I have loved this November so far and have had lots of positive energy, something I have been somewhat lacking previously. What I like even more, is the two bank holidays we enjoy here in France, one for the day of the dead (All Saints) and one for Armistice. I especially liked Armistice Day this year as it was on a Thursday which meant I got to have a long weekend as I closed down on the Friday too!
On Thursday, after over 12 hours of labour, my sister in law gave birth to a beautiful baby girl named Alyssa. We went to visit them at the maternity ward in Beaune (such a beautiful town in the Burgundy area) and I was astounded by how something so big could possibly have been in my SiL’s tummy just twelve hours earlier! I left the hospital feeling slightly nervous about things to come for me, slightly older now that I’m an Aunt but overjoyed for my SiL and her boyf.
On Friday, we took advantage of the long weekend and visited a property in a town called Groslee. If you don’t get the pronunciation of the town 100% spot on then you end up saying (or hearing) Gros which means fat and Laid which means ugly. So imagine me with my lovely English accent telling someone where I live? Fat Ugly!!! Not good!
I should have known from the start that a property in such a badly named town would not be appropriate; it had to have something wrong with it and the name should have been a warning sign. Needless to say the property was no good and I could have strangled the agent as we had once again wasted our time despite best efforts to eliminate inappropriate properties before visiting.
We had asked our list of questions before arranging the visit, one of the questions being: is the property on a busy road?
We were informed “que non” it was on a quiet village road with little passage. LIAR! The agent is a big fat liar! In the 10 minutes that it took to tour the outside of the property, no less than 5 lorries went hurtling by. I was fuming! It turns out that the road was the main road to a nearby town and it was the only road the lorries could take once they left the motorway. So, a wasted trip!
A shame really as the property corresponded perfectly in terms of size and style – built from stone, lots of outbuildings, spacious inside and beautiful white shutters.
Whilst looking for properties we have also come across some really strange adverts. I think the strangest so far as been for a private sale where the owner is selling their llama with the property.
Yes, you read correctly. The property is being sold with a llama. The llama comes part and parcel with the property! In the property details you get a full description of the property, the land and the llama as well as a couple of photos! I can just imagine the owners considering their llama as being a major selling point and surely there must be something wrong with Mr Piglet and me for not having this as part of our criteria?
Have you ever seen anything really strange whilst hunting for property?
Stick to your guns and don’t let those agents talk you into anything. I drove our agent nuts with my long list of demands. Finally, we found the dream house all by ourselves.
However, the lama is a definite selling point.
Congrats and welcome to Alyssa.
Thankfully we’re not relying on the agents and will be loathe to pay their high fees, ideally if we could find the house ourselves I’d be delighted but we’re covering such a large area it’s tough househunting and searching for that elusive property has become a full time job! But your comment is proof that we’re doing the right thing rather than leaving the agents to do their job so to speak!
Heheheheheh @ the llama! That’s too funny…
Congratulations, Auntie Piglet! Oh, your new niece is beautiful. Never fear, you will be okay getting a baby out of your body. Not going to tell you it is fun, but one way or the other, it does happen, and all shall be well. 🙂 Many congrats to your SiL and her BF, too, of course. 😀
I am glad November has a better vibe so far, and oy! Silly real estate agents… That is a gorgeous place in Fat Ugly, though. Quel dommage! Here’s to the agent’s becoming more realistically honest and to your finding the perfect place in a perfect town with a good name.
Cheers!
Karin
Thanks Karin. I have certainly been asking myself lots of questions about different things and pain etc since Thursday! I see my midwife this week so I have a whole host of questions to ask her, hopefully I will be more convinced afterwards 🙂
The property was so perfect, I could totally see myself living there until the lorries made the windows rattle!! Arggghhhh. Plonker of an agent, I tell you. I won’t be in a rush to visit another property on her books, I can tell you that!
But can you seriously imagine living in a place called FatUgly? Urgh!
hope you’re well? I’ve got a half written email to you, will send soon, promise!
Congrats on the arrival of your little neice! Didn’t you mention you had two babies born in your family last week? what blessings! It’s hard to imagine that this time next month i’ll have one of those.. yikes!
As for the house, it does look beautiful, but you definitely don’t want to buy such a nice house on such a busy highway. And a llama as a selling point? Oh boy… you really are looking out in the country!
