Clé France

REDUCED in price - A FANTASTIC OPPORTUNITY TO ACQUIRE this ideal holiday home, easy to run and 'lock up and leave' in a small village hamlet between l'Absie and Coulonges, only 30 minutes south of Bressuire, where there are all shops and services. 90 minutes from the Vendee coast and airports at Nantes and La Rochelle. 4-5 hours from the car ferries in Caen, Cherbourg and Le Havre.

ZPC00372 is now only 49,950 Euros FAI

A well presented end cottage with attractive rural aspect. There is a small courtyard directly in front of the house with further gravelled garden with outbuildings across the lane. Parking spaces.

Entrance into open plan living room with kitchen area, stairs to first floor landing, good size double bedroom, shower room with WC.

Rooms in more detail: 

Ground Floor - Living/Dining/Kitchen - 33.00 m2 - Open Plan, exposed beams, exposed brickwork.

1st Floor - Bedroom - 23.00 m2.

Corridor - 3.00 m2 - landing and large cupboard.

Bathroom - 4.00 m2 - Hip Bath with shower over, WC and basin.

Cellar - 33.00 m2 - head height under living room, storage, sink and electric.

Local Taxes:

Taxe fonciere - 147 euros a year.

Taxe d'habitation : 204 euros  year.

Some of the furniture can be left if required: Dining Table and 4 chairs, Settee, Cooker (gas bottle), Buffet Unit, SuperKing Bed / Mattress, Other items (to be agreed), Washing Machine (top Loader - new), Misc items / fixtures and fittings.

Outside:

Courtyard, further courtyard with covered terrace and small outbuilding. Parking for 2 cars.

Mains drainage is connected to the property.

Estimated Notaire fees of 4633 euros.

Features: Parking space, Terrace, Outbuilding(s), Courtyard. Living area 62 m2 approx. Living room 33 m2 approx. Shower room (1st floor). Bedroom 1 (1st floor 23 m2).

All our prices are quoted as FAI (agency fees included) unless otherwise stated and 'notaire' fees are around 7% (on average) but feel free to ask us for an exact amount on any particular French property for sale you are interested in.

Indeed please feel free to use the 'MAKE AN ENQUIRY' tab above to ask us any questions you have about buying a property in France. Our UK based enquiry office and staff will guide you through the entire buying process step by step from your first contact right up to taking ownership and beyond, all free of charge.

So when you buy through Clé France you can be confident that you are paying no more than the standard commission rates you would pay anyway, but you have the added benefit of a bi-lingual support team.

CONTACT US: to discuss your search for property in France, or indeed for any further information you may require on French property sales.

Blog submitted by: Alex at The French Property Network - Cle France.

Thanks David, your information may prove to be very helpful, we are very interested in this property and are likely to have a discussion about it after my wife has seen it on Friday, so I suspect I am likely to call you after the event.

Having said all this and taking account of the fact that the property has been empty for some time we have had quite a number of disappointing viewings in France. It's understandable that property photographs show properties in their best light, but the surroundings and the less attractive aspects of a property have let many down and left us disappointed.

Fingers crossed on this one.

Rest assured though - a few dead flies in the house and weeds in the garden won't mask a properties potential in my wife's eyes. She's very good at seeing through the cobwebs :-)

Thanks ever so much for your help. So much better than [removed] Immo. In fact there's no comparison. Wish we had known about you earlier.

Kindest regards, Chris.

It is a constant frustration for us as well as our clients that some agents do not update images of property for sale in France. We like to get our agents to update images but also a house can be 'for sale' in France for 2, 3, 4 years and that would not be unusual, it would not mean there is anything wrong with the house just that the market in rural France is slower than british clients are used to.

Rest assured we always make sure our clients know what to expect when booking a viewing on a property we have for sale in the many regions of France.

Following the birth and naming of the new Princess Charlotte I thought we could have a look at the most popular French baby names and how the have changed over the years.!

How many typical French names can you list off the top of your head? I’m sure there are some Jean-Pauls, Michels, Brigittes, and, of course, some Pierres in your lists, but I can assure that these names aren’t all that common anymore.

Have you ever met a French Kévin? Jessica? I remember the first time I studied in France, my school sent a driver to pick me and another girl up from la gare (the train station). Son prénom (his name)? Franck! I remember thinking, “c’est pas très français, ça…” (that’s not very French…). Well, he wouldn’t be the last French Franck I’d ever meet.

Baby names are quite often inspired by pop culture. Think of the Twilight craze – how many baby girls named Bella popped up? Check out the huge spike of baby Bellas in 2009-2010.

The same can be said for Kévin. The name was barely known in France in the 1980s, but when Danse avec les loups (Dances with Wolves), starring Kevin Costner, was released in 1990, a Frenchified version of the name with an aigu accent over the E found a huge spike in popularity. In 1991, 14,087 boys in France were named Kévin. The name stayed in the top 20 Boys names for 9 years.

Image courtesy of Drôle de Mums

Below I’ve listed the Top 10 Baby Names from 1990-2010 in 5-year increments. Can you think of why certain names below suddenly became so trendy?

