It’s Official!!

It’s ours! After 200 days, we have finally signed on the electronic pad and the property belongs to us!

Last Wednesday we received the long awaited email from the notaire, asking us to contact her to fix our rendez-vous!  She also, very kindly, sent us the Acte so that we could translate and check it.  There were a couple of mistakes in it, the glaring error being us listed as Nationalite Francais!  We said we were available any day and that ideally we would like an appointment at 11am or 2.30pm (bus time dependent!)  She replied that she would like us to attend on Tuesday 12th March at 1400 hours, oh well not quite what we were hoping for but a bus would get us to Plouha at 1.20 and we would have time to get to the office.  So Tuesday morning arrives and I am feeling slightly sick! The weather wasn’t too bad, although the forecast was predicting gusts of 85kmh (40 knots) and rain!  I managed to force Steve to leave the boat in plenty of time (20 minutes to walk less than five minutes away!) and then panicked that the bus might not come!  However my fears were unfounded and Steve reckons I changed completely once I sat on the bus – no longer stressed out!!!

We arrived in Plouha and decided to have a walk around the shops before heading to the notaire’s office (even though they were all closed as it was lunchtime!)  We spent a few minutes looking at the books in their book exchange box and it started spitting with rain.  The entrance porch to the church looked like a good place to wait out the rain so we headed there.  Then the biblical storm arrived, huge gusts, heavy rain with some hailstones thrown in but no frogs, just a few Frenchmen hurrying along the street to the bar tabac!  Fortunately it started to ease off in plenty of time for us to get to the notaires – a sign, maybe?!

I introduced myself to the receptionist who commented, “ah, yes, the lady I have spoken to many times, I can put a face to the voice now”.  She thought we were very nice as Steve left his dripping umbrella in the entrance way and didn’t drip water all through the reception!

Of course we were a few minutes early so were safely installed in the waiting room when the vendors arrived.  Three people walked in, Monsieur et Madame and another Monsieur – handshakes all round but Steve and I were a bit confused as to who the other fella was – turns out he was just someone else with an appointment who lives in the same town as our vendors!!  Then another person turned up – I spotted his ‘Square Habitat’ bag straightaway so assumed he had come from there (the agency we had viewed the property through).  A couple of minutes later and a rather elegant gentleman appeared, introduced himself and led us through to his office.  We all filed nervously in and I was amazed at the large computer screen on the wall above the notaire’s head!  It looks like they are quite up-to-date (or maybe even cutting edge) as we would be signing electronically and not initialling each page as we had with the Compromis!  The appointment passed quickly and in very good humour, a few jokes here and there, especially when it came to any asbestos that may still be there – we may have misunderstood but both Steve and I think the estate agent said we could just bury it!  At this point the notaire covered his ears as if to say “I’m not listening”.  Once we finally got to the signing, Steve leaned across to me and said, “he must be from the estate agents”, referring to the additional person at the table (the one I had previously identified!!!) It is very difficult to stifle giggles in front of four French people (especially with the notaire directly in front of me!!)  Monsieur and Madame invited us for a drink with them, which, of course, we accepted!  Monsieur asked if we had a car and when we said no we didn’t but had taken the bus he said “well, you better come with us then!”  Steve getting into a Renault Kadjar (into a seat normally used by a 5ft lady) was hilarious – he ripped out the sun visor (well, moved it out of its slot!).  They were both very keen for him to put the seat back and lower it!  We were then transported to their home where we partook of a couple of glasses of bubbly and some Breton biscuits!  We thought we would be walking to the bus stop to make our way home (thank God, they live close to the bus route!) but Monsieur said, “no, I will drive you”.  What a wonderful couple, they have offered that if we have any problems at all, to give them a ring and they will help!  Given he is an ex-maire of the region, that sounds pretty good!!  Bollocks to Brexit, we have great new French friends!!!

I apologise if there are any typos in this but two glasses of bubbly with the French and then a glass of our own (pre-chilled, I had thought ahead!) followed by a glass of wine, my fingers might not be working as they should!!!

Two Weeks, Thursday

As we hadn’t heard anything from the notaire since we’d explained we wanted to waive the ‘clause suspensive’, Steve thought it would be a good idea for me to call her again.  To lessen my stress level he kindly chose to do a ‘bin-run’ whilst I made the call!  It went well, I felt that I got my points across – we’ve haven’t heard anything yet and are you still going to send us an email with the ‘acte de vente’ (so we could translate) and understood her response adequately. However, on ending the call and thinking about how to translate what she had just told me to Steve, I realised that perhaps I hadn’t understood much at all.  The only things I could remember her saying were ‘deux semaines’ (two weeks) and ‘jeudi’ (Thursday).  As is normal after one of my phone calls, Steve’s initial question is “Success?”  This time I answered, “Yes, I made the call, spoke to her and she said something about two weeks and Thursday!” We decided that maybe she said we would receive an email in two weeks for an appointment on the Thursday! Sounded like wishful thinking to me!!