Our house hunt was very different from yours because we’ve stayed in the city and were looking for our first house as a fixer-upper, but we did see some awful stuff.. the style of house in the north are these 1930’s row houses and one of them still had the original 1930’s kitchen. would you believe me if I said they wanted 170,000€ for a 90sq. meter house needing 100% renovating (i.e. an absolute minimum of 50k in renovations)? Ugh! Another house of this style that we visited had a room that on one half was a kitchen lining the wall, and on the other half were three doors. Behind door 1? A shower. Door 2? A bath. Door 3? A toilet and sink. Not even a meter away from the stove. Aie! can you imagine how humid that kitchen must get while you’re sitting there cooking dinner and somebody just behind you is taking a nice, steamy bath? Craziness. We also heard about a house with a renovated attic bedroom but an electrical staircase that lowers and rises giving access to the room. We didn’t even bother to visit — imagine if there were a fire and you had to jump out of a third story attic bedroom window! Give me a llama any day, I say!
Good luck on the rest of your hunt. I hope you end up in a charming town with a nice name!
the other one was born the week before, a little boy to my cousin in law. We saw him this Saturday but my photos haven’t come out, he is so cute!
You must be at bursting point, literally with your bump but also with your emotions, I’m sure you are counting each minute, of each hour of each day.
I know you asked yourselves lots of questions on a recent blog post about December babies but I had a chat with Mr and he loves being a December baby. When he was older he always had lots of excuses to ask for bigger presents that he wouldn’t have been able to get normally but he also always got a party or celebration as well!
Your househunting sounds pretty crazy and surely it would be illegal to have an electric staircase anywhere else in the world other than France? As for the room with the doors that’s just too strange!
Right, am off to cook some yum yum dinner, roast parsnips and potatoes tonight, am having cravings!
Isn’t it lovely to have all these babies in the family arriving fairly close together? You must be getting excited!
Good luck with the house hunting. I hope you find the perfect house very soon.
Yes, lots of second cousins to play with!
You must be getting excited too! A trip back to the UK to see your daughter and a new grandchild on it’s way!!
I too hope we find the perfect house soon! Many thanks!
What a bonny baby!
As for birth, some women get through it relatively painlessly. You may hit lucky 🙂 Otherwise, it’s like moving – you spend a few hours having a yukky time but it has to be done. Then it’s over and you start getting things sorted.
I’ve seen some weird things done to houses round here, some people live in such an ODD way!
As someone who is not scared about the prospect of moving (I have moved quite a few times for my years) I like the comparision you have made – VERY VERY MUCH!
Bugger, that should have been from me, Sarah, not me mum!
[…] a new life in the country. Her posts are always interesting and frequently very funny. New today: the house that comes complete with a llama. I’m looking forward to following her move to a rural environment and […]
Hi There Piglet (one of my all time childhood – and adult – heros, by the way – have you read the Tao of Pooh and the Te Of Piglet, by the way again),
Funny, that first pic really slammed me back exactly a year to when little Léo was born – looked just the same in that cute little cap they put on newborns 🙂
And then the househunting thing too! I’m currently SDF, but have surmounted the second hurdle of getting a new place, and am just waiting to move in, in a month or so, hence writing this from the UK – parents do have uses after all..
To get our ‘ideal place’ my gf did something I wasn’t too keen on, and hired a househunter (yes, like headhunter). Two sides to the coin – one, we ended up going for a place we actually saw in PàP and told her to look into so did we pay a few thousand euros for her to make a phone call..? – and two, pretty soon after we engaged her we did get the place we wanted, so who knows… may be an option.
Good luck and enjoy the autumn leaves – I’ve been telling everyone who’ll read that this year has been one of the most glorious in and around Paris I can remember, and I hope you’re appreciating them too :-S
Hi there! Thanks for the book recommendations, I’ve looked them up and they seem very interesting.
The thought of becoming an SDF whilst pregnant scares the hell out of me, but it’s going to be reality in the next few months if we don’t find something. You are lucky to have had the option to go back to the UK, we will probably have to go to my parents-in-law in Provence or spread our time between family and friends more local to here. I keep asking myself what I am going to do with all my stuff? Did you move it all back to the UK or did it go in storage?
