House at Montjardin,Aude

[Lyn]

We bought a house in March last year and completed in June. We are I suppose about 30 mins from Limoux. We were out in September for 2 weeks and again at Christmas. In was really cold then and we are hoping someone already living in the Area may know of someone who supplies and installs woodburners. We would be grateful for any help. We are next out at easter for a week and then in september for a fortnight( although my husband can always take time off and fly out to sort out the installation. We are retiring and moving out in about 2 years and attempting to get the house sorted out before then. We would love to meet other people living or with holiday homes in the Area. We both love hill walking and cycling( although don't profess to be super fit or good at either) and birdwatching is a new hobby.We are hoping to learn to ski and going to have a look at Ax le Thermes at Christmas certainly made us want to get onto the slopes asap. We would love to hear from any of you.
Lyn and arthur

[Hegs]

Lyn,

Check your message box.

Cheers, Ian

[Piprob]

We've left a possible contact number for you in your Box.
Robert

[Stevie43_Uk]

Hi,

We bought a house last February near Puivert. As you mention it is very cold in the winter, although we only use it at present for holidays.

I had the same problem trying to find a wood burner...the prices are ridiculous. (Especially that fireplace shop next to Mr.Bricolage in Limoux)- prices started from 1200 euros !!!

I ended up eventually buying one in the UK and fortunately my collegue was going to Ariege to pick up a tractor, so he took the stove and other bits and bobs.
I've since heard that TNT will deliver at a reasonable cost...my friend who lives in Lavelenet had a Chimenea delivered that way, and it wasn't too expensive I think

Hope that helps

Steve and Pauline

[ckenway]

We have an insert which seems to be the more popular type of fire in this area. The inserts can be bought quite cheaply, around 500 although the actual fire surround can be quite expensive.

As I have now discovered it's abit more complicated than I first thought, you know, a fire in a stone surround and thats it. We have a Rene Brisach which is expensive but we now know is probably the Rolls Royce of inserts and once you get into it you can see why. Ours produces 19kw of heat and 8kw of radiated heat which is created by air being drawn in from outside, round the outer casing of the firebox and then ducted into the rest of the house. Indead you can actually heat the whole house with this method. We have had ours installed including a new chimney both internal and external, the removal of the old fire and chimney which went up two floors (we have repositioned the new fire in the lounge) all for 6000 and it all comes with a 10 year warranty from the manufacturer who use their own engineers to do the work, not subcontracted.

Before I did this I looked at many of our French friends houses and they all had inserts, not all Rene Brisach. When we told them we were having one many said we were buying the best.

We had looked into buying a Villager, Waterford or simular but none could prouce the 27kw of heat that this can and none could duct heat to the rest of the house. Is ours good, well let me just say it was -2 the other day so we cranked it up to full power and we are heating about 75m2 of lounge and dinning area (it is also vented to a further 46m2 of downstairs bedrooms and kitchen, we don't bother heating the upstairs we just leave the bedroom doors open) and we had to open the windows.

So my advice is before you make any rash decision have agood look around first and ask why the French (particularily in our area) buy what they buy and why don't you see none insert fires around here.

Chris

[Btuckey]

LAST EDITED ON 23-Feb-04 AT 00:16 AM (GMT)

Lyn,

If you are really stuck, Mr.Bricolage in Pamiers has (did have) a huge range including a Spanish manufacturer. Begins with Sa.. but I cannot remember the full name. We have one and it was a godsend over Christmas and IIRC it was not too expensive.

Brian

11500