Allier assistance

[Trishaa<P><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"><EM>Trisha<EM><FONT><P><P><IMG height=198 src="http:www.gifmania.co.ukDisneyWinniejpoohlef.gif" width=133><P><P> <P>]

We have owned a holiday home in Burgundy for the past 15 years we know the area reasonably well, but we are now moving to the Allier (near Lurcy Levis) so know nothing!  We have only just signed the Compromis de Vente so it's early day's yet.

Can anyone help by telling me the market days, good restaurants, places of interest and any other snippets you think might be useful

Trisha

[Trishaa<P><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"><EM>Trisha<EM><FONT><P><P><IMG height=198 src="http:www.gifmania.co.ukDisneyWinniejpoohlef.gif" width=133><P><P> <P>]

Hellooooo - anyone out there live in the Allier???  or have we hit on an unknown area for the brits.  No, I can't believe that to be true!  Maybe it's just around the Lurcy Levis area that it's quiet.  If anyone can tell me about the Allier I'd be chuffed to bits.

Trisha

[tony4]

Hi, We live in a small village just outside Sancoins, not technically in the Allier but Lurcy Levis is about 15-20mins.

We only really visit Lurcy for the Builders merchant ` Big Mat` as its the local one we prefer,  so not too sure whats else is in the immediate area.

There is a weekly market in Sancoins every Wednesday, one of the largest in the area, typical local French market - not really a tourist thing but ideal if you`re after fresh produce. etc........

One restaurant that we visit, roughly 15, 20mins from Lurcy Levis is the Auberge "Le Chuchal " at Franchesse near Couleuvre. To give you an idea of price, last time we were there we had  Four courses including wine for six for 170 euros. It is worth going just to see the quality of the restoration work to the farmhouse. The evening we went to the Auberge, there were two other British families in the restaurant.

We`ve been renovating a `old` fermette, and I stress the word old, since 2001 and usually are out for a min of 1month and up to 6 months of the year..

the main places we visit are:

Nevers, Bourges, St Amand Montrond and Apremont -- on the way to Nevers for us, which is a `village de France`

Not sure exactly the towns you know so won`t go on about them too much incase you`ve already visited most of them.

Not on here every day, so if you respond to this don`t be too disheartened if we don`t reply straight away.

bye for now.

Tony & Ros.

 

 

[Creusois]

I know it's sacrilege but try looking at this -

http://www.francemag.com/frmag/content/filoFrance/?id=28

[Trishaa<P><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"><EM>Trisha<EM><FONT><P><P><IMG height=198 src="http:www.gifmania.co.ukDisneyWinniejpoohlef.gif" width=133><P><P> <P>]

Hello there, its so good to hear from you.

We have visited Nevers a few times, spent a day at St. Armand Montrond having a mooch around and then we met the immobilier at Sancoins just outside the church, but we didn't get to look around the place we just drove straight on to view the house.  We had been looking for nearly two years but as soon as we saw this we knew it was the 'one'.  Whilst looking we had a meal at St Pierre le Moutier but it was disastrous - so unlike any of the restaurants we know in the Morvan, may be we hit on a bad day for them!  There's a few more in that village so we will have to try them out as well.  The other towns/villages are unknown to us, but I'm sure we'll have a good time finding out  about our new area.  We are due to complete close to Easter and the excitement is mounting  We will give the Auberge a try hopefully on our next visit, it's certainly good value, but I'll have to look on the map to find out where it is.

The link provided was wonderful, I had no idea it existed and will pass the info to our friends with French homes.  All the markets we know are local farmers markets which we love, always so much choice and good local produce.  I enjoy cooking so am in heaven in markets and we always aim to support the local shops.  We try to avoid tourist areas as our aim is to make French friends.  Finding the local Fetes will be fun, do you know of any?

We had major renovation work on our Morvan home so were overjoyed when we found out that this one already had new plumbing, electricity and central heating - what a bonus.  We are considering renovating the dependance but will take our time on that.  Good luck with your home, is it almost finished?

It's always so good to hear recommendations and other peoples views on the area, Thank you.

Trisha & Paul

[Mlonghurst]

Tricia & Paul, Hi,

We live in Meillard, Allier, about 30 Miles south of you.  Only moved in 6 weeks ago and still getting to know the wider area.  If you are ever down this way please feel free to drop by.   We are expecting our first young Clydesdale Foal in March and 3 of the Llamas are also due to give birth sometime in March, so there will be a lot of excitement and celebration here.

Saint Pourcain-Sur-Sioul is really lovely with some nice resteraunts, bars, shops and its own wines (not really a great wine drinker, but I love some of theirs) steeped in History. There is a small market on there every Saturday.

Moulins is also a must for a visit and we are trying to discover when they have their markets.  Will update you as we discover the more interesting areas (again we seek the none tourist areas and prefer Farmers markets ourselves).

Welcome to Allier and hope all goes well with the purchase.

Regards,  Mike & Sue

[Trishaa<P><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"><EM>Trisha<EM><FONT><P><P><IMG height=198 src="http:www.gifmania.co.ukDisneyWinniejpoohlef.gif" width=133><P><P> <P>]

Hi Mike & Sue

I feel for you at the moment - 'only 6 weeks' isn't long and if you're anything like me you've still got lots of unpacked boxes!  We will be doing our move slowly hopefully as Paul still has to work in the UK so little by little we will be bringing our belongings across.  Looks like we'll probably have to hire a van to move the furniture from our Morvan home. I had to look on the map to find out where Meillard is, not too far at all is it.  Should you ever find yourselves near Lurcy Levis we'd love you to pop by too.  I'll email your our phone number once we've got ourselves settled.

