French Property News – August 2019

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

WOODY’S

WORRIES

Ruth Wood goes on a French

dig up in her loft

D

igging around in the loft

one night I came across a

fuzzy photo of my first ever

boyfriend. He was a 13-year-old

Breton kid called Erwan who came

to Leeds for our school’s French

exchange in 1987. We barely spoke

to each other but I liked his baggy

jeans and zip-up denim jacket and

his short stature, which was cute

and non-threatening. When he

left, he gave me a tray of chocolate

hearts tied up with a gold stretchy

band. I kept it for seven years and

never did eat the chocolates,

although I occasionally used the

gold band as a hair bobble.

I actually went into the loft to

find my daughter’s class photo, but

the moment I started rifling

through old pictures, I couldn’t

stop. Near the surface, I found my

carte de séjour from a year working

as a teaching assistant in Charente-

Maritime in 1995.

In those days I had a navy

dungaree dress that proved

controversial with my teenage

pupils. “You look like a farmer,”

pronounced one boy in faultless

English. The class erupted with

laughter. “Non! Non! She not look

like a farmer!” protested a girl,

leaping to my defence, or so I

thought. “She look like... like... a

butcher.” In the end, I ditched the

lesson on irregular verbs and asked

the kids what I should wear to

class. They learned a lot of

vocabulary that day, including

‘miniskirt’ and ‘high heels’.

I kept digging through the

envelopes of photos, like a bad

archaeologist mixing up the strata.

Here was the week my sister and I

spent at the holiday home of our

Yorkshire-Canadian aunt near

Aix-en-Provence when we ate

asparagus for the first time and

heard that Grandpa had died.

There were the Cévennes years,

four blissful trips hiking in the

mountains, jumping off waterfalls,

basking in the Midi sun and

playing cops and robbers (flics et

voleurs) with the village kids.

Inside a glossy Boots envelope, I

found a recent trip to Paris when

we stayed in the apartment owned

by a woman who interviewed

Michelle Obama for Le Monde.

Right next to it was a tattered

envelope of blurry snaps taken on

my first ever visit to France, a

school trip to Boulogne when I was

10. We stayed in the Hotel Ibis and
    I saw a shopping trolley dumped in
    a ditch, which made me realise
    that people are really the same
    wherever you go.
    Looking back on my childhood, I
    would say I spent it in Leeds, the
    Yorkshire Dales and Moors and the
    Lake District, not France, but my
    photos seem to tell a different
    story. France is there in layers and
    layers and layers and layers of my
    life like leaves in a mille feuille
    pastry. Long before I bought a
    second home there, I suppose I
    was already treating it like... well...
    my second home. 

L’etang Bleu

Woodland

HOLIDAY PARK

For more details contact Marc of Joanna Finch

on 0033(0) 553 609270 or by email

[email protected] http://www.letangbleu.com

Take the opportunity to own

your own country lodge or

leisure home in the northern

dordogne area of France.

Situated on an established park set in 10 hectares

of wood land. The park has a fishing lake, swimming

pool, fitness suite and bistro and is within 10

minutes of the uniquely stunning market town

of Brantome the ‘venice of the perigord’.

http://www.suzanneinfrance.com

Tel: +33 (0)2 33 59 07 36

Agence Immobilière | Estate Agency [email protected]

A leading independent, French based, British owned, Estate Agency

in Lower Normandy with an enviable reputation for customer service

118,500€ including Agency fees

Delightful house

with exposed

stone walls,

granite fireplace

and beams.

Open-plan

lounge/dining

room/kitchen

and shower room on ground floor.

3 bedrooms on first floor. Nearly 1 acre of

garden. Detached barn. SIF - 001188

TRADITIONAL STONE HOUSE

WITH NO NEAR NEIGHBOURS

IDEAL LOCK UP AND

LEAVE HOLIDAY HOME

IN NORMANDY

65,000€ including Agency fees

Suprisingly

spacious 3

storey house

in a hamlet

with courtyard

garden and

separate

garden. Ground

floor - living

room with kitchen and dining area, study

and shower room. First floor - 3 bedrooms,

bathroom, hobby room. Second floor -

bedroom. SIF - 001183

http://www.suzanneinfrance.com

Hundreds of properties

available in Normandy

Ground floor -

Utility/workshop,

kitchen/dining

room, shower

room, lounge

with wood

burner. First

floor - Master

bedroom with en-suite, 3 further bedrooms,

family bathroom and another to finish. Over

half an acre garden. SIF - 001184

97,000€ including Agency fees

SUPER FAMILY HOUSE

WITH STUNNING VIEWS

IN NORMANDY