[Making friends]

Sorry - I'd love to meet and chat but I'm miles away! Email me if you want a chat on-line! Helen

[insurance]

Hi - you have to have buildings and public liability cover ready to begin on the day you sign the completion. This is easy to arrange from England. Look in the "Buildings Insurance" thread in the Finance forum. I got loads of advice to the same query and arranged appropriate cover quickly with Treddenick.

We signed the completion contract last Saturday and had the cover note with us which the Notaire asked to see. However, the guy that sold us the house offered to arrange for us to take over his insurance on the property although we didn't need to.

If you havent already done so, I would advise you open a French bank account - very easy to do - just show passports and complete forms - we used Credit Lyonaisse in Confolens while we were over there house hunting. The insurance company wanted payment in FF.

Good luck - Helen