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So what is this appeal that is so British


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There is some dicussion on another thread about French houses that would appeal to Brits.  I thought I'd start a new thread so that everyone who has an opinion can say what sort of French property they like.  Also, could people also say whether they bought the sort of property they liked or whether, for whatever reason, they have ended up with something entirely different?

To start us off, I shall say straight off that I shall be househunting in the near future and this is the type of house I'd like to buy:

A stone house, perhaps a longere type property, any type of stone really but I particularly love the white "tuffeau" stone.

Situated in 17, 16, 33 or 24

Old property, renovated but not to within an inch of its life

No fussy bathroom suites, plain white and functional; bidet a must (or space to install one)

Nice wooden shutters (plastic just will not do)

Nice wooden joinery everywhere, especially on doors and windows and stairs

Not a fitted kitchen, just a plain room preferably with fireplace or a very large range that will burn wood

Garden with lots of trees, but not "manicured" with fussy flower borders

Largish fenced land; stream in the land would be the cherry on the cake

Nice gates (any type); gates and railings even better

So now, it's over to you!

Edit:  Sorry, if you are French, can you say what type of property appeals to you as I would like to find out if the perceived difference is really there or not (not counting ruined castles!)

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We bought our current house after over a year of house hunting. Our priority was an old stone house (like lots of Brits), with outbuildings, on a quite road. The only thing out of the 3 that we found was tranquility! We are in an old brick house (1 wall is stone however[:)]), without outbuildings and settled for this coz otherwise we thought we wouldn't find anything. We kept being outbid by Parisians rather than other Brits funnily enough (we are on the Ide F and normandy border).

So good luck to you - be prepared for several visits and don't be pushed into signing on something too quickly. Take your time and if necessary get a builder to check stuff out for you. We were saved from a big mistake when we fell inlove with a great stone hse but needed at least £50000 spending on the roof - taking it way over our budget - thanks to a good builder/roofer who gave us a reliable estimate. Agencies will want to push you to sign, remember it's a buyers market - it's unlikely to get sold under your nose. Think carefully and do your maths precisely.

bon chance

J

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I went for an old stone house too because I love this type of character.  It is in a medieval bastide, on the ramparts with views.  It is a mid terrace, which makes me feel safer when alone and, if I lean out of my front window, I can shake hands with my neighbour 'across the road'.  I wanted to be able to walk to the shops, which I can, or a bar or a few restaurants.  I wanted a restauration project as I would like the decor to be sympathetic to the age of the property, but I did not want too big a project, hence, the house not too big.  I did not want a garden to take up my time and fell for the small private terrace on the ramparts with views to the Pyrenees which is just big enough for a few pots of herbs.

All I need now is the time and the money to get stuck in.

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We wanted a small house with a small garden on a back road in a village. We also wanted a fireplace and garage was optional.

Regarding the style of the house, we wern't sure as we'd only spent a couple of days in France before (and that was in Paris) and never really looked at the architecture of houses, so we got a surprise when we finally came out for good.

We ended up with all those things we wanted and more. The front of our house is directly on a back street in a village, but the back looks out over a valley, so we have village life at the front and privacy with rural living at the back. We only have a 300m2 garden, so we're not spending our life maintaining garden like we were when we were in Australia.

Despite the fact we never saw the house until after we had bought it, we have the most homeliest home we have ever had and are very happy here.

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In London we had a tiny garde n where we could have a few plants and sit with 4 others in the summer months...but it was far from private.

Here in 33 we have a parc with many different types of trees...very mature trees.Lots of flowers....and not manicured.

Many spots with a stone bench or little table and chairs to sit amd catch the sun or hide in the shade.

Good to here the sound of the many varieties of birds..neighbouring cockeral.

We wanted to be near to a village...like most people ....just to be able to buy bread and milk.

Large rooms are an attraction to Londoners as they were such a premium in Kensington.Lots of windows....with wooden shutters [not in a bad state of repair]letting the sunshine in.Our style of house was partly tied in with our Chambre d hote project.We needed a house which would look delightful in photo/web form.There are many reasons why vacationers are lured to a particlar spot.With the world finances being so difficult now...attention to detail,quality,location it all matters so much.

