To new and returning visitors to our website - WELCOME. We hope you like what you see and read enough to come and visit us here in the Languedoc. One of the nice things about your dealing with a small organisation like ours is that we've never lost sight of our roots in the 15 years or so since we started. We are essentially and uniquely the Languedoc-Roussillon specialists.

We have steadfastly resisted the temptation to spread our brand of skill and expertise to other regions of France simply because we are determined to remain N°1 in our chosen corner of this rich and diverse land. Consequently, no other company can match the experience and exclusive consultancy service we offer our clients - and at no charge to you the buyer.

Newsletter Update – Suzanne Lowry continues her round-up of goings-on in the Languedoc………………………………

Independent consultant and writer Suzanne Lowry continues her series of occasional articles for Rural Retreats, incorporating material from previous Newsletters. If you would like to learn more about the way Suzanne helps clients with budgets upwards of 300,000 euros find the property of their dreams, go to our Home Page>Contact Us and complete the short questionnaire outlining your requirements.

Spring arrived a little late in Languedoc, after an unusually cruel winter, but when it came it brought a renewed rush of eager house-seekers along with the swifts and the wild irises.

For better or for worse, they are arriving in a region that is no longer "undiscovered" (although secret pockets remain). Indeed, the Languedoc is now a well-charted and favourite holiday and home ground for northern Europeans heading to the South of France, often preferred to Provence and the Cote d'Azur.

More than a decade of easy access by air, plus mega publicity and press coverage have achieved this. Books and regular newspaper columns continue to pour off the presses. Take Helena Frith-Powell's down-to-earth and informative weekly piece in the Sunday Times, backed up by her best-selling book "More France Please, We're British” which offers "15 lessons in French Living". Helena arrived at her new home near Pézenas only a year or so ago: she had never even heard of the town or the region previously. Now, week-by-week, she takes readers through the workaday problems and challenges she has encountered as a nouvelle French resident - from finding a plumber to the trials of installing an ADSL connection. All written in a spirit of good-humoured, gung-ho British survivalism.

Over in the Sunday Telegraph, Michael White is less crisp, more of dreamer, keeping hens in a shack on a hill and wondering why he has not induced a girlfriend to share his paradise, even though he has his own aeroplane. His column is called "C'est la Folie, " and it certainly sounds like it. No doubt his own book is pending.

Other current titles include Life in a Postcard, Deep France, and the aptly-named Bon Courage. These are examples of post-Mayle How-It-Was-For-Me genre; even more titles are in the How-You-Can-Do-It-Too mode. Want to buy or let a house? Renovate it, sell it on, set up a business, start a B&B, or learn to cook and drink the right wines? There is a book on the airport bookshop shelves just for you.

And more in the pipeline. No sooner is the ink dry on the Acte de Vente, but the new owner of a French home plugs in his or her computer and begins. Stand quietly in the garden on a still Spring evening and I swear you can hear them, tapping away in tune with the frogs and the nightingales. Time was that the English came here to fight; these days they come to write.

Which Languedoc

Quite a challenge for the first-time visitor. "We'd like a house in Languedoc, please,” they say. "Yes, of course, but where?"

The image of our region has been well sold, but the geography remains a little shaky. This is not helped by the layering of modern administrative names over ancient fiefdoms. The historic province of Languedoc, or Occitanie, was defined by its language - the Langue d'Oc, literally the "Language of Yes” and a close relation of Catalan - and sprawled right across the Mediterranean coast and up into the mountains and hills behind. Toulouse was in the Languedoc of the Cathars; today it is in the administrative region of Midi-Pyrenées. Montpellier is now the capital of the modern Languedoc-Roussillon, which has incorporated the Roussillon area around Perpignan, part of the Kingdom of Aragon in the Middle Ages..

In helping clients narrow down their search for the right place to buy, I prefer to stick to the old if vaguer definitions and boundaries, historically and cultural more interesting for any traveller whether house-hunting or not. On any map or reckoning it is a challengingly vast area and, thanks to its variety of landscapes, climates, customs, crops and architecture, it can be all things to all people, and offers much more than the emblematic olives and vines of the Mediterranean zone.

An English couple who came to house-hunt for the first time this Spring had the good idea of doing a valiant sweep through the region, landing at Nimes and taking off again from Carcassonne a week or so later. "We did not know the area before, but we had done our homework, read a great deal and we somehow knew this was the right place for us," husband and wife agreed. They were seeking a permanent home for themselves and their younger children, which would also attract visits from the older two.

Like others before them they did some quick adjustments along the road. Realising pretty immediately that a budget of 150 000 € was not going to get them what they wanted, they hiked it to around 300 000€. And, having started with an idée fixe about a house in the country set in its own land, they widened their interest to consider a village house with a decent garden.

Their marathon took them from the Camargue, to the flatlands around Uzès, up and up round the winding vertiginous roads into the Cévennes behind Montpellier and Béziers. They even made it to one mountain house where the agent feared to tread. "He just shuddered and handed us the keys, saying we could go on our own if we liked." They soon found out why - the road was terrifying, all but tipping them into a gorge on each hairpin; even though the house was quite nice, and the views (almost) worth dying for, they were glad to get down.

