Llantony

Hi, We are in northern Tarn & Garonne, it takes an hour and a half from Blagnac - as the car motors (less on the motorway to Castelsarassin) rather than as the crow flies.  It's a pleasant area of hills and valleys and hilltop villages.  We're also about the same travelling time from Bergerac, but a much nicer journey through the countryside, so there's a choice. edit:  I'm not posting this to sell our house!  

Oops, it was me that mentioned Ryanair - Toulouse so I was mistaken there.  Ryanair started up flights from East  Midlands to Bergerac and BMI Baby left; just coincidence I expect.  I much preferred BMI Baby tho.  I don't object to delays, they happen, but to the way Ryanair has no strategy when a flight is cancelled altogether. 

Just because they don't like to swim doesn't mean they can't! There are some cats that actually like water - somewhere in the orient.   Can't all animals swim instinctively if they have to?    I had a cat that liked walking round the edge of the bath when I was in it - which was fine until he tried to turn round. Another who thought our small pond was just an extension of the lawn, as it looked solid. I see what you mean about getting under a swimming pool cover tho, that would be awful.  I've never heard of a floating pool cover but if we ever have a big enough garden and the spare money, would love a pool and a floating cover sounds good

This has made me wonder...  We bought a tiny ruin to get legal access to the space below the garage next to it which we bought.   We had a vague idea (encouraged by a French friend) that we could build it up and sell it as a small house.  I'm beginning to think that wouldn't be worth the trouble even if we had the money.  Everything has to be built in stone, which is very expensive, and properly roofed as it's in a medieval village - despite the many iron roofs and concrete builings around!  The garage itself is breezeblock with corrugated iron roof.  The ruin is becoming a liability as we've had a complaint via the Mairie - malicious I'm pretty sure, as it's not bothering anyone. It's not next to our house and is beside a narrow street but below street level. If we got permission to demolish the ruin, the space would probably become an eyesore full of rubbish.  It's not next to our house and is beside a narrow street but below street level. This means we'd have to make sure there's a wall along the road to stop people falling down.  Any thoughts?  

Just a word of caution - friends hired a 'man with a van'.  They got a phone call from someone over 100 miles away, where their stuff had been delivered!  The people had traced them somehow.

We have a small house in France which is more or less furnished so we thought we'd hire a van to take the rest of our stuff, clothes books, kitchen stuff etc. when we move there this summer or next.  We aren't that well off so would hesitate to spend thousands on a removal firm.   We found that a local - Nottingham, hi Jo! - firm hires 7 ton self drive trucks and would let us take one to France.  Quite reasonable too. I've just been told that the law will change in April and an ordinary driving licence will no longer allow my husband to drive a 7 ton truck;  it will require a separate driving test.      

Hi Will, Yes, I realise that could happen.  It's just that when we bought, this same estate agent charged us commission on top of the agreed price so I couldn't see why a buyer would bother to go behind the agent's back as it's us who paid more.    

Too many Welsh descendents - isn't that Patagonia? Anyway, what's wrong with us people lucky enough to have Welsh ancestors? Yes, I know you were only joking, so am I.  

Unless I've missed something, Beryl has asked a question via a website and not been given the address of the property (French estate agents never do give addresses in their publicity like British ones usually do, so you have to ask to find out which area a property is in - just to see whether you'd be interested).  So she's hardly under any obligation whether moral or legal. I agree that if an agent takes you round a property it would be mean to avoid paying their commission.  We looked at property belonging to a friend of a friend and were told that the price would be lower if we didn't go via the estate agent (never found out why, when the buyer pays the commission - posted here on that and got some abuse...).  The trouble is, if we looked at other properties on that agent's books we'd be shown this one and then feel we'd have to pay her if we bought it.  Anyway, she's in our village (I can see the office from our current house)and is a friend of another French friend, so I still don't know if I could be bold enough buy a property on her books direct from the vendor to avoid the commission.  

You seem to have been very unlucky Wen, perhaps that's why someone asked you where you are in France (perhaps to avoid the area if local are so rude!) The only one who refused to understand me in our area was the man whose house we were looking round (bad sales pitch).  Funnily enough we bought it anyway and he's been back a couple of times and overstayed his welcome, now seems able to understand me perfectly....

I think if this is an advert then the moderator should have banned it!  However, it's just a general posting then fair enough - it's useful information.  I had already planned to go, but did not connect it with the opening of the St. Pancras connection - which is November 14th I believe.  Trouble is, it's probably way more expensive than flying even if better for the environment.

" the not unreasonable sum of £150 - 200 per month. "  That will be a hefty chunk of our small retirement income!  What about people who can't afford it?  Not specifically us, but thinking of some of our French neighbours who don't work and are well below retirement age (only about 30 in some cases)? '75 & OVER     981€'  if that's per month we'd never afford it. Re original question, I've wondered myself if I'd forget French if I live to be very old .   It would be terribly confusing for a British person with Alzheimer's to be in a residential home in France.  But perhaps the idea was to care for them at home?  There may come a point  where the person can't be left alone. I'm worried about my mother as she becomes increasingly forgetful and illogical but I don't think I'd take her over to France to a totally strange environment.

I won't tell Mr Llantony about the railway!  - I've just been telling him we must get rid of ours before we move out.  He set it out in the loft for the kids but they didn't share his interest and they are 26 and 28 now.