Two weeks was arriving quickly and as we still hadn’t received an email (constant checking of my junk mail folder, just in case), it was inevitable that I had to call her again.  I chose to call on the Monday whilst Steve nipped to the market.  However, all I received was an answer-machine message advising that the office was closed on Mondays – oops, I could have gone to the market with him!  So Tuesday morning and I tried again.  The really friendly, bubbly receptionist informed me that our notaire was on annual leave and would be back next week. Oh, perhaps that was what she was telling me before – I am going on two weeks leave from Thursday? (To be honest, we will never know!!)  I double-checked that she would be back in the office on Tuesday and said I would call back then!

Tuesday morning and while Steve is away having a shower I call again.  This time the receptionist tries to put me through but the notaire is not in her office, if I ring back after 10.15 she should be available.  We had decided to go to the mairie and as that shuts at 12, we thought we might as well go there and, as we have one of these new-fangled mobile phone things, I could make the call from anywhere!!  We arrived at Pleguien, had a coffee and coke at the bar/tabac and then in the beautiful sunshine outside the mairie I made the call.  This time I didn’t even have to give my name – is my accent that bad?!  I started off with my traditional “nous n’avons rien entendu?” (We haven’t heard anything?) and the notaire advised that she had been on leave, she was waiting for something from Cerfa (now this was a word I recognised as the planning forms have  Cerfa on them – so assume she was waiting for some sort of form!) and she would be in touch “plus vite que possible” (as soon as possible)!  Amazing I think I understood that, I again checked that she would email us and she confirmed that, yes as already discussed, she would!  I came off the phone feeling quite pleased with the conversation and it was with a spring in my step that we headed in to the mairie!!  However, nearly a week later, nous n’avons rien entendu!!

GO AND SEE THE ARCHITECT!

We made it to three weeks and one day (Friday 15th Feb) before an email from the mairie!  We had agreed to email communication on the permis application thinking this would avoid any miscommunication.  Unfortunately all the email said was: “please call the mairie”!  So with my usual amount of trepidation I made the call.  The lovely girl there advised that there were some items missing from our application and suggested that we contact “l’architecte conseil”.  I told her that we had already had an appointment with the architect but she repeated “make an appointment, they will help with the form” – reading between the lines we’re pretty sure she was saying, “just listen to me and do it!”  L’architecte conseil is only available every other Friday so it was back on the phone to make an appointment – we were very fortunate and were able to get one for the following week.

There followed a few days of wondering just how badly we had messed up! Then on Tuesday (19th) Marina Trevor knocked on the boat to say that the post-lady would be bringing us a recorded delivery the following day at about 10.30.  More trepidation!!  I was extremely worried that it might be the whole pack – all four dossiers! – being returned – how embarrassing would that be in front of the marina staff!

At 10.30 on Wednesday morning Steve headed up to the office and waited – (outside)!  The post lady was pleased to see him and Steve, in turn, was pleased to see it was just a letter!  So out came the computer so I could type it out and translate it – not wanting any ambiguity in my own translation! (I will return to this later!)

So, what was wrong with our form?

  • The biggest and first point was we had used the wrong form – this caused a bit of a giggle as we had spent a fair amount of time trying to work out which form we needed with me deciding that we had probably used the wrong one – don’t have to say it, do I? Yes, I do – “told you so Stevie”!! It turns out that the form we should have used was far simpler!
  • The tax section – we had calculated the tax applicable to the whole building, however they only required the extra.
  • The mass plan – we had missed off the services (not knowing where they were!) and the trees we want to remove.
  • The notice describing the property – they wanted to know in simple terms what we were planning to do to the existing buildings and what materials and colours we were going to use. We thought this was what we had provided?
  • The facades and roof plan needed dimensions and a verifiable scale. However, the dimensions were there and so was the scale?
  • Thermal regulations document (RT2012) – We had not supplied this as everything we had read put the property in a classification that shouldn’t have required it, because of the historic nature of the building.

And that was it!!

Thursday was homework day where we tried to pre-empt what we thought we had done wrong so at least we could show the architect that we had been good children and not just sitting patiently on the naughty step awaiting our detention!  Steve then went back to his old engineering days in a bid to calculate the U value of the property (the thermal performance).  He even ended up reading a 200 page paper on the thermal performance of cob!

As Friday is market day in Lanvollon we decided to leave a little early for our appointment so we could have a wander around.  We left far too much time as it was quite a small one!  The seven market stalls (three fruit and veg, one butcher, one fish-man, a lady selling sweets and the obligatory crepe van) took about five minutes to peruse! However, I was amazed at the size of the carrots – they were huge!

As we had a bit of time to kill, we thought we would pop into the water department and see if they could show us where the water supply ran.  Unfortunately the chap on reception was unable to tell us and the person who could was not in the office but he would get them to ring us – so far we’re still waiting!  Perhaps they’ve realised how useless I am on the phone and have decided not to bother!