The house is pale and handsome...described as a maison "bougoise". Accross from it stands a Pigioner which would make a good 2 bed gite....but that will wait....next door to the house is a barn.

I do like chateaux but the up keep and heating would be too much to take on.There is no harm in looking though.

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Our experience was something like Jess - the house we ended up with was not really what we had on paper.

Originally, we wanted an old house with a large barn - we had seen these at the price level we had set in the Limousin. We then discovered that we wanted to live further south and costs were higher. On our first actual hunting trip we saw a house that the OH liked until I finally got her to take a second look inside - if only it had been the other house at the end of the lane for sale. In total we viewed about 200 houses until an agent took us to the 'other house at the end of the lane.

It does have a part from the mid 1800s but the majority is from the 1960s. This though gives us a mix of old and new. The barn became a large block built building too small to get a car in. The land is also a lot smaller. However, the views over rolling hills and of the Pyrenees are superb. 

Plans are to add a conservatory, build a large garage / workshop and to install an in-ground swimming pool.

We saw other houses that were perhaps better value but at the end of the day as they say, the three most important things came in to play - 'location, location, location'.

Paul

 

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Our "must have" list was dominated by "must be in a very quiet area with no main roads near-by" - so once the cats were sorted we decided what we wanted!!

Old property with no major building work required - but decorative order not important.  1 - 2 acres of land, good sized rooms & nice views over the country.  If possible a gite or small "maison d'amis".

A lot of the houses we looked at had either the attics converted to bedrooms which you had to limbo to get into or consisted of a group of 5 - 6 buildings ..... none of which had a roof or full standing wall between them!!  We also saw some wonderful French traditionally decorated houses - with carpet on the walls & ceilings ..... & we were also introduced to the wonders of "pierre apparent" wallpaper!!

After looking at about 60 houses we got pretty much what we had been looking for - except not in the area we originally thought of.  We now have 2 acres of land, one of which is a large field at the side (totally useless, but keeps us private) a house which was renovated about 17 years ago (functional but needs a lot of refreshing - a bit like us, really!) & just about everything that suits our needs!!

Some people would probably think that it's over renovated, but it still retains a lot of character & enough quirky bits to keep us happy.

We also got our maison d'amis ...... which sits totally empty as we don't appear to have any "amis"!! [:-))]

All in all - I think we did ok!! [:D]

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We fall in to the "old stone house" category and bought a small (ish) stone house with a garage, some garden space and  it is in a village. The house was in reasonable condition and ready to move in to and has easy access to airports and motorway. Of course it has required some tlc and we have spent money and made improvements over the years. Ours is a second home so maybe in this case the requirements are a bit different. Generally I think the British dreaming of a place abroad seem to fall for the old, properties with character.
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I am not sure our house falls into the 'Brit appeal' category. It is only about 30 years old and in common with our houses I liked best in the UK it has large windows - three French windows at the front and three at the back -simple rooms and a good sized kitchen. It is built over a sous sol which I think is an excellent idea worthy of importing to English builders. When it gets too big for us I doubt that the new purchasers will be British. I think that there are only about 2% Brits in the commune anyway - A bit different to our previous house in Charente where ,if holiday homes were taken into account, there were 50% brits!
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I had a list of things I wanted when we went house hunting, but in the end, like many others we compromised.  I wanted a stone house, with terracotta tiles on the roof, well proportioned with just three bedrooms but all the rooms had to be a decent size with decent sized windows.  I also like to have open space around me.  We ended up after 8 months of searching every weekend buying a huge stone longere (but with terracotta tiles) with ten acres, stables, attached barns and a maison d'amis.  It is much larger than we wanted but is practical in terms of the business we want to start up.  It is also only 4 kilometres from a lively town with good bakers and excellent weekly market plus a fantastic 24 hour vet which as we are going to do something dog-related, was crucial.  I think I liked it because it was a kind of mellow yellowy stone which reminded me of the cotswold stone of my childhood.  However the interior was another matter, and almost put me off.  It had been 'modernised'.  Over the next few years we are going to be ripping everything out and putting it back the way we want it.

