The Grass Really IS Greener on the Other Side! • Brittany & Normandy!

Our £12,000 house when we first saw it in 1999.

Have you outgrown life in the UK? or almost anywhere else for that matter… Apart from all the hype and hyperbolé about Europe the 'are we in', are we out - is it good, is it bad?... How could we have turned this down at £12,000 back in 1999? Maybe you're empty nesters - We were in our time, 'rattling around' in a house that is getting a bit baggy now that the kids have left home. OR, you're younger possibly… and maybe technology has set you free and - lucky you - you can work from home…wherever the difference between income and expenditure is the widest (George Osborne - take note) - anywhere at all in fact. You are, as were are - and still are, 'have laptop… will travel' and all that,. Brilliant! But, whatever makes you footloose, you might just want to take a look at North West France. Out of reach - but not out of touch. Brittany and Normandy have plenty to offer apart from Moules Mariniere, Crepes and Galettes, Calvados and Croissants. Economically speaking property in France hasn't been better value for money for years than it is right now. The UK economy has made your existing house worth more than you might have imagined and the Sterling-to-Euro exchange rate that has been through some stormy times has settled on a very positive note for those thinking of buying in Euroland. Recently it's the best that it has been for years but it's walking the high wire at the moment because of referenda and Euro - tensions etc., Good time to make a silly offer in my book!

My but the wisteria has grown - 2014

We're not all renovators… Some of us wouldn't even class ourselves as DIYers. But that doesn't mean you lose the ability to take advantage of the increased value wrapped up in buying an 'ugly duckling' that can be turned it into "a very fine swan indeed". There are still great bargains to be had because of the undulations of the market. The European market - the Euro specifically, and within France too and this has meant that vendors are lowering their prices to appeal to the UK market which is set a rung or three above.

Speaking for ourselves we were lucky enough to happen upon a house in Brittany on our 3rd leisurely viewing trip. Toward the very end of our time and right out of schedule (we should have been on our way to the Channel port when we viewed 'our find') when we happened upon an executor's sale - that of a Corps de Ferme. The land holding had been pared down to leave the 3 barns, the well, the bread oven and three quarters of an acre Brilliant!. The ridiculous price meant that we were at the house - big scale map in hand at 9am on the day of our trip home. The check-in time for our boat back to Portsmouth was to be 3:30pm but the drive to Caen would be more than three hours (St Malo is just 75 minutes)… well we couldn't just walk away and put it down to bad timing. Something had to be done…So there we were on the doorstep…well, getting through the kitchen window actually!

The Lounge Fireplace... uncovered. Not the monumental original...
that was ripped out in the 1960s...

On climbing out of the car we knocked on the door, we walked back to the car and sounded the horn, we waited, we wandered up and down the small patch of grass that hadn't given way to undergrowth. We knocked… we sounded the car horn again, we waited. And, throughout this carry on our attention kept being diverted to an open ground floor window. After a long silence poised… like a diver on the high board I climbed in! I'll admit to just a little apprehension. No actually - quite a lot! And then, having decided I'd 'crossed the Rubicon', I launched into a zoom, careering around the house like a thing possessed - with a video camera clasped to my shoulder… 

This is how the lounge looks today

I was very taken with everything that I saw and it wasn't just the price talking. Upstairs on the higher side of the house, two bedrooms, one, worringly, with beds unmade even with items of clothing scattered around… Like the Marie Celeste. They coild be back any moment! I didn't hang around. Back downstairs on the lower end another staircase led to a huge open loft area… all manner of detritus there - even a pair of skis… and more amazingly, water skis. the amount of seemingly useless stuff, bales of moth eaten material, hundreds of polystyrene ceiling tiles, about ten pairs of patent leather shoes - assorted colours… Market traders? Hoarders? It wasn't possible to tell. But as a house for sale it looked like … well, like a bargain! When I emerged blinking into the sunlight I encouraged Micki to make the same trip around the house. Hesitating at first she decided to give it a go too and must have got as far as the lounge (we used the term loosely) at the opposite end of the house before a second open window in an upstairs room, it's angle, disturbed by the change in air pressure, clattered and slammed shut giving her a jolt - at which she rushed headlong back to the point of entry. Feeling all the while that we were trespassing (actually we were!) we determined that this place, at just £12,000 in 1999, was just what the doctor ordered at our time of life. Kids off our hands and the sails set fair for an adventure discovering the delights of Brittany and Normandy…

These two regions of France are pretty much the nearest 'abroad' you can get to on either a permanent or dip in, dip out basis without the need to fly (for those bothered by that kind of thing)…and also, to give you that delightfully out of the country, but not totally out of touch feeling. Relatives - if you are daft enough to tell them exactly where you are - can visit and you can nip back to UK at the drop of a beret… provided you can find someone to look after your dog, cats, geese and donkeys… No? Oh… well that's what I have talked myself into, when I'm there long enough to put down roots. But each to his own. 

There is (why use a few words when a thousand will do?) a longer version of our story which includes much excitement, misunderstandings, tales of hapless Brits buying abroad finding the most incredible bargains, how we came, as a result of a ragged system (in those days) to be running a business dedicated to creating a better path for those who  but thus began a journey that we are still very much on and which has given us entry to the most exciting chapter of our lives. I must admit that the prospect of downsizing/relocating in the UK, spending more time in Brittany. There is always plenty to do there… The Forth Bridge analogy springs to mind and soon, with the acquisition of a camper van, the prospect of exploring more of Brittany, France, Spain, Italy… the world - when the schedule of life allows sounds just great to me... Forgive me if I don't come back quite all the way to UK 

We are renovating, in bite sized chunks... and for me :- the grass is still greener on the other side