Lifestyle
SIMPLY LIVING FRANCE
PAGE 30
Will it remain a dream? Or will our dream become a reality? The thought of our dream becoming a reality had crossed our minds for quite some time. Like so many, we often spent our camping holidays in France. At first with a tent and then when we had our children, we went with a caravan. We explored many regions of France as a family, but the beautiful weather and the surrounding area of the Languedoc, proved to be our favourite region. We could often be found near Anduze, a beautiful town on the edge of the Cevennes. The ruggedness of nature and the ease and the geographical location appealed to us enormously. An hour and a half drive from the south coast with it’s beautiful beaches, but also beautiful cities such as Nimes and Avignon are easily accessible.
Fortunately, I speak reasonable French and at home in the far north of the Netherlands, we started making business decisions. Financially it had to be possible. We even secretly started looking in the shop windows of our local estate agents. But that was a step too far. We spoke with a lot with French people living in the region, asked about possibilities, toured a lot, looking for ‘à vendre’ signs. We basically rang doorbells and knocked on doors. Finally, we saw a house on Le Bon Coin which really appealed to us.
We are good at DIY andwe can spot an opportunity, as long as the foundation of a house is good. We rang the owner and we were able to view the property. A family member had a key, and basically the house sold itself as we became overjoyed and excited about the prospect of owning this ‘maison’. And so, we became the owners of a house with a lovely garden in a town near Alès in the Gard. It ticked all of our boxes. We knew the region well and all amenities were within a good travel distance, including supermarkets, several bakeries, Do It Yourself stores, nice markets and the local wine cave, very important.
