange viewings. If you manage that, the likelihood is that 95% of the properties you make the trip to view will be nothing like their descriptions and photographs and you will have to start all over again which is fine if you have all the time in the world…
2. Estate Agents Windows
This is a method that works in many countries but France does things differently. It is not usual practice to turn up to agencies in France and get given a handful of property details that you can go and scout from the outside or arrange to view then and there. Here, an estate agent will expect you to make an appointment in advance, lasting half a day or longer and will then show you what they have for sale by driving you around to what may turn out to be a variety of unsuitable properties. Remember that the estate agent is there to sell you a house and it doesn’t matter which one; he gets paid just the same. No agent in France will tell you the exact location of a property and let you go and have a look yourself – they are too worried about being cut out of the deal and that is just not the way things work here. And don’t expect them to keep in touch with you once you have left their office either.
3. Magazines
Not a bad way of narrowing down areas of France that you think you may like but, as a method of finding property for sale, these are becoming less useful as national agents will often advertise together properties they have for sale all over France and for all different budgets so the likelihood of finding the one for you in such a narrow selection is very small. Also, beware private advertisements in magazines because the owner’s pricing of their property can be a long way out from actual prices in the area.
4. Notaires
A Notaire deals with the property conveyancing side of buying a house but they can also act to sell properties and currently 15% of French property is sold via Notaires. However, while being good at the legal side of a property purchase, they are less good at the marketing so very few display property they have for sale or advertise them so you need to go in to their offices and ask them what they have for sale – and don’t expect glossy brochures or photos; usually they have a typewritten list with very few details at all and again, you will need to make appointments to view any that they have to sell on a day which suits them which may well be in three weeks time.
5. Property Finders
Property finders work exclusively for the buyer not the seller. They will start by asking you for a list of your most important criteria for your French property and they will then spend a few weeks, doing all the time-consuming research outlined above including looking at agency sales, notaire sales and private sales until they have a short-list of houses that meet your requirements. They will write up detailed reports on each possible property, provide you with expert advice and keep your search on track (it’s very easy to get carried away), arrange viewings to fit in with your timings and advise you on each area and village when you view. And finally they will negotiate the deal for you, ensure that you buy the right property at the right price and in the right location and hold your hand throughout the buying process.
Of course I am biased and it is clear which of these methods above I would recommend for anyone looking to buy a house in France so let me just finish by saying that the French property market is very specific; it is not the same as any other country in the world and it is very easy to waste a lot of time, energy and money looking for the perfect house in France if you don’t have a professional helping you through the process.
By nadia, on 3rd June 2014 
France sadly had it’s Beeching moment as did many other European countries, predominantly in the 1950s and 60s, when train travel came to be viewed as an unprofitable business rather than a much needed service and hence many smaller lines were taken out of service. This of course resulted in many unintended consequences, the most obvious being an increase in cars and pollution and the isolation of many rural areas.
I am not going to start a rant on the subject here but rather focus on the far more positive recent regeneration schemes for ancient railway lines in both Europe and America. These have included wildlife havens and pedestrian walkways such as the High Line in New York or tourism projects where old rolling stock has been converted into various hand or pedal powered transport to be trundled along the old tracks in an eco-friendly form of sightseeing.
Here in the Ariège, already one of the most eco-friendly and most unspoiled regions in France, a co-ordinated project involving many local bodies and communities over four years and with four million Euros of investment has resulted in the transformation of the former railway between St Girons and Foix into a 42 kilometre car-free cycleway along the valley between the two principle towns of the region. This is a truly pleasurable bike ride, well maintained and safe with wonderful views for all ages and abilities of cyclists. Visitors can hire bikes from both towns and cycle the route in a day stopping en route for a picnic or to visit the many small villages along the route while locals can now safely jump on a bike to do their shopping without having to venture onto the road.
From a property point of view, what I found fascinating when cycling the route was the huge number of former signal boxes and small station houses that have now been turned into lovingly restored homes while retaining the ambience and character of a former time. I have never seen one of these buildings come up for sale so I imagine they are the kind of properties that have remained in the same family for generations and are passed on by word of mouth alone. I shall keep my eye out though as they have become a wonderful place to live with a cycle route on the doorstep so that anyone living here now has access to some of the nicest towns and villages in the Ariège and all by pedal power alone plus that dream of being able to pop out for a ‘baguette on a bike’ has now become a reality.
Or course it would be nice to still have a railway service in operation but at least something positive has resulted from that crazy political decision to close so many regional lines and this is the kind of project that really does improve the quality of life for so many people in this beautiful part of rural France.
More information on the Voie Verte here
By nadia, on 20th May 2014
This excellent article first appeared in France Today magazine and is reproduced here with thanks to Linda Johnson-Bell. See her website at: www.thewinelady.com
I am a huge fan of using corks in wine bottles; any natural and renewable material has got to be good in my book and I have been convinced for a long time that producers are turning to plastic corks and screw tops for their own benefit rather than that of the consumers despite their arguments as to the superiority of these manmade alternatives. So I was delighted to read this article and very happy to promote it in a blog that not only covers property but all aspects of living in France of which wine is, of course, a very important part. It is rare that I view a house without a wine cellar and hence I think that qualifies wine as a subject which has relevance here, albeit slightly tenuously.
The reason that screw caps for wine bottles were even brought into the equation is because natural cork was proving an unreliable and expensive material. With the boom in New World wine production and the ensuing overall increased consumption, such traditional cork regions as Portugal, could not keep up with demand. Errors were made and tainted corks seemed to be a bigger problem than before. In truth, taint was always a problem, but traditionally, consumers were able to simply return their corked bottles to their wine merchants for a refund. Today, consumers buy their wine from supermarkets, which usually means that ‘after-care’ and customer service is no longer part of the deal. However, the cork trade has caught up and is even way ahead: it is set to be one of the surest economies of the future.
Around 340,000 tonnes of cork are extracted annually from 2.3 million hectares of cork oak forests around the world, which go to make 12 billion stoppers. Portugal accounts for some 55 per cent of world cork production, with its 716,000 hectares of cork forest, exporting around 90 per cent of its raw material. This level of production ensures that both cork oak forests and the industry itself, which is perfect for arid and semi-arid areas, remain sustainable. In fact, regularly stripping cork oaks helps them to regenerate naturally and during this process, the tree absorbs, on average, five times more CO2. It is estimated that every year cork oak forests retain up to 14 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. Portugal reforests at a rate of ten thousand hectares per year, that is, an annual growth of around 4 per cent, with two new cork oaks being planted for each old tree.
I think that most wine lovers would agree that a real cork stopper will always win over a screw cap both for the enhanced experience and the extra element it brings to the wine. Thankfully, here in France, most producers still favour the traditional and all-natural cork so here’s hoping that it may be able to shake off that bad-guy image once and for all and become the norm once again.
|
For further information please contact us:
|
You must be logged in to post a comment.