French Property News – August 2019

News

in brief

A mansion in Cannes has gone on sale for

£57m, making it the most expensive French

Riviera property ever. Villa Alang Alang

features eight bedrooms, an Olympic sized

pool, dance studio, boxing ring, cinema

and 11,000m^2 of gardens. A popular retreat

during the film festival, the villa also hosted

a private performance by Sting in June.

A ban on destroying unsold consumer

goods will be introduced in 2023 as part of

new anti-waste measures in France. In a world

first, the new law will oblige firms to recycle or

give away unsold goods in order to tackle the

current waste problem.

Notre Dame Cathedral must be restored

to exactly how it was before April’s roof fire,

the French senate has ruled. The decision has

provoked a backlash from those claiming the

fire provided an ideal opportunity to build

a new and more modern cathedral, and has

ended plans for an international architect’s

competition to redesign it.

Bees across France are at risk of starvation

because of “catastrophic” weather this year,

experts have warned. The highly changeable

winter weather followed by a rainy spring

have stopped bees from collecting nectar

and beekeepers are having to feed their

hives syrup to keep them going, according

to the French farming union MODEF and the

National Union of French Beekeepers.

Smacking children is to be outlawed

in France following a unanimous vote in

parliament. The country is the 56th in the

world to ban “educational and ordinary

violence” against children, although 85%

of parents surveyed by the Fondation Pour

L’Enfance admitted they had committed it.

Paris has banned smoking in 52 parks and

gardens and introduced a €38 fine for flouting

the rules. In an announcement made on

World Tobacco Day, the capital’s health chiefs

announced that no-smoking zones would

display information panels and ashtrays in

entrances to the affected parks and gardens.

A French Riviera venue has been crowned

World’s Best Restaurant at an awards

ceremony in Singapore this year. Mirazur,

owned by Argentine chef Mauro Colagreco,

took the top place in a list compiled by over

1,000 culinary experts worldwide.

The six hundred foot journey

of a St-Antonin estate agent

I

f you are a fan of Helen Mirren films you

may have seen The Hundred Foot Journey,

the story of two restaurants that face each

across the street in a beautiful town in southern

France. They start out as rivals but end up

joining forces and becoming a dream team.

The Hollywood film caused much excitement

in St-Antonin-Noble-Val where it was shot in

2013, especially for local Anglophone estate

agency Agence l’Union, which was flooded

with calls from interested British and American

buyers after the Tarn-et-Garonne town hit the

big screen.

Funnily enough, the agency’s director

Charles Smallwood is now making something

of a Hundred Foot Journey himself – or at least

a 600ft journey.

Instead of putting his feet up after 60 years

of selling property – 28 of them in France – he

is off to join forces with his erstwhile

competitor a few streets away.

“Charles did not want to move away and

NEWS

http://www.completefrance.com August 2019 French Property News 11

retire from the profession after so many years

of remarkable experiences and personal

involvement,” explained Jane Smallwood,

Charles’ co-director and wife, who is only too

happy to take her well-deserved retirement.

“Unexpectedly, he was approached by an

estate agency in the same town against which

we have been in competition for 15 years.

By joining together, this ensures a much

more successful business from both points

of view.”

Charles has become a consultant for Disc

Immobilier, an agency founded by Dutch

couple Ruud and Phyllis Dijkmans 15 years

ago. Like him, the team specialises in

supporting international buyers although they

also have lots of French customers. As a bonus,

Charles brought all the vendors previously on

his books at Agence l’Union with him on his Six

Hundred Foot journey. Could this be a film

sequel in the offing, we wonder?

disc.immo

©Bo Dijkmans

The Disc Immobilier

team with Charles

Smallwood on the left

€365,000: In Tarn, an attractive country house with massive living-

dining room, stunning barn conversion, three bedrooms and gardens

with pool, on the market with Disc Immobilier (disc.immo)

Notre Dame Cathedral

Radu Razvan Getty Images/iStockphoto