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Penny and Ken Smith have been running their property management company Complete Property Care for the last six years. Situated in a small village called Neuvy Bouin roughly 20 minutes from Parthenay, in Deux Sèvres, they look after properties within a 50 minute radius, and are currently managing 10 properties...
Buying a house in France is a big step to take. Beryl Brennan discusses the different types of properties and important points to consider before you sign on the dotted line.
Like many of us Sam Parry and her family fell in love with The Limousin on holiday and decided to make it their home. They are currently renovating and plan to set up a cycling holiday business once the work is completed. They have agreed to keep a diary of progress and the ups and downs of the project here is the story so far
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Like many of us Sam Parry and her family fell in love with The Limousin on holiday and decided to make it their home. They are currently renovating and plan to set up a cycling holiday business once the work is completed. They are keeping a diary of progress. As Tim and James were making their way through slating the barn roof, our French Contractor Remy arrived to start the dalle (foundations and concrete platform) for the extension that would link the barn with our house..
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Have you taken adequate safety precautions to secure the contents of your home? Country homes are often not as secure as they could be. Old doors with woefully inadequate locks make an ideal target for thieves. How to secure your property...
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Perhaps the biggest concern for any family moving to the Limousin is how easily their children will settle here and the quality of the education they will receive. We met up with one family who came to live in the Limousin and have very much made it their home.
As a French resident you are taxed on your worldwide income, which includes UK investment income. The investments that are tax-efficient in the UK are not tax-efficient elsewhere, such as France.
Prior to April 2009, if you had a UK civil partnership (CP) and moved to France, it was not recognised in France, and you were not be able to enter into the French equivalent known as PACS (Pacte Civil de Solidarité) unless the UK CP was dissolved first...
July, with perfect weather, is the easiest of months for the organic gardener and a great time to enjoy the fruits of our labours. Here, Sheilah Kennedy, looks at how we can look after the organic garden in July...
I started volunteering at the Figeac dog refuge not long ago. I hesitated before getting in contact with them as I was worried about the old ‘tugging at the heart strings’ syndrome. With two dogs and two cats already, I know my limits but was afraid that I would end up bringing another young scamp home...
Not everyone who moves to the Dordogne is at the end of their working life and looking forward to taking it easy. It also has its attractions for those at the other end of the age scale, embarking on a new ‘career’ with a young family. Natalie and Patrick McAlpine have taken just such a step.
Lise McClendon tells us about her novel set in Dordogne... "Several years ago, besotted by the sunshine-and-grape-dream during a long winter in the American Rocky Mountains, I conjured up an idea for a novel..."
Like a good many of us who plunge straight into moving lock, stock and barrel to France, never having had a holiday home here, we underestimated the challenge of living in a foreign country...
"Château de Neuvic"
I spent the better part of this afternoon upside down with my head in our rainwater cistern battling the all predatory forces of heaven and earth. I think I’m winning.
Spring is the time for grand designs, and for years now, we have aspired but failed to keep up with the Jones’s, or more precisely, the Bousquets. But this year will be different...
"Les amis des chats" has just celebrated its tenth anniversary. Since this cat welfare charity was founded in Roquecor, Tarn-et-Garonne in March 2000 it has helped over 5,000 cats, and plans to help even more in the years to come.
If you are growing under glass, in this heat, red spider mite can become a problem. The answer is to increase humidity and ventilation. June is the month to enjoy the garden. Admire all your hard work and just watch Nature at work!
The tranquil setting of the Moulin de Chaves offers an oasis of calm in a bustling world. The days start with an early morning call. "This is what we use to wake people up or get them to meals or meditation sessions," Martin said, as we stood inside a wooden structure with a Japanese roof...
Summertime and the living is easy………. Or so the song would have us believe. All the Indications so far this year and future predictions, are for a return to the traditional French summer which equates to a very warm July and August, anyone remember August 03?
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One of the most common topics for questions received Oak garden services are, garden machinery and tools. Mark guides us through the myriad of options.....First and foremost look around, tractors, trailers, vegetable plots, log wagons and machinery dealers on nearly every corner, virtually everywhere. And that is what the Limousin is, part of France's heartland of agriculture. You very quickly find out here, that the flex for your flymo is really not long enough to reach the end of your garden, you resign yourself to the fact that you need a new mower, but which one, a lawnmower is a lawnmower, right ?
This month Mark from Oak Gardening services takes a look at all the activities that are part of life in the Limousin countryside in September. Mark also gives us his usual selection of top tips and advice for your Limousin garden...
So why has a garden article about August have a lot of advice about September………. Confused?
Here’s the answer:
In roughly 3 weeks time summer will be officially with us and hopefully the results of our efforts will begin to bear fruit, literally. If you haven’t already, cover your fruit trees and vines with plastic netting to protect ripening fruit from the birds..
December a peaceful cordial time for the gardener to relax and reflect! Don’t you believe it, as it could leave you with too much humbug and not enough punch? The easy choice is to put your feet up and relax, why not it’s been a long hot year!
October has been and gone and with it has come the weather that we can normally expect for the region at this time of year. The early frost’s have arrived and seen off most of the unprotected annuals and nature seems to have returned to normal or, has it?
Gordon and Jocelyn Simms are writers and poets and, when they decided to retire to France, it was important that they found the perfect place in which to 'live their dream'. Gordon tells the tale of how they found their mill home by the river.
In addition to the sale value of your property, proper landscape installation will insure less expense over time and greater satisfaction, says gardener Elaine Jarvis...
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Al fresco lunches in the summer sunshine - Provencal omlete cake is a delicious and unusual dish created by Mary Cadogan. It can be prepared the day before; serve with green salad and a sharp white wine.
Tel Turnbull was born in the industrial Midlands and some of his first recollections were of the smoking bottle kilns. Since he and his wife Katie moved to France in 2007 he has created a centre where visitors can enjoy the experience of creating their own pots.
There are three options for electricity tariffs, Base, Heures Creuses and Tempo. Base is a set price per kWh depending on the power supply, which can be from 3 – 36 kVA. Most properties which opt for this option choose either 6 or 9 kVA. The higher powers are usually for someone running business machinery.
We managed to escape the brunt of the current credit crunch with help from the show Place in the Sun: Home or Away (Northern Ireland v. France) on Channel 4. We are Stephen Kerlin, an electrician from Derry, Northern Ireland and Christina See, a translator from High Wycombe, England and we now run Chambres d’hotes (B&B) in Mazamet in the Southern Tarn.