We bought our own house in Brittany in March of 1999. By August it was ours! It was a time historically when estate agency in France (by comparison to the UK) was fairly rudimentary. Traditionally property sales throughout France had been the domain of ‘The Notaire’… a respected and revered employee of the state who would see fair play in all matters of property transfer. Similar, but not the same, as the British solicitor system… We had seen some fledgling UK generated websites from companies emerging onto the relatively new and intriguing www-dot.com thingy that was taking the old world by storm…and we had already travelled to see some houses and had been disappointed at what looked then like a slightly ‘rag-bag’ way of marketing… Good in terms of ‘promise’ but not following through during the viewing experience. – everything on one particular site had already ‘miraculously’ already been sold! We were not deterred, and our second serious viewing trip to Brittany was under way…with an improved learning curve and with more determination! Immobiliers have taken the strain and now share the property market in greater harmony…
Our own house in Brittany?...not a difficult decision at 1999 prices!
… And so it was – on the final day of our following trip, and returning to our stopover at 9 O’clock at night, with nothing exciting to report, that our host, recognising our disappointment, said we should maybe pay a visit to Russell, a not too far away neighbour of his, who had just come back from the NEC (we’re forever grateful Rick)… with a Nyrex binder which would have 50 sets of property details in it at what appeared to be barmy prices. “You’ve got wine in the boot and cheese probably too – that’ll guarantee you a very warm welcome”. He was right! Russell’s (very sketchy) binder passed around the table and the “ooh’s & aah’s” were followed by Micki and I having both marked the same 3 pages… We should have taken part in ‘Mr & Mrs’…A house (our joint favourite) in danger of slipping into ruin; three barns, a well and a bread oven – on an acre! Here it is :- Check the photo’s scrolling below OR… click the link here https://youtu.be/iHNVas7q0NA . I apologise – this ‘video’/’slide show’ is 7 minutes long (the same as Bohemian Rhapsody!)… so make a coffee and see why we have cherished this place for 25 years… CS
