Actually buying a house in France!

Perhaps this should have been my first post but maybe I've been trying to forget the wholr tortuous process. Seriously it really does seem to take forever.  Considering we were first time buyers, buying a house with no chain, I'd have to say that 8 months between agreeing the price and actually owning the house is a little excessive.  It only took Henry V 6 months to take Rouen by siege (Although 5 months of that could have been taken up by trying to work out the road system!).


For the entirity of this process we had only the most tenuious grasp on exactly what was happening.  I won't bore you with details but I do feel the need to say that between my wife and I we had to provide nearly 1000 signatures!  That's one each for every piece of paper in the contract (twice as there was an ammendment) and every page of the surveyors report!


Ultimately what we have is, or at least will be, amazing.  There are 2 houses around a courtyard-garden and an enormous barn space that we have no idea what to do with but will provide sumptuous accomodation for Monti (Our little 1972 Fiat 500), not that he requires much in the way of space.   All this for less than the cost of our 3 bed semi in provincial England.

How did we get here?

So it came to pass that after a couple of holidays in remote European villages. We decided we would like to move to France.

Long story short, we bought a house last year are now just a month out from moving in, our house in the UK having sold to the only bidder. This means we have reached the point of no return.

It might be considered a rash decision for all of us: me, my wife, our 18 month old baby girl with premature terrible twos and a cat with a closed door complex but decision made so here we go!

Anyway, so much has happened just owning the house in France and popping over when we can to try to decorate, repair or build bits of it that I'm just going to throw in random topics for my first few entries. This should (I make it sound like there's a plan!) get the background sorted before I do anything chronological. That said if it's happening now I'll let you know.