A househunter sounds a good idea but honestly I do not think they exist in the wilderness that we’re looking to move to. The estate agents there are like cowboys and seem amazed to have a customer! It may be something we’ll have to explore. I don’t know how I would feel about handing over a few thousand Euros to someone to do something that I can do myself. Especially as I am actually qualified in estate agency in France… The main thing though is that you have found your place and get to move in a few months time! That’s fabulous and I wish you all the best!
I agree 100% about this years autumn although where I live (in Lyon) there are not too many trees, however, on outings to the Beaujolais region and the countryside to the east of Lyon where we’re looking to move to (between Lyon and Chambery) the scenery has been absolutely fantastic! Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera with me to take pictures but I commented to my OH how exceptionally beautiful the colours are this year!
The books were from one of my ‘seeking’ phases, and the combination of such wonderful characters with some quite nice philosophies on life was pleasant – must dip into them again.
Sorry, I didn’t realise you were expecting a baby too! Congratulations, and anything testing that happens now will all become part of the family folklore as the years go by!
Our stuff is in storage, with up paying two removal fees instead of one thank you very much but what can you do? For the househunter thing, I should stress that the money you pay them is money you DON’T pay an estate agent – it’s either or, so you’re not losing money, as such, because a qualified househunter should do all the legal stuff a normal estate agent would, but they also go hunting your exact dream house for you in a way an estate agent won’t. I don’t know about the Lyon area but I could ask the one we used if she knows anyone down your way. I think they are called ‘Chasseurs d’immobilier’ or somesuch.
Another option would be to look at the Survive France Network as they have free forums where you can ask English speakers their advice, and there are even quite a few property people there too. And it’s quite fun in the groups – I started one for Paris!
And as for the photos – you mean you don’t take some form of camera with you wherever you go (shakes head sadly)? My oh my. Oh well, you’ll just have to look at everyone else’s I guess 😀
Sorry, just found this, which explains how a househunter works (in French, relatively new profession over here):
http://www.cible-appart.com/
Yes, am rather embarrassed i didn’t have a camera with me as well 😦 just crappy iphone camera, not quite what I need to take good pics!
We don’t want to be paying two removal fees either (have decided that we have to get the movers in as I won’t be in a fit state and mr Piglet has had an operation on his arm and won’t be fit for 6 months) so it will be storage for us too! Quite freaky at 30 to think we’ll be living out of a suitcase and couch surfing (okay, so not quite couch surfing) again! Very studenty!
Thanks for the infos ref les chasseurs immobiliers, I’ve put out some feelers here and have found one and they’re debating whether or not we’re searching just a bit too far away from Lyon for them to get involved… we’ll soon see but in the meantime we may have just found something 🙂 YOUPEE!
I’ll have to have a look at Survive France as well, thanks for the tip!
I hope everything works out for you and your move back soon!
It seems that we have moved quite a bit in the past few years , but we have never been so lucky as to have a llama included in the sale !!
Congratulations on your Aunt-hood .. she is adorable .. is there anything sweeter than a little bitty baby ?
Thanks Candice… There’s nothing sweeter than little baby! I was completely gaga!
Poor llama…he/she reminded me of the sad adverts I see in Costa Rica from Americans going back to the U.S.
‘House comes complete with dog’ and you see the photo of the poor unsuspecting dog and want to strangle people with your bare hands.
French agents are generally hopeless…they want to sell you what they’ve got not what you want to buy and considering the commission they’re asking they could certainly do better.
How people can even consider selling on and leaving their pets in their home I don’t know… would they leave a son or daughter if it was an inconvenience or too much paperwork?
I have moved one of my cats from France to the UK and then back again – there was never any question of leaving her behind!
As for the llama, I have absolutely no idea why they’re leaving it behind but surely if they didn’t want it anymore it would have made sense to try and find a home for it separately? Afterall, its not as if it’s a common pet is it?
Arggghhh!!!
I have estate agent qualifications and could do their job quite easily with my eyes shut, my hands tied behind my back. They are disgraceful and should be ashamed! The bright side though, is that if I’m ever bored and fancy doing something else then I could give it a whirl and knock them out of the business probably (if I could get over the part of being a foreigner of course!)
Piglet, it won’t be long before we’ll be looking at photos of your new little eggroll nestled in the garden of your new country home. Wherever the hell it is! As Fly said, I’ve never heard anything good about French real estate agents. This job definitely warrants battle armour, I’d say. But I know you two are up to the task. Stay strong, carry weapons…and a little flask of Pastis in your back pocket couldn’t hurt.
