Batty old english ladies... a complaint

[Le Scouse]

We bought our latest place in Moyon around 18mths ago.. Small house in Normandy with about 1500sq mtr.. nothing fancy.. needs money spending on its but its basically sound.. We have a tractor path which goes around our house, which is on our land. It serves a couple of fields in the corner and along the back. We only noticed the impact of it when we visited in the spring and it was a mudbath, but you buy in the countryside and this kind of things going to happen. Apparently cows are brought through occasionally, and by the looks of it the farmer puts footy boots on each of their feet

We had a sroke of luck when the Notaire duly informed us in the final signing that there was actually no right of way and it was up to us if we wanted to grant access to Mr Farmer.

On the subject of Notaires, why do they insist on Brits being there.. they speak technical french at 160 words per minute and you are sat in a room with the fourteen son's and daughters of the old bloke who croaked 30yrs ago, listening to the guy rabbit on. If you take a translator, you sit there and listen to him talk to the assembled masses for ten minutes straight, and then when he stops to draw breath, the translator turns to you and says "There's no termites"

They could be telling me any old rubbish for all I know.... anyway, I digress.

Upon turning up at the house post-completion, our French farmer neighbour greeted us with a nervous concerned look.. seems they wanted to know if we were going to be awkward about access. Now seeing as they've used the path for hundreds of years and we currently visit for about 22days a year it seems churlish to be funny about it, so we nodded and waved.. "Non Problem etc"

The next day, while I sat in my car, trying to plot a course on my sat nav, I looked up and saw an old biddy peering through my windscreen

"Bonjour" I offered...silence..

"Hello?" I offered... silence. Then she turned her nose up at me and went "oh.. you're English.. thats all we need"

Charming!! I thought to myself.. Nothing like a warm welcome and hey.. that was NOTHING like a warm welcome

"It's very quiet round here" she scolded. "Good" I replied "Thats good to know.. I want a quiet life"

"Who are you" she said bluntly... "My name is Lee.. I own this house"

"Are you sure" she probed, unconvinced. "Well i've just paid for it and I have a big folder full of French nouns and adjectives to prove it" I joked

She did not laugh

"You don't own this bit" she said sharply, pointing at the ploughed up pathway. "Ah, but we do" I said

"No you don't... My tenant farmers use this pathway to get to the field they rent off me"

"I know" I replied.. "I have told them they can" I smiled.

"Its not up to you" she retorted... "They have a right of way"

There then followed ten minutes of english panto  "oh yes they do".. "Oh no they don't" etc etc

After physically showing her the file she remained unconvinced. I, on my part was being perfectly polite with her,

"We don't like strangers here, its a very quiet area and the commune doesn't want the English coming over".. I interupted her.."And what part of France are you from?" I enquired.. Silence

It turns out she's been here five years which is ironic because we bought our first place ten miles down the road 6yrs ago, making us more "French" then her.. For the purposes of maintaining irony, I ignore the fact that this lady is a permanent resident whilst we are just doer-uppers at the moment... It simply suits my arguement that we bought in France first !!

Anyway, this "greeting" has to this day still annoyed me. Can you imagine ever doing such a thing in the UK? walking up someone's path and laying down the law to a new neighbour. At the very least you'd bring a pot of tea and some custard creams wouldn't you?

Old biddies.. don't you just love 'em

[Teamedup]

If a woman had been like that with me I do not think I would have been so controlled. Cheeky madame.

 

So how 'old' was this woman?

[Le Scouse]

Now then.. I'll have to be very careful with this one won't I... If I have already referred to her as an old biddy, then I'll alienate a significant proportion of Forum members if I'm not careful... I'd say she was closer to 70 than 60. She was rambling on about how she spoke French with a GHAAASTLY ACCENT... in truth, she spoke English with an equally GHAAASTLY ACCENT !!

I could understand her being concerned, after all, if I saw a bunch of builders vans, 3 dogs and  two skinhead's turn up at the next house to me in a quiet little hamlet, I'm sure I'd be wary, but in this case, it was just my friend and I  in a family saloon and our tidy modern caravan which is enclosed in our own courtyard and cannot be seen. We don't play loud music, there were no heavy machines running, neither of us drink (except at family parties) and we have no pets.

When we move over permanently, it will be My wife and I and our six year old son.You would think she might appreciate having "decent" professional people to call upon should she ever need help. After all  in her later years, its reasonable to assume that she may need a hand with say shopping in the winter or in the case of some emergency. She's  living alone in a remote farm house after all.

It just amazed me that in the six years we've been homeowners in France, the ONLY time we've ever met resistance is from an English lady, quite clearly a snob, who thought it quite reasonable that she should be the last English person allowed into France

[Owens88]

Tried to delete a 'too frivolous' message of mine but the forum timed me out from deleting 5 secs after I posted.