French property and living in France

 

This is the first page of the section about French property and living in France.

It is impossible to do justice to the subject of buying French property and living in France in a few pages. Books have been written on the subject and, if you’re seriously interested in the subject, they should be read. We will mention more about suitable books later.

However, as I have lived and worked in France for years, sold French property for a living, have a degree in French, lectured on and done a good deal of research on living in France, and saved a good many people a good deal of money and misery, I trust the following few pages will be of value. 

First and foremost, as with all things on this web site, I want what I say to benefit the reader. This may seem an obvious thing to say, until you see the acres of ‘rosy-glow’ prose about France which imply (or assume - for they are as often written in ignorance as to sell property) that those who move to France find happiness ever after in a Gallic heaven of good food, cheap wine, low cost housing and bonhomie. This is unfortunately far from being the case. There is a saying that ‘Those who fail to plan, plan to fail.’ In buying French property and moving to France, this is starkly and manifestly (and too often tragically) true. The pages that follow, then, are intended to be a totally honest first step in that planning process.