Finally it was 11.30 and we were met by two architecte ladies and shown to a meeting room. Two architects, neither speaking much English and two English with no architectural knowledge and basic French – this could be quite interesting! After pleasantries were exchanged it was down to business.  Fortunately they had the same list of missing items as us and we started to go through them.

  • Point one – the form. We showed them we had printed out the correct form now – yes, check, smiles all round. (This is going well!)
  • The tax form – she explained exactly how we should have filled it in – easy!
  • Point two – the mass plan. We had submitted this in five parts, some being extremely detailed, thanks to Alex.  This was far too detailed for them. They explained exactly what they wanted and even though we didn’t know where the services would be going we had to indicate where we would like them.  They advised that if we were to talk to the mairie, they should be able to tell us about the electricity as the vendor of the property is organising the extension to the network.  It was pointed out that Steve’s drawings did not match the main (Cadastral) plan – which shows two buildings of the same dimensions up against the road.  Steve explained that his drawings were right (at least in that part!!) to which they responded, with a shrug, the Cadastral is often wrong.  Steve had used a scale of 1:166 for his plan but their scale rule didn’t do that, so a complete re-draw was on the cards.
  • Point three – the cut plan. This is a slice of the terrain showing varying levels to a datum point.  They looked over our original submission and couldn’t initially figure out why it had been queried; finally deciding it was because Steve’s measurement on one of the dimensions was 1mm out.  A slight “humble pie” look on that one. Another re-draw for Stevie!
  • Point four – the notice. We had rewritten a description providing as much information as we could.  However, this was not what was required.  They wanted SIMPLE.  What we were going to do to the original buildings and what we were building and, as it is a heritage patrimoine, the materials and colours to be used.  Again, not too bad, just a simplification – a job for me!
  • Point five – the facades and roof. Again too detailed and we had put all dimensions on – they only wanted dimensions of the new items – doors, windows, extension.  This is when things got a little “interesting” and communication faltered slightly.  What did we do wrong:
    • the windows we had proposed for the ground floor did not match what the architect feels is correct for the building – even though the two existing windows are square, this type of building needs vertical rectangular windows. We tried to say we were matching the existing (as had been advised in our first meeting) but were told, no – vertical rectangle. Ok.
    • The large gable end window which we had discussed in great detail in our first meeting to ensure that the design met the views of the architect. However she had seemed to have forgotten that and both said a triangular window in that gable end would not be acceptable.  We could however have an off-set vertical rectangular window (which to us looks far worse than the triangular one) so we have now decided to have a darker bedroom – not such a bad thing as there is now very little chance of me being woken by early morning sun!!
    • The glazed wall side of the extension – to get the angle of the sticky out roof bit to match the main property roof we had filled the whole gap with a pitched roof. However, the architect only wanted a pitched roof over the door opening, therefore reducing the ridge height – no arguments from us, we just pressed the ‘I believe’ button! More work for Alex!!
  • Point six – RT2012. This caused some debate between them.  To be able to submit the first RT2012 form directly from the internet without the input of a thermal specialist the size of extension needed to be less than 50 sqm.  This dimension is not the internal but the walls and roof surface area dimension.  This is when they had to revisit, in their own minds, whether the garage was part of the extension or an original habitation.  If it was part of the extension we would have to contact a specialist for a report.  Steve’s ‘back of a fag packet’ calculation of existing materials showed that the extension, including the need to retain the historic nature of the building, would not comply with the current regulations.  At this point, they had a little tete-a-tete and reached the conclusion that the garage was part of the original and therefore we only needed the RT2012 for the 9.5 sqm extension.  Fortunately I was paying a bit of attention and asked if that then meant that what we had put on the tax form was no longer correct?  So we revisited the tax form and they agreed that the only part we needed to class as new is the extension. Sorted!  This does make us think that perhaps a full planning application shouldn’t have been necessary after all instead just a declaration prealable (works declaration) as the size is now less than 20 sqm? Oh well, it has kept us busy this winter!!

And with that we were finished, smiles and handshakes all round and us hopeful that we knew exactly what we needed and could resubmit quickly!

As I have taken to keeping a tape measure in my bike bag we decided to drop by the property on our way home and take exact measurements from the road to the property so that the mass plan reflected what is actually on the ground and not just on the Cadastral plan.  This took a bit of prodding with a metal pole to find the edge of the road – but we got there in the end!

That evening we contacted our favourite architect (Alex) and asked if he was willing to give us a hand again! Fortunately he loves his mummy and agreed to help.  Saturday morning, I set to work rewriting the notice and completing the form whilst Steve got his pencils out again.  As I had managed to get the easy jobs it was my responsibility to investigate and submit the RT2012 form.  It was remarkably easy – hope that doesn’t mean I’ve done something wrong!  Steve had decided to resubmit the cut plan as the roof line had changed and he could get his measurement right.  I was a bit unsure as I didn’t want to provide something that hadn’t been requested, but bowed to his better judgment!