Wherever the hell it is!!! OMG it is going to come by so quickly but I can’t wait and I can’t wait to find somewhere to live so I can dream about being there and start planning the nusery. I don’t want to have a homeless baby 😦
If only I could drink I can assure you that I would definitely have something in a flask!
Thanks for the comment on my blog…didn’t realize I had won the very prestigious “It’s really hard to reach my feet Award” over at A Taste of Garlic! 🙂
I will be excited to read about the rest of your pregnancy. I hope it goes smoothly for you. My due date is actually this Thursday, although after an appointment yesterday, the doctor says it could be next week before I deliver.
Good luck with the house hunting!!!
You’re welcome! It was nice to discover your blog and I’m sorry to say but I’m pleased you had a hormonal breakdown at the medical lab otherwise I wouldn’t have discovered you! Sorry, that’s quite a selfish thing to say but I thought you wrote about it in quite a classy way so it seemed better although I can only imagine how horrible and frustrating it must have been!
So I guess you’ll be doing plenty of walking over the coming days then? That’s what all the pregnant ladies I know have been doing recently and they all popped their babies a week before their due date! I don’t know whether it is medically proven or safe but it is certainly something that is going on here around Lyon!
Fingers crossed for your due date, can’t wait to see the piccies!
There’s a restaurant for sale down the road from us which until recently had a tiger. Not entirely sure what effect this would have on the asking price – could go one way or the other.
A tiger?! That definitely tops a llama! How crazy is that? Did the owners really think that someone would want to buy the restaurant because it has a tiger? Not quite what one would expect in the Alps!
Whatever next?
Well you have to buy that property… it has a llama!! Imagine all the great blog posts you’d have with a llama. And I have heard that llamas make excellent baby sitters.
(I totally just made that last part up)
LOL! We’ll need a babysitter! maybe I should try and visit that house afterall?
What a beautiful baby! A huge congrats to your sister-in-law! As for the llama– aren’t they always selling points? OMG! A llama! They spit, you know.
Oh yuck! I didn’t know they spit!! Urgh!
If you don’t want the house, perhaps you could just have the llama? I think it’s very cruel to keep an animal like that all alone; they need company.
Think of all the uses it would have for you – baby-sitting :), nice soft wool for baby clothes, socks, woolly hats, and it would probably be able to pull a little cart, too. Think what a figure you’d cut, driving to the shops in a llama cart.
Yesterday I saw a field with two llamas, a donkey and a cow in it. They seemed to be getting on so maybe I should find the address of the other house and put them in contact? I didn’t think llamas were so popular but obviously there are a few in the region?
Personally I don’t want anymore pets, I already have two cats and both of them were taken in as they were homeless so to speak. The second one was one we found on the motorway just a few weeks old just after we got married. We named him Lucky! He’s a strange soul but loves our cat Princess to bits.
I can just imagine me creating a stir amongst the local villagers going around in a llama cart! At least it would be green!
Congratulations to all your family on the birth of this cute little girl 🙂
So horrible when the agents don’t tell the truth and the house is so right for you .. oh I agree about the name , maybe not right at all.. yep could of been a warning sign
Llamas can be quite dangerous animals I believe .. we do have farms in the UK with them too. Mostly in Wales though I think.
Pregnant ladies can walk and walk, unless they are so big it hurts .. best think to do .. .. years and years ago I did not know I was pregnant until quiet a few months and was playing badminton .. played up til about 6 months or so .. checked with the doctor .
Thanks Anne! I wish I had not known I was pregnant, unfortunately I got morning sickness but I even knew I was late and had a positive pregnancy test! I’m now nearly finished my fourth month and it is still here although I am not as sick, just feel sick.
Estate agents really annoy me. They give themselves a bad name all on their own! It is such a shame as there are some really good ones and I would love it if they were to be the ones that found the ideal property for me, however, it is not looking as if that will be the case due to the area they work in 😦
I hope I will be able to walk and move around a lot. At the moment I get a lot of contractions and have to take it easy, so no excercise for me other than what I need to do to get on with my everyday activities… hopefully it will get better as I progres! It must have been excellent for your weight gain to be able to keep being so sporty during the first part of your pregnancy – lucky you!