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Thank you Pierre ad albf; you are both right so buyers should draw from both sources.

There is no such thing as bilingual. AI might be bilingual sooner or later but not humans. You always favor one language. There will always be a loss in translation. And bare in mind the proceedings will be in French anyway. That is the rules in France. There lies your problem. Buying a house in a foreign country (particularly France) is high risk. But that is the risk you take when buying abroad. I would not waste my time and energy on a supposedly bilingual notaire. Well unless you are an American buying a 10 million property in St Tropez. In the op’s part of France they are used to dealing with English folks. So the op will get through it. BTW, never read any of our documents relating to the purchase of the house. Just make sure you know your boundaries and that people or servitudes don’t have access to your land.

Hello Edel: I am a French bilingual US-educated (MBA) real estate consultant/agent with my own carte (licensed broker) and 14 years experience. I primarily act as a buyer's agent for English-speaking customers. Based on my experience, here is what I would tell a customer in your situation: 1) Given your expressed needs, I strongly recommend that you hire a bilingual notaire, or even a Franco-British notaire. I dont know how many there are, but I know one I have worked a few times with - it went really well. It is also possible to work with a notaire employing bilingual/binational staff - as the "clerc de notaire" does most of th work, that could work. And when you're with the notaire in-person, the clerc can act as a translator. 2) A very important fact: the notaire does NOT have to be local. In France, notaires can act anywhere in the country. 95% of notaire offices are equipped with videoconferencing tools (thansk to Covid). Which will make it easier to find the right notaire: you can look anywhere in France! (As a matter of fact, a good number of French people, the wealthiest who deal regularly with a notaire have "their own" notaire, which they use for all notaire business - because they trust him/her.) I would ask the UK embassy for names of notaires - I have never done that, but there is no downside in trying... 3) Every transaction is a new transaction for a notaire. Menaing it doesn't matter that the house has been sold/bought at any given notaire. The plus here is that the notaire has a quicker access to some of the documents - but most need to be updated anyway, and the notaire HAS to get newly produced documents anyway. 4) About translation: you may want to translate the important documents (compromis first, that's the most crcuail one, and acte authentique later - which contains almos the same content). I would, for peace of mind. But you will always want your advisor (noatire, clerc, biligual agent, lawyer) to trake you through it parapgraph by paragraph and explain - before the actual signing meeting. It'll take you an hour, worth it. IMHO dont pay a translator to assist you during the process or the meeting - it's not worth it. And dont forget: "Google translate" is now 95% efficient. At zero cost. Useful also for email exchanges. Hope that helps. BTW: I can provide you with the names of the notaires I mentioned in the post. Just ask! [This is my first post on this forum, so please excuse possible protocol errors...]

AnOther, I wish TeamedUp (or idun) could be here to look at your photos. I reckon you two could be the first forum members to star in Forum MasterChef. Or maybe Forum BakeOff?

One of the results of selling the MGB is that I've assumed the title chief chef and have become a dab hand with the air fryer. I haven't poisoned anyone yet! I've lately been making pork pies and scotch eggs.