One minute we were dreaming of windsurfing the English Channel and compiling our 'bucket lists' in the back room of our good friends David & Eileen Flinn and the next thing I was reading 'Buying a Home in France' by David Hampshire...a Christmas or birthday gift no doubt given as a result of one of our crazy mad-cap 'discussions' of what it might be like to get away from it all.
Get away we did...in that memorable year of 2000 when the world's computer's still worked and hadn't ushered in global chaos at the stroke of midnight ...yes, the world's press would have us believe it would.
We had been tracking Lance Armstrong and planned to be in Paris for his second Tour de France victory. What a victory it was...it was so good to be a part of it all. In fact, we couldn't get out of the centre of Paris as the cyclists zoomed around us...we were trapped and very hot. We paddled...or at least the kids did...in that glass pyramid 'thingy' of which I'll remember in a bit.
The holiday was further entrenched in history when Concorde crashed. The newsagents windows and bill-boards displayed vivid, dramatic pictures, but we couldn't understand the captions...they being in French and all.
We continued our journey out of ile-de-France, across several departments of the Loire valley to the Vendee and then up into Brittany via that frightening bridge of the town twinned with Sunderland...it's on the tip of my tongue!
Our friend Gary lived in Brittany (still does) so we dropped in to see him. It was glorious weather and it was easy to fall in love with the place, especially when Gary gave us some idea of how much we can expect to pay for the kind of property he was living in. We couldn't wait!
It wasn't until the Summer of 2003 however, that we determined to buy. Three couples...David & Eileen, Phil & Pat and Ken & Bev.
As romantic as the notion of searching for a French house to buy was, the reality soon kicked in. It was so disappointing to see the actual locations of what looked ideal on the internet.
I was particularly depressed on the very day we struck gold. It was by chance we saw the property as we flicked though a folder at a Josselin English owned estate agents. We saw the property but found out that a couple already had the keys and were looking at it.
The place was typically about to close as it was now gone 12:00 (it always catches us out). We took the address however and went searching for it, found it, fell in love with it (peered through the windows), dashed back with hearts thumping and hopes soaring to learn that the previous couple had also like it and were considering an offer as they looked at another property to compare it to. We took the keys and dashed back to look at the inside, liked what we saw...loads of potential, rushed back to the estate agents thinking the worse and made an offer that was immediately accepted by the owner who was working in the Far-East.
Once verbally accepted it's yours in French law! The other couple..and one notable 'other' also wanted it, but it was too late. He who hesitates, loses. We were on cloud nine. We'd grasped the nettle. We'd done it. We'd actually done it...no more speculation, no more searching, it was ours and, although it was some time before it was legally ours ( the French do things at their own pace) the outcome was never in doubt, there would be no gazumping.
Thus began our great adventure. I'll give regular updates on how it has affected our lives. It'll either inspire you or put you off for life.
Eileen has a more accurate version of events which I'll post tomorrow.
Eileen has a more accurate version of events which I'll post tomorrow.
