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Watch out... There's a Banker About!!

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Buy a House in Brittany or Normandy - Definitely! But... Don’t do a Dave! Buying Abroad?  Got a minute? Read this... It could save you thousands ! A woeful tale about a client who thought he had it all sewn up because he was sticking with his bank when he exchanged funds for the purchase of his house in Brittany. As we have so often said…  Watch out, there’s a banker about! Dave Simmonds and his wife, Megan (It's a true story, but the names have been changed to cover any possible embarrassment -  alright ‘Dave’? ) were both very, very excited after finding their ideal home in the heart of the Cotes d’Armor. It was everything they could ever wish for…    Early retirement with a very reasonably priced 5 Bedroomed Farmhouse on five acres plus three gites. Enough space for the horse that Megan could never have dreamt of owning back in Guildford.   A good potential income from holiday lettings...And a ll for just 360,000€ plus Notaire’s fees! I know,   barmy pri
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Tintagell, Snowdonia, Cadbury Camp, Broceliande - So who really 'owns' Arthur & Merlin?

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For a bloke who was restricted to travel on horseback or, at best, but probably a whole lot slower, by Palanquin (look it up... I had to) King Arthur and his retinue (Lancelot, Guinevere, The Lady Vivien, Sir Girwain, Merlin - et al)... well, they sure did get around. Although, if you believe the other places that legend would have us believe he made an appearance - as I mention in the title... Tintagel, Snowdonia, and Cadbury Camp, then he was probably good at levitation and teleportation too... He probably landed just up the road from here having been guided in by the standing stones at Carnac. And don't get me going on "was God an astronaut!?" We're getting on with our exploration of Brittany (picking up again nicely thanks) in between renovating our modest money pit in the Cotes d'Armor... Well, we recently had a look at the forest of Broceliande... and the Brittany end of the Arthurian legend.  I have to say that, with regard to this part of ancient his
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At Last!... A Picking and a A Pickling We Will Go!

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  I have wanted to do this for years! Picking Walnuts and then pickling them! Unless you have access to a Walnut tree in July you're a bit stuffed. I haven't ever seen unripe walnuts for sale in any shop. We haven't had any Walnut trees to call our own, although we have been given a very small sapling. It's planted in the garden now and, if I'm still alive when it bears fruit I shall regard myself as extremely lucky.  On walks along the dried up canal just a couple of hundred metres up the hill from the house (the Rigole d'Hilvern)... turn to the left at the top of the lane where it crosses the canal and it's the first tree on the right. I don't know how we've managed to miss it... but, in our defence, it is well tucked into a beech tree and sits under its branches - quite well hidden. As soon as I realised we had one almost on our doorstep... I looked up a recipe and, having found it, went out and picked what I hoped would be 2kilos to match
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12,000 Quid for this? Has it been worth it? Ask a silly Question!

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I've been banging on for years about what a great bargain we stumbled across 19 years ago when we picked up our house in Brittany for just £12,000 plus fees - so about £16,000 in all. Obviously we have spent a few quid doing it up BUT it still hasn't cost us any more than around 80k in total including the purchase price. Of course it has been our 'holiday' home (sometimes anyone within an arm's length when they say "have a nice holiday" is in danger of a swipe... I'm thinking here of my wife rather than myself) and, because we don't live there year round, we have spent many times the cost of the house on ferry crossings... but "Has it been worth it?"   You bet it has!! and sometimes spending most of one's time over there renovating is not everyone's idea of anything approaching a holiday! Saying this does sort the men out from the boys (in this day and age you're almost bound to upset some people with a choice of
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A Brittany Manor House with a twist or two!

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Our time spent in Brittany, when it comes to RandR is spent alternating between two lakes which are pretty much equidistant from our place ... the biggest, proves to be quite a draw in the summer. Not surprisingly being 12 kilometres long, it has plenty to commend it. But - in a Breton way - it could never be called oversubscribed with those wishing to swim, scuba dive, walk, ramble, cycle, sail, water-ski, fish, windsurf, canoe, jet-ski or even enjoy a dinner cruise. All of these pastimes are there and all are used and indulged in but it's never 'full on'. It never gets so busy as to get anywhere near uncomfortable or crowded. There's a lake a short walk from the end of the garden The second lake about 6 kilometres long and a wee bit skinnier has far fewer amenities but somehow  is more attractive for us at least... more exclusive supporting open water swimming, canoeing, pedalos (the pizza restaurant at the southern end of the lake has boats for hire in su
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Brittany Bound? A 3 generation family?... Or Gite letting's your thing?... then have a look!

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Our satnav is not programmed to understand Breton. How very unPC! Tom-Tom are clearly not up to date (or should it be 'down' to date) with 15th century minority languages. However, once we had been lucky enough to encounter a native, local to the area, walking his dog, about a mile or so from - Berouan in the Morbihan - all became clear. There it was in full colour on our own dog-eared, hardly ever used and unfortunately small scale map (smaller communities are hardly ever marked are they?)... Anyway, we had almost made it without help because there was a shrug and perplexed look from our new acquaintance...(well he did wave a little later).   Turn right about a kilometre before you get to Caden from Malansac and there you are. The trouble is we had to drive into Caden to find out how far out one kilometre is before we could work out which would have been the right lane to turn down... None of the names on the signposts rang a bell. In any event the town's folk o
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