64 French Property News August 2019 http://www.completefrance.com
O
ut of the blue one morning, the postman
pushed a copy of French Property News
magazine through the letterbox of our
home in south Devon. It was addressed to our
friends Bob and Sylv who had once lived with
us but had left 10 years earlier in 1995.
“The magazine must be trying to catch up
with old customers,” I said to my wife Caroline,
recalling that our friends had been FPN
subscribers in the past.
“Yes, maybe, but it’s serendipity,” said
Caroline. “Look! There’s an exhibition at
Taunton Racecourse next week. We’ve talked
enough about houses in France – we can at
least go and have a look.” She flicked through
the pages, giving me one of those looks.
The wishlist
I’ll make it clear now that my love of the French
countryside was gained for the most part from
my love of paintings of the French countryside,
rather than from any real experience. I had
trained as an artist in the 1970s and Cézanne,
Monet and Degas were heroes of mine. Also, I
was a great fan of the produce of France – the
wine, cheese, paté, saucisson, garlic and
yoghurt, not to mention the fabulous fresh
seafood, fish and meat that France has to offer.
And while I had even been known to wear a
beret in the past, I doubted, at that stage, that
my wife’s desire for a petite maison would come
to fruition. Still, I was more than ready to go
and have a look.
At the French property exhibition in Taunton,
groups of estate agents with their wares on
boards engaged us in cheery conversations
about properties across Vendée and parts of
Poitou-Charentes. One or two were more
persistent and looked at our requirements in
detail. Our wishlist was an affordable home in
liveable condition and preferably on mains
drainage, with three bedrooms, attached
garden and parking.
We were not seasoned French travellers or
particularly Francophiles in the traditional
sense at the time. We just felt there was
something special about France and its open
spaces, its quiet roads, its small market towns
and villages, its vineyards and markets. The
shops even closed on Sundays!
Our only real experience of French country
houses to date had been a week in a large
château between Richelieu and Chinon. What
had once been a girls’ school was now elegantly
faded, sparsely furnished and set in hectares of
land, and it was no comparison with anything
that we might have been able to afford – we’d
have had to fill it with the seven retired couples
we visited with to make it homely.
The drive there from Roscoff through the
Breton countryside and along the Loire,
though, had been a real eye opener – quiet
roads, friendly people where we’d stopped,
delicious cider... perhaps there might be
something more for us here, we’d thought.The reality check
A few weeks after the French property
exhibition, details started arriving and we
made plans for a couple of visits to view houses
in an area stretching from near La Rochelle to
Thouars in Deux-Sêvres. Even in the first
tranche, some jumped out at us. One house in
the small town of Argenton-Château caught my
eye as it had an interesting Art Deco rear
façade. I even checked out where it was on the
map and looked at the viability of driving there
on short weekend trips. Four hours from
Roscoff seemed about right.
We were both working and we wanted to
make the most of weekend breaks whenever
possible. Well, we were also looking for a
typical maison de maître with a little grass
drive, but realised, after seeing about 30
properties that:
1) We are quite sociable people and value
having neighbours. Being on our own or in a
deserted hamlet just isn’t us.
2) Butchers, bakers and a half-decent
restaurant nearby might help ease the pain of a
hard day of decorating.
3) We longed for a view, a garden and a
house with some character.
We visited 24 properties in total, but none of
them quite delivered. We saw the massive
farmhouse next to a working farm; the small
house with an attached barn and no drainage;
the maison de maître surrounded by whisperingREAL LIFE
When a copy of French Property News
landed on their doormat quite unexpectedly,
it sparked a great adventure in Vendée for
Peter Tansey and his wife Caroline
%n
by chance
The decor was quite an eye-openerThe garden was charming
and had wonderful viewsThe bathroom looked more shabby than chic!