The only detail we needed to clarify was where the electric is likely to be run to – so a visit to the mairie was in order.  Sunny, bright Tuesday morning, a visit to the bar/tabac for a coffee and coke, a chase-up call to the notaire (ooh, there’s a story I haven’t told yet!) and into the office.  With help from the lovely Stephanie, we were provided with a pretty picture of our electrical extension to the network – the final piece required!  Wednesday morning was spent putting the packs together, complete carnage in the saloon – no one would ever believe I used to be a well organised, efficient secretary, but I suppose all the offices I have worked in were larger with ample workspace – so there’s my excuse!

Being the pernickety person I am I wanted to check once again – with the original letter – that we had provided everything.  On reading through I discovered that we did in fact need to resubmit the cut plan and the only reason I thought we didn’t was because when I had typed out the letter to translate I had missed the whole section!  Perhaps my attention to detail is slipping!! I then had one of my blonde moments deciding that the mayor’s office was closed on a Wednesday afternoon and not checking as I would normally do!  This meant we didn’t take advantage of the perfect weather to trundle to Pleguien – that was a job for Thursday!

Thursday morning – grey, drab, slightly damp and windy and, for reasons known only to Mother Nature, Steve got the task and headed off alone – how I wish I was a fly on the wall during that meeting!  By the sounds of things though it went well – Stephanie having a wonderful booklet showing exactly what was required and checking it off (if only we had spoken to her before we started our application!)  So, within a week of getting the notification, we had corrected all the information, cycled 70 km (Steve anyway – only 50 for me!) and are now back to waiting!!

In a nutshell we got the wrong form, one of the drawings was to the wrong scale, a couple of measurements were missing, our drawings were too detailed and they wanted to redesign – not too bad was it!!!

 

Waiting Time

On 24th January, with great excitement, we trundled off to the mairie with our four dossiers and pack of five supplementals all neatly ensconced in cheapo plastic folders (which actually didn’t look too cheap!)   The lady there checked through the dossier, we assume to ensure we’d filled it in and more importantly signed it.  To her delight/amazement we said she could keep our fancy folders!  Now we are in possession of our Receipt of Deposit and we wait!  If we don’t hear anything in the first month it means we have actually filled it in adequately and they don’t need any further information – so two weeks and counting!

Unfortunately this waiting thing is something Steve is getting worse at!  All he wants to do it chop down trees singing The Lumberjack Song by Monty Python or sit around a campfire singing Kumbayah!  He keeps threatening to buy his chainsaw and air-rifle but so far I have managed to delay him, (although I think our recent visit to the shooting and fishing shop may have put him off slightly – tight git!! Good thing too as I don’t like the idea of him having a gun!)

Once again Alex has managed to show us up as being technically inept in this modern world and in true ’Grand Designs’ fashion he has made us an animation of what the property should look like using some computer game software, if you click on the link below it should take you to YouTube!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHbU3Q5CY2g

As we have so much time on our hands we have spent a couple of afternoons (with a glass or two) creating our preliminary job list which Steve thinks should take us to Easter.  I have a feeling he doesn’t have a clue when Easter is, or perhaps he’s just not telling me which year!

  • Move caravan & set up (folding caravan/trailer tent kindly given to us by the current owner – should come in useful for any number of things!)
  • Remove tree from front door (my job)
  • Remove lean-tos
  • Remove all internal stuff (i.e. wheel trims, old bikes etc)
  • Allocate storage locations for:
    • Stone
    • Wood
    • Soil
    • Clay etc
  • Build workshop
  • Stabilise main building with accro-props (Etai metal)
  • Remove trees growing under buildings
  • Create driveway
  • Dig out trench (between building and road)
  • Fix big cracks on east and west walls
  • Reveal all stone plinths
  • Fix all stone plinths and repoint
  • Cut down oak and cherry trees and square off
  • Remove roof tiles
  • Cut down south wall of main building
  • Add lintel for new front door
  • Dig hole for septic tank
  • Make wooden frames
  • Create footings between buildings
  • Create new stone plinths between buildings
  • Make roof.

This is not in any particular order and we can’t do any of the italicized ones until we receive our ‘Permis’ but it looks easy enough!!

We took a trip on Thursday to the big ‘Brico-Depot’ at Plerin (part of the same group as B&Q by the looks of all the Cooke and Lewis and Diall products on sale). He stopped me from looking at lighting, kitchens and soft furnishings as he reckons we need to get the walls and roof sorted first – what a spoilsport.  We were however pleasantly surprised by the price of the Velux windows!

We had also planned to go to the Emmaus shop/depot.  Emmaus is a large charity organisation with two shops in St Brieuc.  We had visited the one closest to the town centre where Steve had bought a book on wood construction (in French). Their other premises were slightly more out of town and, we thought, a bit far to walk!  So we had checked out bus timetables and discovered we could take a bus from Plerin or we could walk it in about half an hour.

