Vendu!

I have been literally bursting to share the happy news that we have recently accepted an offer on our house.  It happened a few weeks ago but I wanted to make sure that the sale was definitely going through before I started bragging (I have been known to fall flat on my face in the past after becoming rather too pleased with myself!)

Our current home in the heart of the French countryside

Anyway, last Friday we sat down in the office of our Notaire (a sort of solicitor in France) and signed the Compromis de Vente which is a contract where all parties agree to the terms of the sale.  With French law the buyer then has a cooling off period of a week before they are well and truly bound by the contract to either go through with buying the property or to lose a large deposit (around 10% of the property price).

Now that I have covered the technical stuff the self satisfied gloating can now well and truly begin.  OK, so we were very, very lucky to get an offer on our house just three weeks after putting it on the market but we are particularly pleased that we avoided paying estate agents fees and sold it on the internet without spending a centime on advertising... oh clever ,clever me (I'm really asking for it aren't I?)

To be honest though because we received a serious offer so quickly it came as a bit of shock but we are now very excited about the move and after much toing and froing and a few sleepless nights we managed to eventually secure a lovely house in Cognac that we have had our hearts set on for the last 10 months.

Our soon to be new home in Cognac

The house is a major renovation project (as always) and in our favourite quarter of Cognac situated near the river and just a short walk from the lovely historical centre of town.  It's going to be quite a departure from the life we have now but I can't wait to have all the facilities that Cognac has to offer right on the doorstep.  

With all this excitement my brocante business has unfortunately taken a bit of a back seat but our move is scheduled for mid November so I will have time over the next few weeks to get back to the flea markets and start building up stock again for my Etsy shop.

So please keep your fingers and toes crossed for us that everything goes through without a hitch and hopefully in the future I can not only share with you our experiences as we renovate this poor, tired old house back into the beauty it once was but also keep you up to date on our adventures as we adjust to la vie en ville.

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.