They loved Pézenas, were less excited by the coastal area but rather fell for the Minervois, the lovely wine region in the triangle between Béziers, Carcassonne and Narbonne. There it rapidly emerged that Monsieur was nursing a dream of agricultural life, which, round there, means one thing - vines. On top of a windy hill near Carcassonne, looking towards the Pyrenees (invisible for the moment in haze) and the blue outlines of the Corbières hills, he was enchanted by a 10-hectare property ready for re-planting and complete with a crumbling barn ripe for conversion.

It was not difficult to see why, given the glorious surroundings. However, while he talked hectolitres with the beaming owner, his wife retreated to the car to scour details of properties with plumbing and mains electricity.

The search goes on.....

New homes from old stones?

This season we are seeing a marked increase in applicants for properties to renovate. A couple of years ago buyers were shying away from ruins and renovation projects, scared off by the time-scale involved and dubious about dealing with French builders from afar. The pendulum is definitely swinging the other way, however pushed, perhaps, by the depressing nature of many French-renovated houses.

These are often redone in a sad pastiche of the original rustic style: every feature torn out, the walls lined with plasterboard and shiny brown tiles laid in place of glowing terra cotta. Stone exteriors are likely to be slathered with an ugly, pitted crépi (render), and PVC windows will have replaced the old hardwood frames.

In most cases, trying to unscramble all this and start again would be costly and in most cases not even possible.

On the other hand, many of the houses renovated by the pioneering anglais a decade or so ago are back on the market because their owners are going home or incorrigibly moving on to the next project. These are usually done with very good taste and using authentic materials, but the prices tend to be high as owners try to make a good profit on their investments.

So, it's back to basics. A pile of stones may not be given away and mean a long hard haul with the planning authorities, architects and maçons. You may face (in spite of volumes of minutely detailed estimates) an unpredictable final bill, but at least you'll end up with an approximation of the house you want. It takes courage and even a touch of Michael White's folie to do it though. Last month a new buyer who had trawled through and rejected every available habitable house in his chosen area finally settled for a burnt-out farmhouse with a collapsed barn attached. The 6-hectare setting was idyllic but the only access to the property from outside was via a diminutive medieval stone bridge which would just about take a Mini Cooper. "We won't mind living in a caravan for a year or so," the prospective owner said cheerily - “we" being himself, wife and three children. "A Year in a Port-a-Cabin"- sounds like the next best-seller. They may find, however, that one year may become three before they can say Jacques Robinson.

Russian roulette?

The popularity of the region is beginning to attract big investment money.
There are serious tourism developments afoot for golf courses, gated estates and new hotel complexes. There is a shadier side to this, however.

The English owner of a beautifully renovated house put it up for sale privately. Quite soon she had a call from a man with what might have been Russian accent. He wanted further information and photographs of the house, which was priced at around a million euros (about £700 000). A day or two later he called again, said he had checked the house and its value with his advisors and that he'd like to buy it for the asking price. Without seeing it.

Only condition, close to half the price to be paid in cash and the contract to be completed within in 6 weeks. Stunned, the owner asked what he wanted the house for. "Oh, I'd probably just keep it empty for a couple of years and sell on," he said. She explained that she did not fancy breaking the law on the scale he proposed - in any case there was no advantage to her as it was her principal residence and she was not liable for capital gains tax. Also, having put a great deal of loving care into the place she and her husband hoped to sell it to a family who would live in and enjoy it.
The conversation ended abruptly.

It would be obviously extremely foolish to sell a house in this way even if the house was a second home; in any case now that the capital gains level for foreign residents is down to 16 per cent, with works done by VAT registered contractors deductible, it is less or a temptation for sellers to dabble in under-the-table deals.

Swallow Tales

One of the first signs and greatest pleasures of spring is the return of the migratory birds. Here, the first hoopoes are glimpsed in April, followed by swifts, house martins and, of course, swallows.

The sad and even tragic fact is that these delightful species are fewer and fewer in number each year. The swallow, best-loved and most emblematic harbinger of summer, has fallen in numbers by 50 per cent in the past 15 years, according to French monitors.

Two main reasons: farm pesticides have eliminated the insects the birds fed on and the use of modern materials such as PVC for windows and eaves; heavy rendering of traditional stone walls impedes nest-building. Thousands of nests have been thoughtlessly swept away by renovators and rebuilders, not perhaps knowing that swallows return every year to the same one. If it is not there, in most cases, they do not breed but die of exhaustion after their long flights. And people close up barns and garages, making the nesting places inaccessible and the swallows are shut out.

Some vendors do appeal to the better natures of their purchasers; one lady in my village has gone so far as to make the free swallow- access to the barn a condition of
The sale of her house.

There are ways to help. No need to leave outhouse doors open, just make large enough flight holes at the top of them. If you have to move nests, try hanging them somewhere nearby, or at the very least replace them with prefabricated versions. If the droppings are a nuisance, fix a shelf or place a tray under the nests to catch them.

