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I've vacationed in the Lot many times and it's on the top of my list of where to buy a property to renovate. My goal is to have a gite, but also live there part of the year.

As I don't speak french, I prefer to have other English speaking expats close by (until I hopefully learn French).

Anybody out there buy a property and then take years to renovate it? My goal is to buy next year or so, but not permanently relocate to France until 7 to 10 years from now. Or is it better to buy and renovate all at once? Any advice would be really appreciated!

Thanks

John

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I understand you feeling for the Lot. It has some lovely domestic architecture and  lovely scenery especially in the river valleys.

But can you really 'love' a place where you can't communicate with the locals, because it is the people who make the place, not the surroundings.

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We have no regrets whatsoever about choosing The Lot.

I have to say that in our 3 years we have noticed quite an upsurge in settlers from UK, also seen a fair few returnees, but it's in no way crowded or like certain areas of deepest Dordogneshire.

Living in Canada you may have better opportunities to learn French than many.

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Living in Canada you may have better opportunities to learn French than many.......with such a cute deep cut accent and words last used when the Huguenots were babies.....If you are going to learn Franch better avoid areas with heavy accent concentrations.

A colleague of mine Brit through and through spoke fluent French with a strong accent from Toulouse. Hillarious !!
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I think you will probably want a strong xpat community... I went to this place once (Montcuq) and it was very nice and with the xpats you seek.  There is a magazine (http://www.lefortysix.fr/) in english with lots of events.

I live a bit further away and although there are brits round these parts, they seems to hide in the quercy stone cracks and mix more with the surrounding neighbours.

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[quote user="osie"]I think you will probably want a strong xpat community... I went to this place once (Montcuq) and it was very nice and with the xpats you seek. [/quote]

Why would you think that osie that when John has specifically said:

[quote user="John"]Oh, don't get me wrong. I intend to learn French and totally immerse myself into the culture. That's why I'm moving after all
[/quote]

Mind you, I suppose just about everybody says that in the beginning although in practice precious few seem to successfully follow it through [;-)]

 

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precisely that reason .... if you say 'you will' is not quite as positive as saying I have been/am/and will be.

and he did mention that he wanted expats close by..

you can have em all around you and still hide away but its more difficult to live in the middle of nowhere yet still have em all around you.

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To further clarify, the reason I want some expats around is to help make my acclimation a little easier. I am single, and I'll be moving to France on my own. Although I don't speak French I will not be once of those people that move to another country and never bother to learn the language

Thanks

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Yes the grass is greener but this year grows much too quickly.

No regrets at all (for that might imply that I had made a mistake in moving here). Tis a shame that the GBP weakened so much though it is making a bit of a recovery.

John
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On the practical front

1. If you fail to plan you plan to fail, corny but oh so true.

2. Money - how will you finance your daily living? When compiling your spreadsheet on anticipated income and outgo half the former and double the latter.

3. Timescale - if it only takes twice as long as planned you have done well.

4. Learn the Gallic shrug. France is a bewildering and frustrating place - once you have learned to live with this and stop railing against it you are halfway there.

5. Much of the attraction of the Lot (for me) is the lack of people. Total pop. is only about 170,000 with no large towns. Cahors has only 20/25,000, Figeac and Gourdon about 10/15,000 each with the rest of the peeps dotted around in tiny hamlets where inbreeding would seem to the only sport.

6. A sensible person would rent in the chosen location first to make sure. I fell in love at first sight and jumped straight in. But you probably don't have my talent, modesty or luck.

7. We have converted a barn into a house, don't intend to do it again so don't worry about how we would do things differently. Also doing things differently next time implies that I was less than perfect this time.

8. Beware of freeloaders - many might see your owning a bit of paradise as an excuse for a free holiday. Hopefully it might be a bit far/expensive for any Canadans.

9. Make a list of foodstuffs etc that you miss or are cheaper/better back there and then shred it. Live with what is here (see 4).

On the "dream" front

1. If you are dragging along a wife (your own or someone else's), partner, boy/girl friend beware their enthusiasm level claiming to match yours. Despite what they might say it won't. Be prepared for anything from minor tiffs to full volume shouting matches and searching for divorce lawyers in the yellow pages.

2. When contemplating 1 you have to decide which is more important, the other person or your dream. If the former don't bother, stay in Canadia.

Will e-mail my invoice in due course.

John
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Sorry to cut across this thread other than to say that John has got this right with the exception of the divorce thingy, J and I both have the drive and dream we had when we arrived despite some horrendous things happening since but they have been dealt with.

John, have you/Di received my pms of the past few days?  I don't have you email address for some reason (and mine has changed) and need to send Di a message.

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I think John's list is spot on.  I made a similar list that grew into an entire website.  One big thing came out of this process was the importance of the right mindset.

In October 2007 I decided to sell everything and move to Cape Town and on the 27th of November 2007 my kids and I were bathed in African sunshine.  It has been everything I expected, the good has been really really good and the bad has been not quite as bad as I thought - although my experiences with my long term South African girlfriend were more awful than I could have imagined and I put it down to her having grown up in a place where such traumatic  things have happened and continue to happen.This has been my "squeeze the toothpaste in the middle" experience of where I live and it has really taken the shine of the place for me.

So what I'm saying is that if you have the right mindset you can make a go of it just about anywhere, but there will always be things about a place that get on your wick no matter how well prepared you are.

And as an aside I only planned to be here for a couple of years before moving back to Europe.  So now I'm thinking it's time and France is back on the list.

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What would we have done differently ?

Very little really and I'm struggling to think of anything worthy of particular mention - we quickly dismissed the idea of a restoration and went to the opposite extreme with a 1970's house if that counts ?

I wish I'd offered less as my offer was far too readily accepted !

Oh, and I wish I had transferred the balance of my UK house sale when the rate was 1.45, and set up a 2 year forward deal at that rate !

My tip is there is no such thing as too much research. We could have done more but had the essentials, health, cars, tax situation etc. well under control [;-)]

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Wherever you are moving from, if you don't speak French or can't pick it up quickly your social life will be limited to English speaking ex-pats. There are plenty of them in the Lot, but they are not a homogeneous group, so if you don't get on with the first crowd you meet, be patient: accept any invitation going and try the next group.

Learning French will open up a MUCH wider circle of friends & acquaintances.

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