Thanks for helpful replies.  In 2003 we  bought a small house in France in a relatively lively village - I refused to consider a ruin in a huge plot of land in the country - especially for a holiday home.  (I have to be the boring practical one as husband gets carried away!)   That's why we still have a mortgage.  We have made some really good friends.  However there are good & bad points to having very close neighbours.  Also, tho we have a lovely view it's only from the garden above the house - which is accessed by 39 steps - and all we see from the living room is a concrete wall about 10 feet away.  This could get depressing so we might look for another property using the equity from UK house.  It might take a while to sell the French one so buying/selling could be a stressful process.  A bit complicated, maybe I should start buying lottery tickets....  

[quote user="Llantony"] "My ideal would be sell our UK house and be mortgage free (what joy!) and buy something modest and maybe return to UK for 3 months Dec-Feb"[/quote] So that's where we'd live!   Not keen on renting out our current UK house - it would barely cover the mortgage but for a house of this type  & area people would expect it to be immaculate and it isn't.  I have thought of buying a small house or flat in the Uk and renting it reasonably to one of our sons on the promise that we could come back. It sounds a bit pessimistic to try & have an insurance of a property in the UK in case things don't work out, but who know what the future holds...

My little Cavalier King Charles spaniel does - she barks at animals, including cartoon ones.  What really amazed me recently was that on Flog it there was a ceramic pot lid with a picture of a cat's face and Molly barked at that too!  She lives peacefully if not amicably with 2 cats.

We are hoping to try living in France and  my OH wants to just sell up & go.  I'm a bit concerned about just selling up as if we later want/need to return the UK housing market may have raced ahead of us. Even for occasional visits we would have no relatives we could/would want to land on for UK visits and our sons have small flats and no room. My ideal would be sell our UK house and be mortgage free (what joy!) and buy something modest and maybe return to UK for 3 months Dec-Feb, have Christmas with the kids , catch up with friends and  miss the darkest, dismalist time of year in rural France.  I know others do similarly, but how does this work with things like health and insurance?  If we opt into the French health system - which does seem a lot better where we are - are we excluded from the UK one (except for emergency treatment)? Travel insurance usually covers up to 30 days so wouldn't cover medical expenses.  Which country to insure the car in?  And again, if France, would we be covered for 3 months in England? How do others manage?

What's wrong with being a feminist Coco?  It just means believing in equality which is surely human rights.  You surely don't believe women should be paid less for doing the same job or men make all the decisions in a relationship?  I'm in no way militant (a bit of a wimp even) but I do object to men being seen as superior.  Also the stereotypical thinking e.g. in a marriage/partnership women always do the cooking and men look after the money (it's more or less the other way round with us and works fine!) Back to the thread, I did hear of a sad situation where a man worked in the UK and wife & kids were in France.  She was very lonely and compensated by shopping - but how many handbags does one need in rural France? (or anywhere, come to that - I stick to 1)  I think she gave up and returned to the UK in the end.  I don't know if I'd manage on my own for long (kids are grown up) but a friend reminded me not to stop driving as she's seen several widows who did and it makes them more isolated.  

We bought en tontine so that if/when one of us dies the house automatically belongs to the other.  Currently the house belongs half to the survivor and half to the deceased's children (or, if no children possibly the deceased's family). A friend did the same as, although they get on well with their 4 children, all 4 would have to sign before the surviving parent could sell the house. I'm pretty sure tontine is only allowed on houses under a certain price (maybe 100000 euros, ours was 68K). I agree you need to check tho as the law is changing.

We dreamed for years of buying in France (when it was cheap) and only managed it when we realised we had reasonable equity in our UK home and could then borrow more  (and the kids were more or less independent).  Before we retire we'll have to sell the UK house to pay off the mortgage (or sell the French house to keep the UK one, but OH won't have that!).  May try to buy something cheaper in UK in case we need to come back. Can't assume the French house will increase in value - or be easy to sell. If you can't get a place up to scratch for commercial renting you could rent to family and friends. A friend of mine does that.  Ours isn't yet good enough to charge people for as we havenn't time to do the work, but we are hoping to retire there in the next 2 years anyway.

We bought in 2003 and have not yet had a bill for Taxe d'Habitation!  Recently got a bill for the garage bought last year and have written to point out we haven't had a bill for the house.... Fonciere comes through tho.

I'm sure there are!  (Might be a good idea to post in the 'South West France' topic.)  There is certainly a lot in Montagu de Quercy which isn't all that far away - library, language classes etc..  Moissac has a Lions Club for those who are interested.

5 hours is a lot better than Ryanair who, when flight was cancelled, told us we couldn't have another for 5 DAYS!

I tried the website, looked promising tho we'd have to travel further at the UK end. It seems to offer Leeds/Bradford or Manchester to Toulouse.    However, I tried putting in dates just to see what the cost would be and couldn't get any further as it took me to a page about my booking, which of course I haven't made.  So no idea of costs/availability!

Thanks Betty, I think ours is the only property with a tarpaulin over it and, looking at the map, the street they mention is directly below - as it's very steep there are various stairways cutting through.  Still inaccurate which makes me wonder who complained as anyone living near would know what street they lived on! The crane is between our house and the ruin so we could get a van near to the ruin but not to our house. I'd like to complain about the crane but others have to no avail.  I just don't want to annoy the Mairie so they get heavy about our ruin.  (You look so young in your picture!) And Benjamin - you could be right so I might just wait.  But the Mairie is far from consistent in enforcement.  Friends wanted to put in a small pool (cannot be seen from the street) and were told it must not not be blue, but looking at photos of the village in the display at the Mairie, there are several bright blue pools already.  Likewise, Velux windows in roofs are not allowed but we can see about a dozen from our garden.