1990: garçon - fille

1 Kévin Élodie

2 Thomas Laura

3 Julien Julie

4 Nicolas Marine

5 Alexandre Marie

6 Jérémy Marion

7 Anthony Pauline

8 Maxime Aurélie

9 Romain Camille

10 Guillaume Mélanie

1995: garçon - fille

1 Nicolas Manon

2 Alexandre Marie

3 Thomas Laura

4 Kévin Camille

5 Maxime Marine

6 Quentin Pauline

7 Julien Léa

8 Dylan Marion

9 Antoine Anaïs

10 Florian Julie

2000: garçon - fille

1 Thomas Léa

2 Lucas Manon

3 Théo Camille

4 Hugo Chloé

5 Maxime Emma

6 Nicolas Marie

7 Quentin Océane

8 Alexandre Sarah

9 Antoine Laura

10 Clément Mathlide

2005: garçon - fille

1 Enzo Emma

2 Lucas Léa

3 Mathis Clara

4 Thomas Manon

5 Théo Chloé

6 Hugo Camille

7 Nathan Inès

8 Tom Sarah

9 Clément Jade

10 Maxime Lucie

2010: garçon - fille

1 Nathan Emma

2 Lucas Léa

3 Enzo Chloé

4 Léo Manon

5 Louis Inès

6 Hugo Lola

7 Gabriel Jade

8 Ethan Camille

9 Mathis Sarah

10 Jules Louise

Selon (according to) the book l’Officiel des Prénoms , considered to be “the Bible” when it comes to baby names, these names will probably be the most popular in 2015.

Voilà le palmarès (here’s the prize list):

2015: garçon - fille

1 Nathan Emma

2 Lucas Lola

3 Léo Chloé

4 Gabriel Inès

5 Timéo Léa

6 Enzo Manon

7 Louis Jade

8 Raphaël Louise

9 Arthur Léna

10 Hugo Lina

So, what are some of your favorite French names?

Blog submitted by: Alex at The French Property Network - Cle France.

This blog was originally posted on The French Language Blog pages.

I can’t resist: This week blossoms bloomed in my garden as the weather finally begins to warm up.

So I’m dedicating this post to the lovely flowers I see outside of my window, the dogwoods, tulips, bluebells, magnolias, and pansies that make me want to step outside of my dark office and enjoy this spring weather.

Alors, vous voulez faire du jardinage? Il y a quelques conseils en jardinage qu’il faut suivre, le plus important, bien sûr, c’est de se rappeler que les plantes ont besoin de trois choses primaires: du sol, du soleil, et de l’eau. C’est tout. Le reste, c’est la cerise sur le gâteau!

Courtsey of hardworkinghippy at Flickr.com

Voici quelques mots en français qui peuvent être utiles si jamais vous faites un jardin en France (et pourquoi pas!):

le jardin — garden

le potager — vegetable garden

le parterre — flowerbed

les plantes — plants

la terre — topsoil

le sol — soil

la plante vivace — perennial plant

bisannuel/annuel — biannual/annual

l’arbre — tree

les mauvaises herbes — weeds

la plante en pot — potted plant

l’herbe — grass

l’arbuste à fleurs — flowering bush

les outils de jardin — gardening tools

le balai à gazon — lawn rake

la houe — hoe

la bêche — spade

le râteau — rake

la brouette — wheelbarrow

la tondeuse — lawnmower

le terreau — compost

l’arrosoir — watering can

l’herbicide — weedkiller

l’engrais — fertilizer

cueillir — to pick

récolter — to harvest

désherber — to weed

arroser — to water

tailler — to trim

semer — to sow

tondre — to mow (this can mean to clip hair, as well, but in this case it means to mow the lawn)

pailler — to mulch

Alors, je vais utiliser ce vocabulaire à faire un petit texte en français:

Si l’on veut faire un jardin, il faut d’abord acheter quelques besoins, surtout les outils de jardinage. Il faut avoir au moins une bêche, une houe, et un arrosoir. Il faut peut-être acheter de l’engrais et de l’herbicide aussi pour tuer les mauvaises herbes. Après avoir semer les graines, il faut arroser le jardin et mettre de la paille. Quelques semaines après tout ce travail, les plantes seront prêtes à être cueillies!

Now it’s your turn: Can you write up a simple paragraph from the gardening vocabulary listed above?

Blog submitted by: Alex at The French Property Network - Cle France.

This blog was originally posted on The French Language Blog pages.

Hi Sharon,

We had a lovely time in Normandy & managed to see a range of properties which gave us much food for thought.

It opened our eyes as what to expect & not, as sometimes the internal photos tell a different story.

Your agents were very friendly & most helpful, as they showed us one or two more properties than we had on our list.

We have had another look & are collating another list in readiness for a visit in June or July.

best regards, Adi & Kitija.

We could not find a property for Adi & Kitija this time but hopefully on their next viewing trip to France we will find them the right house for sale in Normandy.