You will be rewarded by the sight of the young taking flight from your rooftops and telephone wires later on.

Survivor’s share (Revised version of existing text)

One of the first things to do after buying property in France is to bone up on French inheritance laws (La Succession) and make a will.

The legal position of a surviving spouse worries many couples, especially those with several children, or children from different marriages or relationships. Happily, things are getting better, if not always clearer.

French inheritance laws, enshrined in the Code Napoléon, still place an imperative on the rights of children to inherit before all others, and certainly before those of the surviving spouse.. Siblings, aunts and uncles, nephews and nieces used also to have claims too, though this is happily no longer the case.

Liberalisation of the law means that the surviving spouse can (of course) retain their own half of a jointly-owned house and and inherit one quarter of the deceased's partner's half absolutely. Or opt instead for use (including benefit from rental income) and occupation of the whole property for life, after which it will pass to the children. If there are step-children, the surviving partner may still have the right to occupy the house for his or her lifetime. To benefit from these provisions (called donations entre epoux or bequests between spouses) the partners must have made an appropriate will.

A solution being advised by some notaires is that a foreign couple buying a property should sign a contrat de mariage under the regime of communauté des biens (joint ownership of property) which means that all French acquisitions will be absolutely owned in common. When one spouse dies, the other is considered automatically as owner of the whole of the other's French estate and there are no death duties to pay. This is a simple and reassuring solution, but may not suit everyone.

Some people with complex family patterns, or where it is not appropriate for a surviving spouse to take precedence over all or some of the children, opt to buy through a company – usually an SCI (Societe Civile Immobilière or Private Property Company). This obviates the inheritance problems as the company owns the property and shares may be transferred freely between shareholders and their children.

Warning: inserting a tontine clause in the purchase contract (Acte Authentique) by which co-owning spouses agree that on the death of one of them the survivor automatically becomes outright owner of the whole property is not a solution as it is only valid up to a value of 76,000 Euros (£55,000 approx) - way below the value of pretty well all properties these days. What is more, it is a device which must not be used with the obvious aim of disinheriting a child or children - disaffected offspring may challenge it in court.

The inheritance laws are dense and complex, evolving and changing all the time and every family situation is different. Best to consult the notaire handling the purchase of your property about your precise rights and obligations, or a tax lawyer if that proves unhelpful. Once all is clarified, actually writing a will – in longhand – is a simple matter. A notaire will help with the wording, register the document at the central agency for French wills for a fee of £10 (15 euros) and administer it when the time comes.

A Place in the Wind

The popular television programme “A Place in the Sun” that relentlessly fuels the fantasies of house-hunters in the Midi, came through Languedoc again recently.
They duly found the requisite four houses to film, but then angst set in. There was no doubt that the properties were all in the Sun, but were they also in the Wind? And if so which wind? Someone had had heard (for instance) that the plain between Carcassonne and Narbonne is “a wind tunnel”. Producers and researchers soon got lost in local wind lore and mythology creating a wind tunnel of their own. “I just want to pin this wind business down,” said one helplessly.

OK, let’s try. In general, the Languedoc, framed by mountains and the sea, is a windy place. Witness the lines of wind turbines springing up along the coast and hilltops. But where are the wind boundaries, where is the fiercest blow to be expected? The honest answer to that is probably along the coast towards Spain – near Narbonne and resorts such as Port Leucate This makes for great sailing and wind-surfing, but you may get sand in your eyes.

Also west of Carcassonne, on the hills and dales of the Lauragais and Razes. Here the Vent d’Autan whips up to a fury round the hilltop houses so characteristic of the area The Autan begins as a warm south-east wind off the Med, blows up towards the Cevennes and the Montagne Noire to dump often very heavy rainfall. Up there it is sometimes known as the Vent des Fous as it can blow for up to nine days on end, driving people crazy.

All the winds have names, like the pantheistic Gods they almost are. The Tramontane, from the north-west, is the local, gentler version of the Mistral. It is dry, bringing a whiff of Nordic cold, but usually clears the skies. The Vent de Cers blows from the West or South West and often heralds sunny warm weather. The Vent Marin comes off the sea from the south, bringing banks of low humid cloud and heavy rain to coastal areas in winter; in summer the cloud tends to dissipate rather more quickly, but can occasionally hang around for days smelling of salt and making one feel as if living under the sea, rather than beside it.. The other south wind is the hot and dry Sirocco from Africa, but this blows in only rarely.

That’s enough winds, you might say and quite enough to moan about. But it should be remembered that they do not blow all the time and in this climate any movement of air is welcome in summer. In areas where you have year-round rainfall (west towards Toulouse and the Pyrenees for example) you also have conditions for green gardens and cultivation. The most important thing to look at is how, rather than where, any house you are tempted buy is situated. Most old houses (apart from those hilltop farms) were carefully placed to minimise the impact of the weather, by people who knew their winds centuries ago.