Our bus had got us into Plerin around 11 and by the time we had wandered around Brico-Depot , the shooting and fishing shop and a garden centre we thought we should find somewhere for lunch.  Emmaus didn’t open until 2pm so we had ample time.  Eating out is not easy for me now compounded by the fact that Steve is having a break from bread!  Steve’s first suggestion was MacDonalds (quick and easy) but I wasn’t keen so we walked into a ‘boulangerie’ (bakery) and walked out when I couldn’t decide what I wanted – none of the sandwich fillings were appropriate and I was annoyed that Steve wouldn’t get anything in there anyway.  So we thought we might as well try MacDonalds although I was still apprehensive.  We walked in and you had to order on a touch screen (another techno headache – although made easier by the fact that we could read it in English).  Unfortunately I couldn’t guarantee that the mozzarella wrap didn’t have some ham somewhere close by (ham and cheese is very popular over here) and the temperature inside the building was too bloody hot!  So halfway through our perusal of the menu we left that too!  So it was off to E Leclerc for a bag of crisps –I am a cheap date!

As it was coming up to 1.30, and the weather was pretty good – a bit windy but sunny, we decided to walk to Emmaus.  Plerin is on top of a hill (approximately 112m above sea level), St Brieuc is on top of another hill (approximately 80m above sea level) and the Emmaus shop is in the valley in between at about 10m above sea level.  We checked out our route on my phone and set off.  The decline was pretty steep but, for once, didn’t terrify the life out of me.  It must have given me a bit of a worry though as when Steve asked if I would want to cycle down it I said no!  Although to be fair I think that was more the condition of the road – loads of potholes – rather than the steepness of the hill!! Yeah, maybe and perhaps the T-junction at the bottom put me off too!!

We arrived at Emmaus just before two and were surprised to see that a lot of their items were outside – we looked at each other, both thinking the same thing – do they leave them out all the time?  There was quite a lot of ‘stuff’ there, ranging from beds, furniture, electrical goods, crockery and old tat.  Whilst walking around we noticed someone emptying water out of some of the items – answering our question as it hadn’t rained that morning.  It appears that the shop near the town centre gets the better items and everything else ends up here.  After about 10 minutes we had seen enough and decided to head to the bus stop – we had planned to go up to St Brieuc to catch the bus home (I didn’t fancy walking back up to Plerin!).  We arrived at the bus stop to discover that there was a 20 minute wait for the bus.  As the weather was really nice I suggested to Steve that we just get on with it and walk up to St Brieuc.  (We had done this part of the walk once before back in the summer so I knew how hard/easy it was!)  Steve said he didn’t mind waiting for the bus if I didn’t fancy the walk (he really does love me!) but when we checked the timetable for the bus back to St Quay we discovered that we would miss the next one by about 10 minutes and would have to wait around for about an hour so our decision was made – we had 20 minutes to get there!  Amazingly I only had to stop about three times (to catch my breath and remove my coat and pass it to pack-horse Monaghan) and we arrived at the bus stop in good time!  The bus we caught back doesn’t stop at the port so we had another little walk back from Casino (only about 10 minutes and pretty much downhill all the way!) – better than hanging around with nothing to do in St Brieuc!!  By the time we got back to the boat I was regretting my choice of socks – my supposedly soft hiking socks squeezed into my slightly tight trainers with possibly too-long toe-nails was not a good combination and it took a good couple of hours to get some decent circulation back into them!  Another day of shopping without spending money!

 

 

Our Planning Experience – So Far

When we made our offer, all the way back in August, we had thought that there was a chance that the property would be ours before Christmas.  How naïve we were!

Our offer was accepted on 24th August and so we started waiting!  As there was no Certificat d’Urbanisme (similar to outline planning permission) for the property Christophe applied and we had confirmation of receipt of the application on 14th September – this would take two months unless the mairie requested further information, in which case the time would start again from receipt of the additional information.  Saturday 4th October was compromis signing day. The document was about 20 pages long and we both had to initial each side of each sheet whilst Christophe explained the document.  (Fortunately he had already emailed it to us so we had managed to translate and understand it beforehand).  The ‘clause suspensive’ stated that we would apply for planning permission within two months of signing, which we thought wouldn’t be a problem as we had done quite a bit of homework. We had to pay our deposit within 10 days so I spoke to our bank to make the payment.  They advised that there was a chance that fees would be applied to the money by the receiving bank – as we didn’t want to risk that, we agreed to add the possible 15 Euro charge to the amount sent.  As it turned out there was no charge so we had an unusual deposit amount!

We made an appointment with the mayor for 13th October where we planned to take along our small file of Steve’s drawings to demonstrate what we wanted to do with the property. However on 11th October we had an email from Christophe saying that the mairie had requested more information (that’s a delay then!).  Our meeting with the mayor was fairly successful, he initially pointed out that we could not knock down the property as it was in Zone nH but when he saw our ideas he was quite happy.  We had hoped that he would be able to tell us whether we would need the full planning permission (permis de construire) or just a declaration of works (declaration prealable) so that we could get the ball rolling on that.  Unfortunately, he said, until the CU had been issued he couldn’t say.  He was, however, able to help us by giving us an address for the property.

We provided all the additional information to Christophe and had confirmation on 16th that it had been sent on to the mairie.  Then we waited.