I am slowly coming to love the place, but didn't at the beginning. I love the fact that there is a large river about 5 fields away from the front of the house, which regularly floods during the winter, so the fields nearest the river are flood plains.  This means our view will never be built on, but we are far enough away not to get flooded.  Also there is a large pond outside the front of the house.  At first I regarded this as a nuisance, but had not taken much notice of it.  Now I just love it.  It changes all the time, my dogs have great fun with it and it bounces the most incredible amount of light into the house.  Having all the land is also wonderful.  I walk around it every day with my dogs off lead and my deerhound no longer has to fear meeting other dogs.  We have come to an arrangement with a local farmer for cutting the land, so it shouldn't be too much of a headache in the summer.  I am now looking forward to getting the veg and flower garden going too and increasing the size of the orchard.  There is also room for us to expand in the house too.

Though I was very hesitant at the beginning, because it satisfied a lot of my practical requirements (though not necessarily my aesthetic ones), I am coming to think we made the right choice.  It was scary taking on such a big place, but we are slowly growing into it.  A lot of it is about knowing how you want the house to function for you.  It is not an easy undertaking but given that there are so many houses for sale at the moment, there is plenty of choice.

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We had a very small budget so had  to look hard over  2/3 years for a holiday home.  We visited numerous properties of all shapes, style, condition and regions.  With limited building skills, we had little choice in  meeting any specified "appeal" but eventually, after some keen negotiation, struck lucky and purchased a lovely habitable house with an attached stone property needing minimal renovation in which we are developing our skills and this is coming along nicely.

In our case it was not a case of what pre-concieved sort of property we would like but more a case of what was available and acceptable.  Our criteria was to buy a holiday home in France and learn to integrate.  Good luck with your househunting.

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We wanted a stone cottage with a perigordian roof, some land and outbuildings. We wanted to be in the countryside without any near neighbours, but within reasonable distance from the nearest boulangerie.

Like Ali-Cat we spent ages looking. Over the course of about two years we must have viewed something like fifty properties.

Although the house we bought fulfilled some of our criteria but in the end it came down to love at first sight. We walked round the corner of the barn and the house appeared to be sitting there smiling shyly at us. Happily, we both felt the same about it and knew we would buy it before we’d even looked inside.

The house had been completely renovated in the 1950s and robbed of those interesting features which we might have liked. It had then lain unused for forty years and so it was a bit like a time capsule of the previous renovations. Thankfully, the walls had been colour - washed. There was a proper water system which operated on water from the stream which we had changed to mains water.

I’m not sure that it would appeal to other Brits or the French, but I don’t care. I agree with Cendrillon that one’s attitude may be different if it’s a holiday home.

Hoddy
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I have just been looking on the net at nice modern, double glazed, easy houses and hoping that some time next year we can sell our very pretty, but hugely expensive to maintain and pain in the ass to clean, huge gardened stone house and have one of the modern ones.  Our house is beautiful, ideal for the B & B and has what I suppose people call the Brit factor but I think my life is more than a house!  I've always disliked housework and gardening is OK only in small doses.  In summer we seem to spend our lives watering and grass cutting.  I walk the dogs so really they only need a small garden and if we stop doing B & B 2 bedrooms is loads.  Maybe I'm just too practical but when I look at most of my friends and acquaintances houses here I wonder why they want so much house and land.  I appreciate for some people it is their raison d'être but I'd rather sit on a small terrace with a glass of wine having done the housework in half an hour than spend my life cleaning and organising this huge house.  Old is rarely warm and I like cosy.  OH wants a nice garage and I want warm and clean, with very little land and no outbuildings to collect junk.  I'd like my house more if I could just be one of our guests and stay in it from time to time.
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We were looking for a stone cottage in a state of ruin and we weren't disappointed. Our house had the required stone walls, canal tiles and inside were three stone fireplaces, original terracotta tiles and a stone 'evier'.  Every summer we did another chunk of work and eventually we had a little cottage with one functioning bedroom and bathroom but with an attic dormitory for the offspring.  It was situated at the end of a little lane in a hamlet of five old houses and the children could bike outside without risk of being squashed.  There were also two children of the same age as mine in the hamlet which made summer holidays moan-free.  Eventually we moved out and that's when things went pear shaped (actually they went pear shaped which is why we moved out!) but we still loved our little cottage and made improvements as and when we could.  Then the house burned down and we were left with three walls, no roof, two chimneys and the remnants of terracotta tiling. As there was no way the insurers would 'put it back together again' we added a new modern 72M² 'great room'  an enormous open fireplace and french windows and doors on all sides so we have perpetual light.  Do I regret the passing of my little cottage?  Yes, in a way, but do I love my new house?  You bet! Jen

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To generalise, we are suckers for blue shutters. Also I think that we all tend to look for the romance of the open countryside (cheaper too as the practical French seem to like to live in towns).

