alittlebitfrench Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 Life is back to normal following Brexit… https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-12933193/Now-easier-buy-second-home-France-budget.html?ico=mol_desktop_home-newtab&molReferrerUrl=https Sell your 1 bed semi in Milton Keynes and buy a chateau in France. And why not ? Wot could go wrong ? The food is great. 🤔 So the question really is…..do you sell your 1 bed semi in Milton Keynes and buy a chateau in France ? For me….no. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveLister Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 I wonder how much the estate agents quoted paid for this puff piece. If I was going to be spending half my time in a foreign country the last thing I would want to live in is a "chateau". Not unless I could afford the staff. Still, bring it on I say. Might bring us a few new forum members.😉 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
menthe Posted January 7 Share Posted January 7 Chateaux are very overrated. I have seen enough of crumbling, dilapidated chateaux and manoirs on my extensive walks to not ever, not even in a nightmare, wish to own one. However, it's more than bearable when you are flush for funds or paid for by someone else to stay the odd weekend in one😄 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lehaut Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 Live in the Chateaux is not going as well as they hoped: https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/escape-to-the-chateau-****-angel-speak-out-channel-4-cuts-ties_uk_6470c056e4b091b09c2cb878#:~:text=Former Escape To The Chateau,professional relationship with the couple. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveLister Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 16 hours ago, menthe said: I have seen enough of crumbling, dilapidated chateaux and manoirs on my extensive walks to not ever, not even in a nightmare, wish to own one I have a very good friend who married a chateau owner. He had inherited the pile from an Uncle and worked himself into an early grave trying to make it pay. After his death I watched his wife age before my eyes as she tried to hold the estate together long enough for their son to reach maturity. It was sold shortly afterwards. I have two memories of that chateau. One was on their wedding day with the great hall decked out in all it's finery. The second was a winter visit where the entire family was huddled in one room around a gas heater. I wouldn't wish that life on my worse enemy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 Hard for me to figure out how ANYONE could think a chateau would not be a money pit. Wouldn't consider it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
menthe Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 I thought I'd relate my experience of visiting a chateau near us where we walkers were invited by the chatelaine herself. What happened was, we inadvertently trespassed on her land during one of our walks. She came out to remonstrate with us, only to stay on chatting and gave us a date to return and see the place properly. I think the poor woman was simply lonely. The day we went, she had old photos and the original plans of the buildings all mounted on boards and set up in a display to show us. She told us all about her life there and how her husband was not born a baron but was made one by "érection"! Not knowing that in French the word could also mean simply elevated to that position, I wondered how anyone arrived other than by erection. She had an elderly mother in a wheelchair and both acted like proper ladies, wearing pearl necklaces and old ladies' dresses and we were a group of walkers decked out in walking gear and led around like school children being shown things to dispel our ignorance. But what a sorry state the chateau appeared to me and looked, at at close range, nothing like the imposing pile we see silhouetted against the sky every time we walk the countryside around that village. I remember going home after my walk and feeling how much more comfortable and liver-friendly my own little house was by comparison. OTOH, I have stayed in 2 magnificent chateaux in 2 different départements that were run as hotels, and everything from food to grounds, furnishings, bedrooms etc were luxurious and wonderful to be in. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssomon Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 There was a chateau by the beach in Bouisseville, near Oran, Algeria, where we lived in 1969-70, where an old French lady had lived on her own since Independence. My wife called to see her one day and found she lived in spartan conditions in just one room in the huge building. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Judith Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 There is a reason why there are so many chateaux for sale at ridiculously low prices. The examples above have only confirmed what I think we knew already. Yes, I have stayed in one or two chateaux hotels, and when well done they are fabulous, if not cheap, but I've also stayed in some maisons de maître which were cold, fancy furniture, but so totally lacking in anywhere comfortable to sit and laze. The ones that work best have that also sussed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crabtree Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 On 07/01/2024 at 12:36, alittlebitfrench said: Life is back to normal following Brexit… https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-12933193/Now-easier-buy-second-home-France-budget.html?ico=mol_desktop_home-newtab&molReferrerUrl=https Sell your 1 bed semi in Milton Keynes and buy a chateau in France. And why not ? Wot could go wrong ? The food is great. 🤔 So the question really is…..do you sell your 1 bed semi in Milton Keynes and buy a chateau in France ? For me….no. This has not yet been passed into law, so that is awful reporting. Also, the higher French authorities may well not allow it to pass. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ssomon Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 On 07/01/2024 at 12:36, alittlebitfrench said: Life is back to normal following Brexit… https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/mortgageshome/article-12933193/Now-easier-buy-second-home-France-budget.html?ico=mol_desktop_home-newtab&molReferrerUrl=https Dream on 🙂 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted January 8 Author Share Posted January 8 Anyone watching the French news tonight? France is in political meltdown? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveLister Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 36 minutes ago, alittlebitfrench said: France is in political meltdown? Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose 👿 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crabtree Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 1 hour ago, alittlebitfrench said: Anyone watching the French news tonight? France is in political meltdown? Why? It is the normal reshuffle around the middle of the President's 5 year term. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cajal Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 10 hours ago, crabtree said: It is the normal reshuffle around the middle of the President's 5 year term. It is also a handicap with not having an overall majority in the General Assembly. It's easy to block a President's policies and elevate their unpopularity along with discrediting their party. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lehaut Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 How much confidence does a French Bank have in lending money to a British family to buy a building in France? From what I read in the press, the French housing market is already in difficulty - higher rates, new DPE regs, stringent criteria for lenders etc. Have things changed after Brexit for a French bank lending to a UK resident if they default on the loan? Admittedly, they can ask for a large deposit, but even so, selling the average "doer upper" bought by Brits will not be an easy prospect to sell off for the bank to get its money back. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted January 9 Author Share Posted January 9 (edited) 15 hours ago, crabtree said: Why? It is the normal reshuffle around the middle of the President's 5 year term. Attal has been announced as the new PM. No surprise there. Le Pen is way ahead of Macron in the forthcoming EU elections. No surprise there. Attal comes across as a good bloke that may (or may not) sought things out and he is a vote winner. People are utterly fed up with the useless EU institution and he may persuade them otherwise. Trouble is, he was the educational minster and the French educational system is completely and utterly diabolical. It is not fit for purpose. He was the man for the job to fix it….and he is no longer in the job. I had faith in him. So who now sorts that educational mess out ? Macron clinging onto power at the sake of the country. Edited January 9 by alittlebitfrench Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
menthe Posted January 9 Share Posted January 9 ALBF, you may remember I wrote about Attal here on the forum several months ago, perhaps going to be the president after the next election. I only had a couple of replies to my post. No surprise as politics on whichever side of the channel has never been a conversation starter on this forum. For my part, I'd far rather have a centrist Attal than either le Pen or Mélenchon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alittlebitfrench Posted January 9 Author Share Posted January 9 54 minutes ago, menthe said: ALBF, you may remember I wrote about Attal here on the forum several months ago, perhaps going to be the president after the next election. I remember your post mint. The thing is, every problem in France today revolves around the utterly unacceptable French educational system. Everything. France is falling apart because schooling is not fit for purpose. It is just plain awful. He is/ was / could have been the man to sort it out. And the rest of France with it. Now he has got another job. So a pointless promotion just to try and save Macron’s and the EU’s face without sorting out the real issue. Which won’t happen. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NormanH Posted January 14 Share Posted January 14 And his successor as Minister for Education sends her children to a private Catholic school, citing the fact that there was no cover for missing teachers, and her children meet a better class of friends in the private system https://www.liberation.fr/societe/education/enfants-doudea-castera-scolarises-dans-le-prive-cest-lecole-qui-se-fout-de-la-charite-20240112_EF5H2S5UVVBVNPFDPZKDMHT2D4/ 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
menthe Posted January 15 Share Posted January 15 I have ceased to be shocked or even mildly surprised at these double standards or do as I tell you but not as I do. I don't know this minister's background so cannot comment on this particular case. I remember Diane Abbott in a Labour government, when she was Minister for Education, sending her son to a private school. Real cynicism went up a notch when Hollande, famously supposed to be on the side of the poor and with impeccable socialist credentials, referred to poor people as les sans dents. Not only disrepectful but downright cruel. About this governement, I don't expect a lot from Dati as Culture Minister and the Health Minister is also an unknown quantity to me. I don't know the logic for leaving Verran out of the cabinet altogether because I thought he made a pretty good fist out of being Health Minister. I was discussing the new PM with a couple of liberal music teachers (French married couple) last week. And they were thoroughly unimpressed. I have no idea what WOULD be approved by the French! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crabtree Posted January 25 Share Posted January 25 Bad news for second home owners: This is a (deepl) translation of the text from the constitutional council about the possibility of a specific visa for second home owners. It’s a NO. Article 16 inserts a new article L. 312-4-1 into the Code de l'entrée et du séjour des étrangers et du droit d'asile (Code on the Entry and Residence of Foreigners and the Right of Asylum), which provides that a long-stay visa is issued automatically to British nationals who own a secondary residence in France. 80. The applicant Members maintained that Article 16 had no place in the Act on the grounds that it had been introduced at first reading under a procedure contrary to Article 45 of the Constitution. 81. Introduced at first reading, the purpose of these provisions is to amend the specific conditions of residence in France for certain British nationals. These provisions therefore have no connection, even indirect, with the aforementioned provisions of Articles 1, 3, 6 and 7 of the initial Bill. Nor are they connected, even indirectly, with any of the other provisions which appeared in the draft law submitted to the Senate. 82. Consequently, without the Constitutional Council prejudging the conformity of the content of these provisions with other constitutional requirements, it must be held that, having been adopted in accordance with a procedure contrary to the Constitution, they are therefore contrary to the Constitution. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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