I'd love to see a photo of your new foal - such a wonderful event seeing a new life - and 3 Llama's too!  Wow you are going to be even busier.  Do you have a small holding or are you big time farmers?  The new house has 3 hectares so we will need something to help in keeping the grass short, other wise we'll be constantly mowing. 

We will take a trip to St Pourcain-sur-Sioule when we're there and will also be scouting around to search for the regions wine producers.  We were lucky to have found some good ones close to our old french home so it will be a good challenge to discover new ones.

Trisha & Paul

[2brewers]

Hello there,

Allier is actually the old province of Bourbonnais so if you want to meet other expats why not contact the BBC ie the British Bourbonnais Club based in Vichy. They meet regularly and organise social evenings. they have a web site, not sure what it is but you will find it via google.fr.

AS far as we're concerned we live in Treban where we set up a brewery 4 years ago and where we produce various ales...

2 brewers

[Mlonghurst]

Trisha & Paul,

Hi again.  We only have a small Farm of 30 Acres.  We are getting quite excited about our imminent arrival and constantly go out to check if she has started yet (due any day now).

It is well worth a visit down to Treban just to visit 2brewers place.  It is very difficult to find a really good real ale in France and having sampled a few of his I can testify to their quality.  An absolute must for real ale admirers.

I will let you know when Tricia has foaled and send some pics.  You are allways welcome to pop in and see the foal and young Llama when they arrive.

Sue has just told me she is up at 5am tomorrow to check on Trica and Fatma and see if their babies have arrived Hope she does not expect me to check with her!!!

Regards,  Mike & Sue L

[Trishaa<P><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"><EM>Trisha<EM><FONT><P><P><IMG height=198 src="http:www.gifmania.co.ukDisneyWinniejpoohlef.gif" width=133><P><P> <P>]

I found the BBC - it's a great website which I'll be pondering over very soon. 

What we really loved was the thought of 2 brewers being so close by, fantastic news.  Paul had been considering brewing his own as he likes the occasional pint of real ale, but finding out about you guys is even better   I'm hoping that you won't mind us visiting you.

I'm shivering when I think of Sue out at 5am checking on the animals, the weather has been bitterly cold!  Lets hope this cold spell doesn't last much longer and that the warmth of spring is on its way.

We are popping over for a quick weekend in the Allier to make our arrangements for the big day of signing and collecting the keys which should be at Easter - the excitement is really growing now.   

Trisha & Paul

 

[Melrob]

Hi Trisha & Paul

Whereabouts near Lurcy is your house? We are moving mid april to our house between Pouzy M and Limoise (D1 Road). Will you be living there permanently, or is it for hoidays? There are quite a few nice restaurants in Bourbon L'Archambault which also has the most amazing Bastille Day celebrations.

Regards

Mel, Rob & Nicole

[Trishaa<P><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"><EM>Trisha<EM><FONT><P><P><IMG height=198 src="http:www.gifmania.co.ukDisneyWinniejpoohlef.gif" width=133><P><P> <P>]

Hello to you Mel, Rob & Nicole,

Gosh, you will be close by, I believe we are on the D144 just outside Lurcy.  Good luck with your move in April - I don't know about you but I can't believe how the time has flown by since we first saw the house. 

For the meantime it will be our holiday home as we have to get the UK sorted out before we make our permanent move, but that shouldn't take too long, so we are hoping that sometime next year we will be established there.  We also have a house in Burgundy which we have to sell so this year will be busy for us. What about you is it a permanent move?

We are really looking forward to discovering the area, I've just read about the 'Foire aux Vins d'Allier' which sounds great, its held at St-Pourcain and is in February.  So we are looking forward to next year for that one and it will be good to find lots of other local fairs too. 

Regards, Trisha & Paul

[Melrob]

Hells Bells you ARE close you could probably walk to our house from there!

For us it is a permanent move, Rob leaves work in 2 weeks and 1 day (not that he's counting or anything :-) ) He will be taking the bulk of our stuff out at the start of April and then we will all depart shortly afterwards.

We signed our final contract on the house in August 2003 having done the prelim signing in Feb 2003 so have known our house just over 2 years now. It was love at first sight, for me at least, when I first found it on the net, but it took that first viewing for Rob to fall in love with it...

We are extremely stressed at the moment, manically selling everything that moves and packing up what's left. Nicole is "helping" with the packing, at 13 months old that consists of taking everything out of the box that mummy has just packed!

The only downside for me is that my older daughter is staying in England, she is ?settled? with her boyfriend and job and doesn't want to move, so we will miss her...but I live in hope that she'll change her mind in the future.

Will you be working once you get to france ?

Mel

[Trishaa<P><FONT face="Comic Sans MS"><EM>Trisha<EM><FONT><P><P><IMG height=198 src="http:www.gifmania.co.ukDisneyWinniejpoohlef.gif" width=133><P><P> <P>]

Oh I feel for you, at least our move can be done slowly and bit by bit.  Our current french home is about 70 miles away so we will be moving that stuff first, I just can't believe how much clutter we've accumulated over the years. 

We've wanted to make the move since buying that house but it was really too small so the new one is perfect and eventually we'd like to run a small gite business but time will tell.  I need to do something or else I'll go stir crazy so decorating will be the order of the day for a long time, whereas Paul will still be working for quite a while, but he's a contractor and he gets the opportunity to work from home.  I'm pleased that the commune has ADSL so that we can easily keep in touch with family and friends.

It will be good to leave the rat race and enjoy the French way of life

How wonderful for you that Nicole, being so young, will grow up to be bilingual.