Clé France

I had been interested in buying a property in France for some time before my partner discovered the Cle France website. Once I saw the site, my decision was made as I flicked through all the available properties, and the amazing choice there.

The site was well constructed, easy to look through and I had regular emails keeping me up to date with news of new properties.

Eventually we found a house we immediately fell in love with (even though we only saw the photos!) and Cle France  arranged a viewing for us with the minimum of fuss. Everything went smoothly, the Cle France agent was terrific, and we now have our lovely house in France!

I cannot thank everyone at Cle France enough.

I would like to continue to receive your newsletters.

Neil.

Always nice to hear the feedback from our clients that have bought in France, Neil bought a lovley property in the Deux Sevres department in the Poitou Charentes region of France. We at Cle France make sure each and evryone of our agents works hard to meet the clients needs and sometimes if they don't? well... shall we say they are not a Cle France agent for much longer.

Hi there, As you can well imagine we have been extremely busy setting up our new house etc.

I would like to say that your agent in France did a fantastic job, showing us around the properties, also around the towns on each properties which was very useful, she also helped out with the solicitors/notaries as her English was quite good and was very helpful as our French was quite poor but now improving.

We are now in the process of decorating and putting the final touches to our property and would like to thank your agent with the choices that were put forward to us.

Thank you, Julian and Anne.

Cle France understands that going beyond the normal scope of an Estate Agent is often a requirement for a client when buying in France [in Julian and Anne's case they bought a House in Brittany], it is after all a foreign country! But Cle France makes sure that you know what is happening and are able to consider every angle at each step of the buying process. 

Good luck with the decorating Julian and Anne!

After all my hardware problems in the summer heat, I finally had to go out and buy a new computer.

Qfter thqt; there zqs q proble, – After that, there was a problem.

Le clavier (the keyboard) was in French, and Le clavier français is a bit different from le clavier anglais.

Photo by Remko van Dokkum on Flickr.

Le clavier has to have a way to type les accents, but on top of that le clavier is rearranged!

If you’re familiar with QWERTY, you’ll quickly notice that A is where Q normally is, and several other letters and puntuation marks that aren’t in their “normal” locations.

“KB France” by Yitscar. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons

Pour les accents (for the accents), there are keys for é è à ù ç, but for l’accent circonflexe, you have to first hit the ^ key and then the vowel you want it to go on top of:

 ^ + e = ê

^ + a = â

^ + o = ô

^ + u = û

It works for les lettres majuscules (upper case letters) as well, making it easy to type Ê Â Ô Û if you need to.

The same pattern is used for le tréma:

“ + e = ë

“ + a = ä

“ + o = ö

“ + u = ü

Oddly, there is no way to type É È À Ù Ç or the less common French letters œ (oe) and æ (ae). As a result les accents are generally left off of upper case letters and the œ and æ ligatures are often written as two separate letters.

Although it varies greatly between les logiciels différents (different software), and often spell check or autocorrect will put les accents on for you.

The less obvious things about le clavier français are how the numbers aren’t on by default. You have to hold shift or turn on caps lock in order to type them! That is also why it’s impossible to type é è à ù ç en majuscule.

Holding shift and pressing the keys makes a number appear!

It doesn’t take long to get used to le clavier, even with it’s limitations.

Switching between the two? zell; thqt cqn be hqrd – well, that can be hard.

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

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

For everything you need to know about French property visit www.clefrance.co.uk

Hello, Sharon,

As you know we completed the "acte de vente" on Tuesday for the little house in Lonlay l'Abbaye. Everything went well. As promised your agent joined us on the part of the sellers, and Maître Notaire was charming too. 

After the "acte de vente", I met with the English builders recommended by your property surveyor, and with your help, I had all the paperwork needed to open a French bank account and acquire the crucial RIB.

My husband and I are so very grateful to you for all of your good advice and direction for this project. With the exception of the delay caused by the probate court (which was unavoidable and out of all of our control), the process was smooth and painless.

"I especially appreciate your responsiveness to me on what was a very minimal project. I felt that I was given as much attention as if I had been purchasing a chateau".

It goes without saying that we are over the moon having the key in hand (in the builders' hands now in fact). Surprisingly, our 22 year old daughter has also taken a great interest in the place, refers to it as "her house," and wants to help with all the choices and decoration. 

Your agency was just what we needed to find our little Norman 'pied à terre', and we will always be grateful to you. Thank you so very much. Have a beautiful weekend.

Best, Ellen.

At Cle France we give our clients the same level of support whether they are indeed buying a Chateau or a little renovation project. Ellen bought a village property in Lower Normandy and already has big plans to make it her dream home, we wish her every success and the best luck possible, we are sure she will have many happy years in her hew home.

Checkout our properties for sale in the Orne Department of Lower Normandy.

Help! Attention! Urgence!

Many medical and emergency words are similar in French, but they are also different enough to lead to major confusions. Médicin doesn’t mean medicine and an emergency is urgent, but in French it’s l’urgence that takes the name.

That last sentence is confusing because of all the closely related words that are nearly the same, but  different enough to trip people up:

Doctor – le médicin

Medicine – le médicament

Emergency – une urgence

A Cle France client yesterday who forgot to sign up to our newsletter - Photo by Nathan Phillips on Flickr.

In the Chemists.

When you get to la pharmacie, there will be some more things that will be confusing... If you need some headache tablets (painkillers) and ask for Nurofen or Anadin, le pharmacien (the pharmacist) won’t understand. You need to ask for du paracétamol if you want some headache tablets!

If you have a prescription, don’t be fooled by the "-tion" ending! A prescription is une ordonnance! Heuresement (fortunately), it’s easy to say what you’re allergic to with the formula être allergique à ______. You can put any food or médicament in the blank and you will be understood.

Je suis allergique à tout !

I’m allergique to everything!

Before you get to la pharmacie, chez le médcin, or l’hôpital, you need to know how to say what’s wrong. A common difference between French and English is switching between when you have to use être (to be) and avoir (to have).

Par exemple :

I have the flu.

I have a cold

I am cold.

En français :

J’ai la grippe.

Je suis erhumé.

J’ai froid.

You can always say je suis malade (I am sick) if you’re not sure how to express what’s wrong. Mais en général (but in general), aches and pains are expressed with:

le mal à _____.

Filling in the blank with whatever body part hurts. A headache is le mal à la tête, a stomachache – le mal à l’estomac, a toothache – le mal aux dents, etc.

Saying you have an ache of some sort is then easy, just rememeber to take off the article le:

J’ai mal à la tête.

I have a headache.

The same rules apply for la gueule de bois (a hangover), but remembering le vocabulaire when vous avez le mal partout (you ache everywhere) can be difficult.

If there’s any medical or emergency related topics you’d like me to cover in future articles, be sure to laisser un commentaire (leave a comment) below!

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

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

For everything you need to know about French property visit www.clefrance.co.uk