My Place in the Sun - At last.....................................!!

Yes, we've done it. We've bought (or are in the process of buying) a house in France. We've only been looking for twenty odd years, so never thought it would happen. We've looked at lots on the internet, and a few 'in person' and even made an offer on one back in 2005 but then my Mum became ill. This year we thought 'Let's have a holiday with our friend, in that awful bit just after the New Year'........... and then 'Whilst we're there why don't we have a look at a few houses to keep us busy if the weather is awful............'. So in January we flew to Carcassonne, and hired a car. We drove north and looked at several places in the Aveyron which we've always loved. Two would have been great twenty odd years ago where we had more energy and were willing to take on a 'Project'. One place (for 31,000 euros) would have made two beautiful four bedroom homes, each with a decent sized garden but would have needed dedication and more energy and time to spend on it than we have these days. One had a stunning orchard, but we would have needed farm machinery to mow the lawns, and so we headed further south to stay with our friend. He'd asked if we'd look out for smaller properties, for him, in a village, so I'd earmarked two which I thought he might like.

We loved one of the houses, and after checking the relative values against the rapidly rising pound, we decided more or less on impulse, to buy it for ourselves! We watch the price drop as the pound rose, changed our money into euros at just the right time, paid our deposit, and it will be ours by the end of the first week in May.

It's between the Cathar Chateaux of Queribus, and Peyrepertuse in the southern French Departement of Aude, in a small but 'vivant' village with WiFi throughout the village, a communal 'bar' area ouside the Mairie, and a programme of events which would put our own town to shame. When we were there half the village was away on the Village Skiing trip with coach transport, equipment hire, lift passes, and all for the price of a good meal!!! 

It's a stone house, built in 1604 (yes that's right Elizabeth I era), three storey, and quite 'pretty'. It's smallish but has two double bedrooms, heating, a good bathroom, dining kitchen, and a south facing roof terrace. It's owned by a Dutch man, who has done it up over the years (so there's a lot of the Dutch football team orange around, which will have to go) but sadly his wife is no longer able to manage the stairs. 

Front of house in the January sunshine, about 10.00 am. We do need to replace the gutter, but that's the only structural work.



View from the roof terrace:



Split level sitting room with patio doors to roof terrace (the pink carpet will have to go to be replaced with a chestnut plank floor):




Wish us luck!

We won't be moving there, it will be a holiday home only, and we're bringing the caravan down soon for easy trips into Spain and Portugal, and perhaps Morocco next winter!