Colin

Chris, so many thanks to you. It seems the dream can still be on. Of course we will seek the necessary legal advise first but the solution does seem to be there. Thanks again. Colin

Can anyone help me please. I have become so confused. My wife and me are seriously considering retiring to France, we have our house up for sale currently and have decided on the area we want to move to after many visits to France. The one concern we both have is this. I have 4 children from my first marriage which ended nearly 30 years ago, my wife and me have one child together. All children are grown up, married, and 4 out of the 5 have children of their own. I cannot put this any other way so please try to understand. For historic personal domestic reasons, I want to be able to ensure that none of the 4 children from my first marriage can lay a claim to any property we might buy in France. I am 64 years old, in good health thankfully, my wife is 53. Is there any way I can protect her from being at the mercy of my 4 children from my first marriage. Only one has kept in regular contact with me consistently for the past 30 years and she understands and agrees I need to protect my wife and our daughter (who is much younger than the other children.4).The other three would undoubtable 'take her to the cleaners' if they had the chance. Would her future and that of our daughter be protected if my wife bought the house in her name only? or do the inheritance laws in France mean that our dream of retiring there should remain just that, a dream?  Colin.