Not much happened for the rest of October or November until 27th when we had an email saying that we were very close to non-compliance of the compromis (that two months to submit the planning application) – we knew that but as we were still waiting for the CU there was nothing we could do!   As it was, all that happened was an additional note was added to the compromis and signed!

We thought it might be a good idea to get in touch with the notaire and let her know what was going on so made an appointment for 29th November.  She is a very nice lady with a smattering of English.  We advised that we might want to transfer the funds early due to the wonderful Brexit, she was concerned about us doing that without the planning permission in place but could understand our reasons. To enable us to make the transfer she needed to provide us with an account and to create it she needed to know how much deposit we had paid and I must admit that Steve and I dissolved into a little fit of giggles whilst trying to explain the reason for the additional 15 Euros!

Finally on 11th December we got an email from Christophe advising that he had received the CU – hooray – that meant we would be able to start our planning application.  Still that wasn’t quite as straightforward as we expected as it said we would need a permis and a declaration – even now we are not sure why!!!  We have focussed on the permis!  The CU also said that we would need to contact SPANC (Service Public Assainissement Non Collectif) – effectively the non-collected sanitation service and the council architect as the property was a heritage building (patrimoine).

As we finally had something to do, the next day we hopped aboard our trusty steeds and headed to Pleguien to ask at the mairie how we contacted these people.  The very helpful lady there advised that we would need to go to the council buildings in Lanvollon for both (another 5 or so kilometres away).  After managing to successfully communicate at the mairie (even though I really, really struggle to say assainissement – I always want to say assassinisement or something similar with more asses than ever!!) I was unsure if I would be able to go through it all again but as we were only 5km away we would do it – I also didn’t know where the council offices were but little things like that don’t deter Steve so off we went.  I was also concerned about the time as everyone knows the French shut for lunch from 12 – 2 and we were getting close to 11.30!  Steve had slightly misunderstood where we needed to go so quite happily pulled up to the mairie in Lanvollon.  I must admit I was a bit ‘snippy’ when he did that – as I knew that wasn’t where we were after! A quick check on my phone and a local map we discovered that we had a little further to go (and that, amazingly, the offices didn’t close for lunch at 12!)  The funny thing was, if we had been paying attention to the road signs instead of focussed on heading to the mairie we would have seen the sign at the mini-roundabout!! I built up all my courage as we entered the reception and were shown to the ‘Eau’ (water) reception.  We managed to get across what we were after and a really helpful chap advised that we would need to get a soil survey.  He provided us with the list of recommended contractors and described the procedure.  Flushed with the success of this visit I stood my ground and told Steve I wasn’t going to deal with the architect ‘on this day’ (sorry, one of our pet sayings!) and I was going to quit whilst I was ahead – you can’t have too many successes in one day!  My snippiness was fading now too!!

The following day we emailed the four companies recommended by the SPANC man and amazingly one replied within a couple of hours, after a little back and forth we had an appointment booked for the following Tuesday (18th December).  It felt like progress at last, although I felt a bit guilty when another of the companies replied (in English) to our request and I had to say we had gone with someone else.  At the point of writing this the other two companies have yet to respond!  I also emailed the architect to see about making an appointment and was dismayed to receive a reply, saying please phone for an appointment – I am still not 100% happy with telephone conversations – I get tongue-tied, I worry that I won’t be able to understand what I am asked etc etc!  Still I managed and we booked the next available appointment – 10am on 11th January at the council offices – maybe if I was thinking slightly clearer I would have asked for a later appointment time as a 10am appointment meant leaving St Quay at 9 which at the moment is pretty close to my getting up time! (If it’s dark, I don’t like to get up!!)

We made an appointment to see Christophe to let him know what was happening and he asked if he could join us for our meeting with the soil survey man.  That was rather fortuitous actually as when the day arrived it wasn’t the best of weather and he offered to pick us up rather than us cycle and meet him there – what a nice man!  The appointment went quite well and the soil man explained what we would need and said that we would receive his report by the end of the week!  We were making real progress at last; as, true to his word, on the Thursday we received four copies of the report.  All we had to do now was to provide a copy to SPANC and hope they would be happy with it and provide an ‘avis favorable’. We decided, with it being so close to Christmas, to wait until after the festivities before dropping it off.

This year we had decided to spend Christmas on the boat (having descended on family for the last two years and I still don’t think I am completely over my last ferry crossing) and our youngest, Alex, had agreed to come across.  He is good on the computer and when he was younger he had toyed with the idea of being an architect so had some software that he could create our drawings with.  We asked him to bring it with him and  I think it stopped him getting bored but it was also the source of “disagreements” (not quite arguments) with Steve that were resolved each time when they realised they were actually arguing the same point just from different places!

By the time Alex left after Christmas we were pretty sure we had everything for the planning application ready, just waiting for the SPANC and anything that might come up at the meeting with the architect.

