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.

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Real life story – growing up in France

By nadia, on 15th February 2012

This week I am delighted to have a guest blogger. I know for many of my clients, one of their biggest worries about moving to France is how their children will cope with the upheaval. Well, it is half term here in France and so it seems an appropriate time to hear it from the horse’s mouth; the real life story of a 15 year old who moved to France when she was six. I think she has turned out fantastically – but then I might be biased as today’s excellent blog is written by my eldest daughter, uncut and unedited (just to prove that English children can keep up their written English when they move to France):

“wave bye-bye to england darling”. It was sunny but cold and windy the day that my family and I started our journey to southern France. I was six years old. My primary school teachers had got rather fed up about hearing about my moving to France, especially as we were having one of those grey and rainy disappointing English springs. They were probably very relieved to wave good bye to me on my last day. I, on the other hand, was extremely excited and only felt the tiniest pang of sadness as the white cliffs of Dover melted into the distance.

The car journey was long and boring and it was dark by the time we reached the house we would be renting until we found our own. We moved at the beginning of July and for the next few months I remember long hot days followed by stormy nights that cleared the air. I remember that it was a huge lifestyle change; my parents seemed to give me lots more freedom which, I realised later, was because there were fewer risks; it was safer. My siblings and I would disappear all day into the woods and forests only venturing home when we were hungry or to hot and wanted to go swimming. Once a week we would be forced out of our grubby shorts and have to accompany our parents round the local markets. Very often a golden “pain au chocolat” and a glass of Orangina in the cafe would have to be used as a bribe to tear us away from our dens and adventures. When the heat became too much to bear for us Notherners, along came the winter bringing frosty mornings, icy roads and occasionally snow. Finally when signs of spring started to appear and the French people decided it was time to come out of hibernation, my parents brought a house a couple of hours away. It was amazing, so much bigger than anything we had expected with even more space for us to discover but before that it was time to start French school!

The area where we rented a house had been full of English people and as a result I had been speaking English at school and had not learnt much of the French language. Our new school, hidden away in the still undiscovered (by the English at least) Ariège did not look like a school in any way, in fact it could have been someone’s house. There were only twenty children in the whole school who shared a single teacher. There were only five other pupils in my class. No one spoke a word of English. However thanks to a few gestures and simple words I soon understood the way things worked. The other children were all very nice and, as the first foreigner most of them had ever met, I was the centre of attention. A couple of them happened not live in my hamlet and very soon I was out and about on my by bike surrounded by friends. After only six months of going to school I could have a fluent conversation with a French person who wouldn’t know that French was not my mother tongue until I mentioned it.

The best things about growing up in France has definitely been all the sporting possibilities such as learning to ski, swimming, cycling, horseback riding, kayaking and so much more. I have also really enjoyed the freedom we are granted, being able to go outside and to be free to do whatever we want. I do not regret my parent’s decision to move us all out to France. It is an amazing thing to tell anyone about. My friends back in England ask me endless questions and then tell me how perfect my lifestyle sounds and how lucky I am. To that I always have the same response: I nod my head and say:”yes, I love my life!”

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Snow – yes please bring it on

By nadia, on 1st February 2012

Bagneres de Luchon in the snow

One of the many things I love about living in view of the Pyrenees is that, while the rest of France is currently moaning about the miserable winter weather, here in the foothills we are celebrating. A cold, rainy day here means that it is snowing buckets up in the mountains and thus everyone has one eye on the weather forecast, just waiting for the next sunny day – when, there will be lots of crosses in diaries, marked with the word SKI.

What could be better than taking a day off to go up into the mountains and mess around in fresh snow under clear blue skies, stopping for hot chocolate or mulled wine pour se rechauffer? Bliss. And even for those people who don’t ski, there are lots of places to hire snow shoes for a snowy walk in a winter wonderland or simply just enjoy the views and fresh mountain air from a sunny terrace.

Snow shoeing

Yesterday I was in the mountain town of Bagnères de Luchon after two days of snow; the whole place was white and sparkling in the sunshine – it was magical. And the views, as I drove around on my latest property search, were breathtaking. I have said this before, but on a day like this, I really do think this must be the best place in the world to live – but don’t tell anyone.

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What Triple AAA Rating?

