Firstly sorry for the delay in our blog entries - as you can imagine trying to set ourselves up over here has taken a little time, but now we have the phone and internet installed you find that they should be a little more regular now! Like buses none for ages then about 3 come along at once! Sooooo Since we have been here we have started work on the centre section of the house, this area only really needs finishing off as it has been modernized already to a good standard but the decoration is not too our liking and [View Full Entry]

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It is amazing how the small things matter - for the last three weeks we have been perched on two capming chairs and two particularly nasty orange poofs (which is alright if there is only two of you but with five the poofs start complaining!) Anyway back to the beginning... We arrived in France on a particularly foggy morning ...which will be nothing new to those of you who know Northern France... but meant that we spent an intersting 30 mins attempting to determine where we where. Once that small obstacle was over come - we were trucking - all be [View Full Entry]

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With a feeling of deja vu we once again spent yesterday packing all our worldly possessions into the car filling every possible space to begin the road trip to France. The difference being this time it’s for good. And the car is a little more spacious ;o) Cornelius has sadly gone, but never forgotten, to a lovely new owner who is going to keep the name- good girl. We also have a number of new team members to introduce as this time the trip is not just Benny and I. Below are the more printable details fo the crew for mega [View Full Entry]

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Ladies and gentlemen behold our vessel, our chariot, our work horse, the car (as yet with no name - until Helen gets a hold of him/her)!!! Visited the workshop of Liveridge4X4 where our defender is being reconditioned from a LHD Spanish police vehicle to what will be our wonderful 10 seater Bonjour64 defender. These pictures were taken about 4 days ago and yes it does look a little tatty around the edges, there is no interior if you look under the bonnet there is a very large void where our 200TDI should be!!!! HOWEVER - these guys can perform miracles, since [View Full Entry]

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Well ladies and gentlemen. That's it, the final deed is done, we have just returned from France where we met with the notaire and signed the final papers. We are now officially french house owners!!! Very exciting and the adventure will continue again in November when we travel back out for good. We flew over on Sunday the 17th September to Pau where we picked up a hire car and drove to Biarritz for 2 days prior to the signing. We tried to relax there but I think the excitement was too much. We had also packed plenty of wet weather [View Full Entry]

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Hello All. Very sorry for lack of news and photos! Things are still slowly plodding along - we now have a frim signing date for our final papers on the house. We will hopefully be flying back out to france on the 17th of September for a signing date of the 20th. Once this is done the house is well and truly ours!!! We get the keys and everything!! We will return pretty much straight away and we will then be looking at a final moving date around mid to end of October for myself and helen will follow shortly after. [View Full Entry]

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Firstly Sorry for the long gap between this and the last entry. Right let's get down to business as usual - what are we doing! We have indeed signed the first set of legal papers and are now awaiting the next date for us to return to France for the final signing! All very exciting, but also a very long process - nothing much will happen with the documentation whilst the holidays are on. So I am sat at the cottage in Warwickshire, slowly but surley making our invasion plans. Helen is again working at RM until we return to France. [View Full Entry]

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Under complete duress we now have to leave France for a few months. It has come around far too quickly and we really do not want to leave here. The countryside, towns, food, wine, weather and people - French and other - have all been wonderful (a few minor events aside). We truly believe that this area is going to make a great home. A recommendation to any campers, caravans or chalet hirers - we are leaving one of the best sites we have ever been on. We have been living in a tent now for nearly 3 months and I [View Full Entry]

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To make up for our lack of communication over the last week or so here is a monster entry to bring you all up to date. The House We have finally had an offer excepted on a house in Sauveterre de Bearn (nearly 6 weeks after initially making it) and we are signing the first contract (compromis de vente) on Friday 23rd - the day before we plan to start heading north to come home - typically last minute and french! Anyway after signing this contract the house is still not definitely ours! we have to wait another 7 days which [View Full Entry]

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Sorry we have not posted an entry for a little while. We both had to return to the UK for my fathers funeral. However we are now back in Navarrenx and continuing the quest for our home. I can certainly tell you that we have only been back for 1 day and already we know we have made the right choice in choosing this area of France to set up our new life. The weather, views and people are all great. There are less people around us and the towns and villages are so tranquil, no traffic jams unless they are [View Full Entry]

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