Beautiful Maison Charentaise for Sale

Well it's been a very busy week for us but not as far as dealing with antiques goes.  That is unless you count a very big antique.... our house!

Our beautiful home - well perhaps I'm biased but I think it's lovely

Some time ago we decided that we would like to make the move from the countryside to town, Cognac to be exact, and we are looking forward to adding an exciting new chapter to our lives in France so far.  The lure of being able to walk to a bistro, enjoy a cappuccino at a pavement café, visit the daily market for fresh produce or spend hours browsing in the numerous little boutiques has become too irresistible.

Café culture in Cognac calls (that's easy for me to say!)

The covered market in Cognac brimming with fresh produce

We have been renovating the house on and off for about three years now and we are scarily close to completion so someone I know with a lovely large gîte complex in the nearby town of Saint Jean d'Angély suggested that I type up some details tout de suite because they often have lots of people staying with them that are house hunting. 

So I took the decision to take a week off from antiquing and to get weeding, painting and deep cleaning so that I could get a verdict from a local estate agent as to the value of our labour of love.   And we do love our house, it's elegant and surrounded by beautiful countryside with vineyards, sunflowers and golden wheat and if we could pick up it up and move it to town we would.

We've heard all the nightmare stories of houses taking five or more years to sell but I have accepted that if it takes five years then so be it.  All that means is that our dreams of a new lifestyle and a little café/brocante in the old quarter of Cognac will have to wait. It's not like me at all to be so philosophical about things - I must be mellowing (it had to happen even to an ageing flibbertigibbet like me!)

So here is a link to one of the many adverts I have taken out online in an attempt to cut out the estate agent and the massive percentage they get in France (6%-10%!)

We'll have to get used to another kind of view in town

So if we are very lucky and our home does manage to break the current five year trend and sell quickly I will be sad because there are so many things I will miss about country living.  I will just have to console myself with the thought that it will be possible to just pop out of my front door and cheer myself up by heading off to a little pavement café where I can drown my sorrows in a fragrant frothy cappuccino.