By nadia, on 18th January 2012

While much of the rest of the world seems preoccupied with the loss of France’s triple AAA rating, here in the Ariege and Haute Garonne, the whole subject has been dismissed by the locals as utterly irrelevant. Not that it hasn’t been discussed – the French love a good debate – but for people here, nothing much has really changed since the economic crisis began; beautifully illustrated I thought by this chap in his car, reading the local paper, who has clearly seen much worse and knows that life goes on.

 

Of course this area is feeling the pinch like everywhere;  fuel is more expensive – but people here don’t drive very far; gas and oil prices are up too but the majority of locals here spend their summers cutting and laying down wood for their fires and wood burners so that hasn’t really effected them either. Food is perhaps more expensive but not if you grow and produce your own. The price of an espresso is still generally seen as exorbitant although it hasn’t much changed in the last ten years – and I have never known a group of people more adept at spending quite so long drinking quite such a small beverage!

I guess if you didn’t have the highs of the 90’s excesses, then neither do you have the lows of the current economic crisis; the people in this area have always lived simply and put far more importance on family, friends, good food and quality of life than they have on shiny new cars, designer homes or gadgets which means that life continues its gentle pace, almost unchanged, as it has done for many hundreds of years.  I’m certainly not complaining – there is nothing like a wander around the market talking to the stall holders about a local cheese or the best way to prepare leeks – and then a sit down in the local café eavesdropping on the discussions of the day to slow down the heart rate and put life into perspective.

 

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Happy New Year and Bonne Année – is 2012 the year to make your dreams come true?

By nadia, on 5th January 2012

Despite the current financial climate, 2011 was a busy year for me. One significant change I noticed in the last 12 months was an increase in clients from far-flung parts of the world including Australia, America, the Middle East and South Africa with fewer from the UK and European countries. I have also noticed an increasing number of clients of British origin but who have been living overseas and want to move back to Europe but would rather move back to France than return to Britain.

I imagine that one of the main reasons for the drop in buyers from the UK is the weak pound which also helps to explain the increase in Australian clients who have been enthusing about how cheap property is in France thanks to the strength of the Australian dollar. Of course foreign buyers are also more used to employing buying agents; certainly in Australia, America and South Africa it is normal to employ a professional to assist in what is usually the biggest purchase you will ever make, whereas in the UK, only millionaires seem to employ property finders. Plus, there are even more organizational difficulties of buying a home from a distance – and the further the distance, the more difficult it can seem with a combination of time zones, the language barrier, an unfamiliar legal system and the very different customs and way the French have of doing business in general. For example, some of the agents I deal with here don’t even have websites and a large majority of people in France also sell their property privately by putting up a sign outside and perhaps a notice in the local post office.

Combine this with the fact that most of my buyers are time-strapped and cannot afford to be hopping on a plane every few weeks to look at properties that turn out not to meet their requirements, and it makes sense to hire a professional to take the strain and to negotiate the very best deal. All of my clients tell me that I have saved them money by doing all the time-consuming ground work and eliminating all the unsuitable properties so that they can come over for just one viewing trip knowing that all the properties I show them will meet the criteria they have given me and they will simply have to choose the one they prefer. What’s more, I aim to take all the stress and hassle out of the procedure so that it becomes an enjoyable experience and they end up with exactly what they want because I am working for them and not the seller.

Of course, another reason for increasing world-wide interest in property here is that France and particularly South West France is seen as an investment safe-haven, perhaps because the buying process in France is so well regulated, meaning that international buyers feel secure investing in property here. In addition, mortgage interest rates in France are at their lowest level since the Second World War and there is a reassuring long-standing stability in the French property market provided by the dominance of fixed rate mortgages (over 80%) which means that the housing market seems less prone to sharp ups and downturns.

Perhaps more importantly, despite the global financial crisis, people from all over the world still want to buy in this part of France; at the end of the day, it is not just about market stability, return on investment or sensible bank lending in France, it is because many of us just love the country, the culture and the quality of life here (and the weather of course) and are happy to invest in a beautiful, well built and well priced French home.  A safe haven doesn’t come much more secure or enjoyable than South West France.

And some great news to start off 2012; the Euro is at the lowest it has been for 15 months which is great for anyone transferring money from other currencies to invest in French property. So it looks like 2012 might be a good year for everyone and anyone dreaming of a home in France. I look forward to finding lots more fabulous  properties for my clients, wherever they come from, in the coming year. Bonne année, bonne santé et bonheur à tous.

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