Lately Mrs Renaud has started to make cryptic remarks about being 'near to' might have been better that 'in reach of'.
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[quote user="Just Katie"]Another British appeal is our eagerness to talk about our property! [:D][/quote]

Definitely but it makes a change from talking about the weather.

 

Yes, Renaud, blue shutters are appealing and we have them too. [:)]

As for Mme Renaud wanting to be nearer to things, perhaps you could buy her a bike![8-|]

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[quote user="Cerise"]I have just been looking on the net at nice modern, double glazed, easy houses and hoping that some time next year we can sell our very pretty, but hugely expensive to maintain and pain in the ass to clean, huge gardened stone house and have one of the modern ones.  Our house is beautiful, ideal for the B & B and has what I suppose people call the Brit factor but I think my life is more than a house!  I've always disliked housework and gardening is OK only in small doses.  In summer we seem to spend our lives watering and grass cutting.  I walk the dogs so really they only need a small garden and if we stop doing B & B 2 bedrooms is loads.  Maybe I'm just too practical but when I look at most of my friends and acquaintances houses here I wonder why they want so much house and land.  I appreciate for some people it is their raison d'être but I'd rather sit on a small terrace with a glass of wine having done the housework in half an hour than spend my life cleaning and organising this huge house.  Old is rarely warm and I like cosy.  OH wants a nice garage and I want warm and clean, with very little land and no outbuildings to collect junk.  I'd like my house more if I could just be one of our guests and stay in it from time to time.[/quote]

That was our thinking. We had acreage in Australia and a large house, but our lives were spent cleaning and gardening. That's why we wanted small and simple so we could on with the important thing of living and not wasting our lives vacuuming and polishing and mopping and mowing lawns and weeding and.....

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This is turning out to be such an interesting thread.  And we all reveal so much of ourselves just by talking about our houses.  For example, you could tell the romantics (and slightly impractical) from the down-to-earth and no-nonsense types.  Me, I think I definitely belong to the former category!

It's also interesting how many people want "views" (I do too) and I think, driving around France, that I have never seen such vast areas of undeveloped landscape.  Yes, I know we have pretty countryside areas too in the UK but then "civilisation" and housing are never far away and the countryside is not on the scale of that in France.

When we came, I was adamant that we would have a house that is as unlike anything as possible to what we had and could have in the UK.  If that were not the case, why bother moving?

I wanted a "French" house (however you might like to define that).  OK, then, a French house without French wallpaper, is that better?[:D]

Most of all I did not want to live on a lotissement because I could live in any number of housing estates in the UK.  And I did not want suburban; town, yes, but not suburban (how contrary is that?)

For the same reason, I did not want new-build or off-plan or whatever they call it.  I could understand Cerise and others wanting clean, warm, comfortable and modern.  I daresay in years to come, that is what I would want also.  But the time for me is not yet...........

In many ways, although we bought in a bit of desperation in the end, we have the stone, converted barn, the land, the wooden beams, the brace-and-ledge doors, etc. etc.  Some would say it's the best of both worlds, old outside and modern and bright inside.  But, and there is a definite but, I feel it lacks character.  Perhaps it's because we are the first family to occupy this place; before that it was just an old ruin.  And no, we didn't tackle the big stuff ourselves.

It looks pretty and feels vacant; the only comparison I can think of is that if it is a woman, it would be Kathryn Jenkins (the singer).  Pretty face, nice voice but oh............so...................boring (sorry if you are a fan).

Anyway, I want to fall in love (with a house, I hasten to add) like some of you clearly have.  Just to experience once again the quickening of the heart beat, the feeling that you belong to each other, the sensation of being inseparable...............ah!

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