Beziers the Gateway to the South of France
Our home in the village of Montblanc is between the towns of Beziers and Pezenas. We are a few minutes from the Mediterranean, and are now the focus of a communications network of airports, motorways and high speed rail connection – yet we nestle in a calm and tranquil river valley which has not changed for centuries.
- Image by tibchris via Flickr
I am busy sorting out the marketing for our Apartments and Bed and Breakfast accommodation in our home and
we are offering some great deals and discounts for 2010 in our January Sale.
These are exciting times, the new Motorway from Paris, the A75, a
rrives a few kilometers from us. You cross the highest viaduct in the world, often above the clouds, at Millau.
For centuries, over 800 years, after the crusade against the Cathars, Languedoc was a forgotten backwater, lost in time. The combination of sun, soil and steam-trains in the 19th century brought enormous wealth to this quiet paradise, but not many visitors. The Internet has changed this – in under 20 years, Languedoc has become not only the most desirable place to live in France, but the wines, once considered a vast lake of  cheap plonk, are now rated as some of the best in the world. The sun shines longer in Languedoc and communications are the best in France with the best road, rail and air connections in France.
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- Image via Wikipedia
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At the center of Languedoc is the city of Beziers. An ancient Roman town which still has bullfights in the arena each year. Famous for the birthplace of the Canal du Midi, a World heritage Site and also for the massacre of thousands in the crusades against the Cathars in the 14th century.
Beziers is coming back to life with a new airport and new ideas to show the world how Languedoc became the cradle of Western Civilisation in the age of the courts of love of the troubadours.
A new website from Beziers begins to show the return of this cradle of enlightenment.
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- Image via Wikipedia
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Montblanc Puzzle
December 30, 2009 by tony · Leave a Comment
If you are finding it hard to concentrate on work after Christmas and the new year – then what you need is a holiday.
What better than coming to stay with us in our Apartments or Bed and Breakfast in Montblanc.
To relax you and get you in the mood, here is a jigsaw puzzle of a typical street in our village……
Slide the pieces with your mouse….
Or click on the picture or link below….
Montblanc streetConsumer Protection
December 29, 2009 by tony · Leave a Comment
I am writing about problems with apartment rentals in Paris on my blog at http://2337.com – the aim was originally to give information to owners about problems ahead from laws affecting vacation retals.
Interestingly this site has generated mail from renters telling me some horrific stories about owners. Clearly there is a lot to be cleared up and the Government of France and the City of Paris are taking steps to put things in order.
If you have had problems with any service, most countries have an official department you can complain to and report the supplier. A good website listing these offices is http://oecg.org/ – for France the official consumer protection bureau is The DGCCRF – it is an official French government authority for Consumer Protection, they have a website in English at http://www.dgccrf.bercy.gouv.fr/anglais.htm – they have produced a leaflet, in English, which gives some information and other contacts. You can download this at Welcome to France
As most apartments in Paris rented for vacations are rented illegally, you should ensure that the owner, or the owners agent, has correctly registered the apartment as a commercial property to rent, is correctly declared for taxation on the revenue in France and therefore they are able to show you valid and adequate insurance.
Interestingly from the websites above I found that most of the disclaimers for loss or damage on rented premises are not legally valid, this applies to hotels as well – you cannot “sign away” your rights on any rental contract.
Househunting in France
December 17, 2009 by tony · Leave a Comment
I received a comment this morning which is prompting me to do some worK.
A reader sent me a question on my About Us page, asking how to find the name of an owner of a property when they know the address.
First this is reminding me to put some up-to-date photos on the pages – Jack is a young man now and I am older, Carole seems to be getting younger though, so it all balances out.
I have also been reminded of my idea to create a website service to identify, map and give owner’s details of all properties for sale in France.
In most countries there are services giving multiple listings and full details of properties for sale. In the United States sites like Trulia.com and Zillow.com plus blogs like futureofrealestatemarketing.com, or using trade aggregators like Realtor.com can give a buyer some good indications of the total proeprties for sale in any area.
In France it is different. There are several ‘groups’ and trade associations of estate agents. However, most properties for sale do not have any kind of central listing and the advertising done by agents selling properties give very little information, usually never the address and often not even the general area of the property. This is because most properties are listed with many agencies and the agent would lose their (huge) commission if a buyer went direct to the owner to through another agency.
As the purchase and sale of every property, by law, must be done by a Notaire, there is a fixed charge and tax on every purchase. This is around 6 percent of the purchase price (less for a new property) – add to this the estate agents commission, usually around 6 percent again and there is a big incentive for a buyer to deal direct with the owner of a property, if they can find out first which properties are for sale and second, contact details for the owner.
There are a few websites which list properties for sale direct from owners in France – probably the largest is pap.fr/, this site also has some tools giving indications of the values of properties sold recently by department and town.
Privacy and secrecy are taken seriously in France, but there are ways of finding information, addresses and names. The most obvious one is the online telephone directory, there is a reverse look-up facility for individuals at PagesBlanches
By using other Internet tools like Google Maps the local French property rating maps .cadastre.gouv.fr and information about towns from sites like linternaute.com and FallingRain – a researcher can, with a lot of work, find out information and clues as to what properties are for sale and local values.
For a couple of years I have been wanting to make a ‘mashup’ of services and create a site which can use search tools and come up with a list of property for sale, owners and values services etc about any area. I believe I could target over 90 percent of all properties on offer – bearing in mind that many are still not offered through real-estate agencies, this would be a useful application for a mobile phone.
One day soon it will be done, it would be nice if it was me doing it, I could do with the money.
Why I live in France
December 6, 2009 by tony · 3 Comments
I wrote recently about the ‘flip side’ of living in France. Today is Sunday and it is the end of a frustrating week, dealing with French bureaucracy as well as trying to help with the problems of Paris apartment rentals. But Sunday morning is the end of the week and I look forward to bringing Carole breakfast in bed, reading the papers and getting bread from the Boulangerie warm on the table.
The boulangerie is the real heart of a French village – we must be from Gallifrey, the planet of the Time Lords as we, Like Dr Who, have two ‘hearts’ in our village of Montblanc. The one at the top of our high street had a ‘degustation’ of their bread this morning and were giving away balloons and samples of their produce, they also sell their own wine. With over 15 different varieties of bread baked continuously every day, it is a precious resource and makes a big difference to the quality of life and a very good reason to put up with the tribulations of paperwork.
www.EpiMontblanais.com
They have their own website which has a brief history of bread-making in Montblanc, the medieval oven is still in the center of the village (photos on their website), not in use today, but once it would have been the place where most of the village gathered each week to cook their food and exchange gossip – in a way this is still the tradition as the village boulangerie is as much a place for meeting people and hearing the news as for buying bread (or wine).
This is one reason why we have lived in France for 20 years.
French Property Newsletter
December 2, 2009 by tony · Leave a Comment
I have been sending out newsletters about living in France for over 12 years. Another newsletter I think very highly of is one from French-Property – their newsletter is like Lidl – whenever I really need something, I look in and ‘bingo’ there it is.
I used to know the people there but am out of touch with them so I have no association with what I recommend as a good resource.
Another source of good information is AngloInfo – I loather the title, but the content is good, this is the link to their Languedoc site and Caroline, who runs the site, is a very attractive, hard working and intelligent lady.