 

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We thought we had it all planned – cycle to Lanvollon, drop off the soil report, pay the fee and receive the confirmation – again, aren’t we naïve!  We weren’t sure how we would pay the fee – whether it could be cash like the soil survey or whether we could pay by credit card or bank transfer, so I emailed SPANC who advised that we would have to pay the fee at the Tresor Public in Lanvollon.  Still the basic plan was still valid, just meant a minor detour into the centre of Lanvollon.

New Year’s Day 2019 and we receive news that Steve’s dad is in hospital so Steve decides that he should travel back to the UK, leaving me to deal with SPANC and, if necessary, the architect appointment on 11th.

Steve’s travels would make a whole other post but in short, on 2nd January he caught the early afternoon bus to St Brieuc, train to St Malo, overnight ferry to Portsmouth and then train to Southampton where one of his sisters picked him up.  His return trip was sooner than expected – having arrived on the Thursday we booked his return trip for Friday – pretty much the same in reverse, Chris dropped him at Totton where he caught the train to Portsmouth, overnight ferry again back to St Malo, and train to St Brieuc where he arrived at 20 past 1.  We both thought the next bus was at half past two so not too much waiting about.  However, for Steve (and a couple of others at the bus stop) the bus didn’t arrive and when the next one (another hour later) didn’t arrive either he was starting to get a bit chilly!  Yet another bus time came and went with no bus visible – I’m not really sure how he felt!  I was in a slightly better position as I had decided to check the Tibus website to see what time the next bus was when I knew what time his train would arrive in St Brieuc.  I was confused as online it said 16:45 when the current timetable I had in my hand said 14:30.  It was a bit frustrating until I took a closer look at the timetable and saw that certain buses only run during term-time and as the kids didn’t go back to school until Monday – there were no buses!!  As Steve refuses to have a phone (we had been in contact only via email during his travels – train stations, ferries, ferry terminal) I had no way of letting him know!  Poor Steve was a little bit cold by the time he made it back to the boat – about 5.30pm!

Anyway back to the planning saga!  Whilst Steve was making his way through the Hampshire countryside I got on my bike and set off to Lanvollon.  Looking back I can see how foolish I was – I went first to the Tresor Public to try and pay – but of course they didn’t know I had anything to pay as I didn’t have a ‘facture’ (invoice)! Why on earth would we think we could just walk in and pay?!!  So, off to SPANC to see if they would give me an invoice so that I could return to TP and pay! I was able to see the same man as previously and he took a look at the report and said that it was good (phew!).  I asked about a ‘facture’ and he advised me that he would provide my details to the Tresor Public who would then send me, by post, the invoice which I could then take and pay.  He also said he would send out the confirmation we needed for the planning application – when, I wasn’t sure! My French is definitely improving but sometimes it does let me down badly!!  At least overall it had been a successful day!

Next day of excitement – 11th January!  Forecast wasn’t great – rain, although when we left at 9am it was dry and cold.  I get extremely hot when cycling and when it started to rain (with a huge band of black clouds heading our way) just outside of Lanvollon, Steve suggested we stop and take shelter in the SuperU supermarket carpark (we had been making good time so I could afford the time – I am still paranoid about being late!)  We were sheltered in the covered parking area and Steve started laughing at me, I was quite warm I must admit and had undone my coat but why was he laughing at me?  Apparently I was steaming like a rugby scrum – waves and waves of hot air rising – I can’t wait to be an old woman!!

We arrived in good time, only slightly rain-wet and met Mme la architecte.  She spoke a very small amount of English – but fortunately we had printed out all the drawings and as they say “pictures say a thousand words” and we managed to communicate effectively.  She didn’t like one of Steve’s hand-drawn pictures and with an unimpressed shrug made to throw it away and grabbed for the drawings Alex had provided – obviously something she was far more used to dealing with!  She was happy with most of what we had proposed; she didn’t like the big window on the gable end of the main building as it looked like a big pair of eyes with the smaller building like a nose, our window shapes were wrong – they need to be rectangular and ‘portrait’, not ‘landscape’ like we’d drawn, a strange little window that we wanted to get rid of had to be kept and she wasn’t too keen on the kitchen area, thinking it would be too dark – she wanted us to put a skylight in (but after living with and solving (hopefully) leaking windows on the boat, we want as few roof openings as possible!) The only negative was the realisation that planning could take easily three months as it is ‘architecture patrimoine’ (and that’s if we have managed to provide everything right in the first place!) All in all a very productive meeting and a few phone calls/emails to Alex and the changes were made to our drawings.  Yet one more box ticked!

With the shenanigans surrounding Brexit once more causing us concern, we decided that we would go ahead and transfer the funds to the notaire.  I made the transfer and then rang her to advise that we had done it (after sending an email!) – this phone call went fairly well – I understood practically everything she said, even though she was a ‘bit cross’ that we’d made the transfer as we didn’t have the planning permission yet.

