Buying a second property is always a difficult decision;
home, after all, is home, and duplicating the issues, responsibilities and care
required to maintain a house can be both distracting and daunting.
However, as many have asked me both why and how I did it,
here are some answers.
I come from Europe, and although I have lived in Canada for
forty years and more, I have never “left”, and wanted a foothold here as I grew
older and had more time on my hands. France seemed to be a logical place, as I
still had a smattering of French grammar pounded into me at my Dickensian
boarding school five decades earlier, and in the south, the climate is clement.
I had no idea where, but my father, ever a wise man, indicated that I should
look at the Languedoc. “It is a fine place”, he said, “very beautiful, good
weather, interesting history and they make a nice drop of wine.”
8, rue Victor Hugo Before .. |
... and after |
French bureaucracy is unimaginably tedious and wearying. It
is designed for activity rather than purpose or outcome, and cannot be beaten.
Documents, in a precise order with a precise number of initials in precisely
the correct place, are required by the kilo, and are many and repetitive. Documents sent by registered mail that failed to secure a signature upon
receipt (even though the questions within were addressed) cause havoc, and
notarised documents noting the lack of signature, although a poor replacement,
are needed to complete the package. Taxes are levied, fees are charged, more
photographs of elderly relatives and each pet’s birth certificate (unless born
in Guadeloupe or Guyane (after January 2003)) are demanded.
The wait is worth is ... "The Neighbourhood" |
But this is France, and secure in the knowledge that the
country’s legal system is not actually stacked against an innocuous purchase in
an innocuous village, one eventually smiles and lets the system grind along.
And, after a couple of months or so, one is summoned to the Notaire, money is
paid and the keys are exchanged.
And then the fun starts.
After sourcing the furniture (IKEA is good), life emerges
And then the real fun starts.
Culturally interesting, especially the hats |
The true beauty of having a second home is the opportunity
to immerse oneself in another culture in a way that travellers and tourists
simply cannot. One returns frequently, each time to discover a new road, a new
village, new people, new music and a new thread to the fabric that holds the
community together. It is an exciting process and one that draws newcomers into
the fold of the village. It is, as is so often said, about “the people”, and
this is true. Different communities have different characters, and it is these
subtle differences, perhaps, that subconsciously attract different people to
different places.
Today
incomers from many other places, from Africa and from Yorkshire, from Amsterdam
and even Winnipeg are moving here and adding their own threads to the fabric of
the Aude Valley.
And, over the ten years that I have had the house here, I
have come to love the region so much that two weeks ago I bought a new, and
bigger property, and moved. I spend my life travelling, as so many readers have
pointed out to me, but of all of the places that I have travelled, for reasons
that are impossible to explain, Espéraza and the Aude Valley draw me back.
And it is only three hours from Tossa de Mar!
The new house, and the view over the Pyrenees