Should we have a new Forum - Selling French Property?

[SaligoBay]

One lad explained that inside every urban Frenchman there is a peasant just itching to breakout and get the soil back under their fingernails.

It's true, they're proud of every peasantish, cabbage-growing, birdie-shooting ancestor they can find.  La France profonde is indeed itching to get out. 

There's a film called "Bienvenue au Gite" about this very thing.  It's tedious rubbish, as most films about Parisians seem to be.  A Parisian couple move to deepest Provence and try to grow olives.  In the end he stays but she goes back to Paris and opens an olive shop.

[Will]

'So far in 2005 we've had arrivals from Paris, Lyon and an unspecified location "down south." They are even buying fixer-uppers (integrating with local Brits? Possibly...) and lavishing vast sums on them.'

Not a new phenomenon, our house was allegedly renovated 25 years ago by a Corsican. We also had city dwellers moving into our tiny commune a year or so back, well before any of the current troubles, though the reason for that particular move became clear when the authorities caught up with him (again, allegedly)  

[Teamedup]

Our village has always been a mix of local families buying and french people away moving from the local cities or their banilieu. Add to that the few who have moved into the region for work and chosen a village over the towns and cities and voila you have where I live.

I'm the only anglaise in the village.

 

[The Riff-Raff Element]

[quote]'So far in 2005 we've had arrivals from Paris, Lyon and an unspecified location "down south." They are even buying fixer-uppers (integrating with local Brits? Possibly...) and lavishing vast sums on t...[/quote]

I have to say that some of our recent-ish arrivals are decidedly evasive about some things - Mr "down south somewhere" and a couple who appear to be living under assumed names, for example. (Tip for those considering the role of "international man / woman of mystery": it is necessary to ensure that you are as about as interesting as watching paint dry. Any hints of the exotic lead to nasty little snoops doing digging, particularly in corners of the world where a dead dog in the road some distance from the village can provide conversation for several days.) Does France have a witness protection program??