Five hours north of Carcassonne is a region known a Le Berry, it is located in central France and was once a province until the département system replaced the provinces. Le Berry was split into three Départements, but the locals still refer to it as Le Berry. With our agent in tow we drove up to spend three days exploring and looking at real estate. Chateau shopping in Le Berry is very different from shopping in the south as there are so many more properties available and the prices are much, much lower. This of course immediately causes the internal question machine to kick into high gear… Why???

Ruins are incredibly fascinating and inviting, you just can’t help yourself. Caving in and rotting vestiges of something that once was is the perfect description of Château la Serpent. It took weeks and weeks to get the listing agent to show us the property. We knew what we were getting into and not a single one of us was disappointed by this massive and monumental stone structure. Once a very long time ago this was a Fortress to protect the local villagers and farmers, with each owner through the years gaining the title of Lord of de la Serpent. Eventually in more recent times…

It is really hard to believe that it was one year ago that we held our going away soirée at the Mill District in Healdsburg California… the best laid plans! In rapid fire succession we are viewing property after property after property in the next five days. It began with the viewing of a property we were not really sure we wanted to see, but we are so desperate to see potential homes that we agreed to go. The Château we viewed, although impressive in many ways…

If we have learned anything about French real estate during our lockdown Château shopping, it is - Beware of to good to be true pricing! - Over and over I come upon listings with a price-point that seems too low for the area…

Our hunt for a home has completely stalled out, but is looking up for the month of March with scheduled visits to six properties in nine days. Each of the six Châteaux span the styles, appearances, and ages of the world of the word known as Château…

As winter drags on in the south of France, I keep myself entertained on instagram by looking at the lovely shots of Châteaux in the north, in the Loire Valley blanketed in snow. So beautiful! and I am so glad we are not there! Although it is somewhat chilly in the south, at least it is no longer freezing cold. With the exception of a third visit to Château…

I have come to the conclusion that Americans take for granted the plethora of goods available to them to purchase. In the states if you desire a particular item there seems to be countless options on size, color, construction, quantity, quality, and price. Even online, take Amazon for example, type in a particular item and you get hundreds if not thousands of listings for the same and very similar items. Not so en France. Type a product into Amazon.fr and you will be lucky if you get three options (perhaps I exaggerate some)…

We have made another crack of dawn excursion to the northwest to have a second viewing of Château de Cadres. Our first journey to the castle was on a dark, moody, misty, and rainy day, which seemed to cover the reality if the property and simply make it sort of magical. The second trip was bathed in sunlight and the skirts were definitely lifted. In opposition to our first visit, this time I really focused on the problems, issues, and deficiencies of the property. It was revealed that the Château was built in 1883, which in Château terms is practically brand new…

Another early morning, up at 5:45 am, and on the road by 6:40 am… (AM, that’s AM…I don’t even know who we are anymore!) We are still in lockdown with a 6pm curfew and have no choice but to be on the road before the sun rises. We made two visits on this drizzly and misty morning. Our first visit was a return visit (a second showing) to Château…

Very early on a rainy and foggy morning Wednesday past, we drove out of Carcassonne. We headed west and to the north into the Lot-et-Garonne, a department in the Nouvelle-Aquitaine region of Southwestern France. North of Toulouse and abutting the Dordogne to the north, the Lot-et-Garonne is named after the Lot River and Garonne River, and if you made it through reading those sentences you probably heard in your head the exact same thing I heard when I wrote… blah, blah, blah blah blah…

With threats of another lockdown in France we have been doing our best to get out and see properties. Last Tuesday we saw two on the same day which is exhausting! Each property requires at least three hours of poking and prodding, peering and peeking, examining and scrutinizing, along with a lot of oohing and awing, and occasional scratching of the head. The first Château that we saw in the town of Avensac…

We have been in France for seven weeks, kind of hard to believe actually. We are still in the adjusting phase, some would say the Honeymoon phase, but trust me when I say that there are things here that are anything but romantic and charming. When we visit Europe we tend to not remember the downsides as they are outweighed by the wonderful existence that is life in lands far far away. With that said, European infrastructure is quite often a conundrum to me…

We are learning beaucoup about the French real estate market. Although not very apparent from the surface, there are huge differences between real estate buying and selling in the states and real estate buying and selling in France. Granted there are fewer properties in our price range on the market in the midst of this pandemic winter, but we are having a really difficult time…

Winter is upon us in the south of France. Carcassonne has been miserably cold and windy, with threats of snow on a daily basis. Châteaux hunting has ground to a halt as we wait for return calls from listing agents. We entertain ourselves by working and going on road-trips…

After living so many years in one country moving to a new one can be, on one hand, exactly the same as the country you came from, and wonderful! On the other hand it can be shockingly different and cause one to raise ones eyebrow! Add the Pandemic into the mix and things get a little strange…

Although we had experienced Château shopping five years ago, now it is different as we actually have the funds to make a purchase. The past properties we had seen (still shedding a tear over Château de Marcellus) had been an exploratory exercise in discovery. Discover the types of properties available that were in our projected price range, and discover if we truly wanted to take on a monumental home restoration…

Our stepped-up journey began early on the morning of December 1st, 2020. Having spent the night before at the Grand Hilton SFO, we arrived at the terminal armed with a mountain of luggage. It had been a whirl wind of a week between receiving our Visa’s…