Steve and I had another of our ‘peanut tea’ discussions (where we’ve been talking for so long that it is too late to start to cook dinner!) and decided that, as we had now made the transfer and we both knew we were going to buy the place whether we get the planning permission we want or not, we decided that we should just go ahead and waive the ‘clause suspensive’ and proceed with the purchase as quickly as possible.  This was a great feeling, soon depressed by the fact that it meant I would have to email/phone the notaire again explaining our decision.  The email was duly sent and Steve forced me to call her – I was a little nervous as I didn’t want another telling off (I know she is only doing her job and fully understand, but I don’t like getting told off!!)  However, when I managed to get her on the telephone, she seemed quite happy and understood our decision as the planning could take a long time and there were other things we could be doing at the property before the permission comes through.  I came off the phone with a weight lifted off my shoulders!

So now all we were waiting for was the confirmation from SPANC -nearly there!

And finally today, after a chase email and a couple of phone calls (SPANC man on training, then out of the office) we finally have it!  Which means that tomorrow’s job (weather permitting) will be to cycle to Pleguien and deposit our application – WOO-HOO!!

The New Chapter Begins

I think we knew that after spending a year in Guernsey, sailing isn’t necessarily what we want to do.  Back when Steve was planning his pre-retirement sabbatical we had thought that we would sail down to the Med and even possibly across the Atlantic.  However, that no longer appeals – it seems quite obvious that my sea-legs are never going to improve and just sitting about on the boat in winter drives Steve nuts – I cope by reading!!! We love a challenge and as Steve has this strange desire to raise pigs and smoke the meat (hardly practical on a yacht!), I love languages and am finally getting up enough confidence to not worry when I can’t think of the word or use the wrong tense and after watching too many episodes of “Escape To The Chateau”, we thought we would look for a property – stability is a very tempting proposition!

It may have appeared that we were sitting around doing nothing but smoking and drinking wine all summer but we were in our ‘homework phase’.  The house-buying process in France is different – even without the language barrier! So in a nutshell the process is you find what you like, make an offer, a bit of negotiation and the offer is accepted, you then sign the ‘compromis de vente’ – basically a promise to buy/sell.  The buyer can stipulate ‘clauses suspensives’, clauses added to the compromis which if not met the buyer can pull out of the agreement, however the seller has no such exit, which stops gazumping.  As part of this homework phase I have become quite the expert in fosse septiques (septic tanks) and have a broad understanding of the planning laws – far simpler than in England, but you do need at least 15 copies of everything – ok that is a slight exaggeration!  But on the positive side there is no stalling in France, once you have made your application they only have two months to come up with a response and if they haven’t responded then it is a ‘fait accomplis’.

So, was it fate or destiny?  We had planned to overwinter in St Quay back in 2016 – when we ended up staying in Ouistreham and then we thought we would arrive here in 2017 after our fuel stop in Guernsey – as we know that didn’t happen either!  But having arrived this year with our changed mindset we found the ideal land complete with our very own little chateau – ok, not a chateau by any stretch of the imagination, a one room mud hut in need of plenty of tlc, which had only just come onto the market!  After visiting the property three times (unheard of for us buying anything in the UK – houses, boats, cars!!) we made our offer, which after a bit of toing and froing was accepted.  I did get myself into a bit of a tangle in one of my first conversations with Christophe (our immobilier) when I wasn’t sure if he said his agency had the property exclusively and there was nobody else looking at the moment or they didn’t have the property exclusively and he didn’t know if there was anybody else looking! I just nodded and smiled and then looked panic-stricken at Steve!!!

Our soon to be ‘next adventure’ is in a small hamlet called Kerio in the commune of Pleguien.  At the moment there is a ramshackle one room house which we think was possibly built in the 19th century.  There is also a second building, built later but of the same cob construction and three acres of land – mainly managed woodland with at least 300 trees (predominantly cherry) and a paddock area.  At the moment there are no services at all, although a telegraph pole is situated very close to the secondary building and has caused a bit of damage!  There is even a tree growing through the front door!  We want to connect the two buildings and renovate them – a loose term as chances are bits may fall down when we start working on it!! Hardly a chateau, just a one bedroom, one living area property – but certainly big enough for us to get our teeth into!

The property is only about 6 miles from the marina but up a long, slow drag so cycling there every day might mean that I’m in no fit state to do any work once I get there, so after looking into buying a car/van and deciding it was in the far too difficult box – not having a French address yet – our eco thoughts got the better of us and we decided to buy electric bikes.  As all the supermarkets seem to hire vans at very reasonable rates, if and when we need one we’ll hire one! So now Steve has a fancy mountain bike and I have a very dignified ‘sit up and beg’ granny bike!! Steve’s does go faster but my charge lasts longer and downhill I’m pushing him all the way!  They are brilliant!!

It appears we are doing our bit in changing French perceptions of English people.  Christophe has said that it is generally thought in France that the English will not try to speak French, expecting the French to speak English, borne out by the fact that his colleagues in Callac – an area of Brittany where many English buy property – all speak English and most of the interactions are in English.  He was surprised we didn’t want to buy in the Callac area but we explained that it was too far from the sea!!

Front door
The front door, complete with tree growing through