The Housing Crisis in France Part 2

Well, we have been here seven weeks now and it's been a steep learning curve.  Interesting for me has been the - quite sudden - falling out of love with Montpellier.  Unexpected to say the least!  I don't know if it's me and I am no longer hip and pert enough for such a young city, but I find myself stomping around disgruntled by the dirt, the hoardes of people, the disgraceful defacing of historic buildings by graffiti (I've asked residents about this and apparently French people don't mind graffitti - say what?? I think the council are just lame/lazy) dog poo festering everywhere and a general feeling that if Montpellier were a person she'd be a grubby, harried, over taxed, under age, single mother on benefit - with a creative streak. 

Compare this with the fresh, optimistic and pristine face Nîmes presents to the world, and it's a push over.  Again, I am happy to accept it could be that I'm just too old to find grimy old Montpellier wearing its cloak of vibrancy attractive. But give me Nîmes any day!  This city feels like it's interested in life, not taking it for granted.  We loved the spaciousness, the shining streets, the Roman remains and the quietly confident cafés.  The Haussmanian edifices just begged to be lived in, and the exhuberant fountains beckoned in the sparkling sun. Yes! Yes, we thought, we shall live here.  Bring it on!  Then we found out about the bull fights.  Nîmes is France's biggest bull fighting city and the 150,000 population swells to one millon twice a year as blood lust afficionados throng to the city.  Oh, dear.  We didn't even realise bull fighting was big in France, never mind that it is overtaking Spain as champion of this barbaric ritual.  All this takes place in the stunning Roman Arena; might as well bring back public executions as far as we are concerned.  Okay. Nîmes is out.

What about Avignon?  In lovely Provence?  Beautiful, with a song dedictated to its bridge, endless ancient history (of course), wide, impressive streets,the papal seat from the 14th century, quirky cobblestoned quartiers, on the banks of the majestic Rhône.  A strong contender, and no bull fighting. Great. What about a place inside the old city walls with a garden? Um, maybe not. What about the Mistral howling through the streets and driving the inhbitants famously mad in winter months? Oui, you can count on it. Okaaay. Back to the drawing board.

So we turned our attention to St. Rémy de Provence. Picture perfect town, full of quaint streets and charming squares, not to mention affluent inhabitants and eager tourists. Pretty much the story book French town. Fab, we both liked it, plus Roly and Pepper were most popular with the locals. And, result! They were serving FREE WINE in the market square - our kinda town! Rushed home to research available properties in any budget never mind our own, and found, wait for it - two (2). Seems St. Rémy de Provence is popular with many culture and free wine liggers, not just us.

Sommières is well situated, half way between Montpellier and Nîmes, in lush countryside and another Roman settlement with a typical bridge, a walled centre, a ruined medieval castle and a square so charmant it looks like a movie set.  Excellent. Oh, and a rather fabulous chocolate shop. Double excellent.  So far it's still high on our list as a strong contender. 

Visits to Toulouse and Marseille are still necessary - we need to see as much as we can - and another foray into Béziers is probably a good idea. We would like to find that place that really is 'it', the one that feels like home, the right fit. We are possibly being too fussy, too picky or too un-French in our mindset, but after the huge upheaval necessary for such a big overseas move, why not hold out for the dream location?  

Maybe we will grow accustomed to the idea of the Mistral (it does cover pretty much all of the South of France), turn a blind eye to poo and graffitti (or turn vigilante, equipped with paint, rollers and copious poo bags) and come to view La Corrida as an integral part of the Midi lifestyle (highly unlikely). Every place has its pros and cons - Sommières is prone to flooding and a lot of their postcards seem to feature bulls running through the cobbled streets à la Pamplona - and we could still be viewing everything through Hollywood movie eyes.  Or Aussie eyes. I do miss Target a bit. But I'll get over it. I guess it's all part of gradually Becoming French.....

The Housing Crisis in France - Part 1

We have been here for seven weeks now, so in terms of finding our long term home, where are we up to?  Presently, we are living in Montpellier in a pleasant one bedroom apartment with a roof terrace, very close to Place de la Comédie which has its advantages (it's in the heart of it all) and clear disadvantages (it's busy, dirty and noisy in the heart of it all).  Coming from Australia we are accustomed to plenty of space, so whilst a one bedroom apartment in the thick of it is fine for now, ultimately we want a home where we can welcome guests, potter in the garden, light a fire for the winter nights, have a study or music room, that sort of thing.  

We decided that renting a place for the first year, say, would be the best thing. That way we wouldn't have commited ourselves too much to any one place and we could use it as a base to research our options and find the perfect place to settle. Plus, French rents are signifcantly less than Australian rental prices.  Makes a lot of sense, right? 

We started off looking on seloger.com, the French equivalent of realestate.com.au, and found about a thousand properties to rent in the Montpellier area. Great! Then we specified we were only interested in properties 60 M2 or over. That cut the properties down to about a hundred. Then we specified outside space - a garden, courtyard or terrace. That left us with four places. Four. And we hadn't even limited the budget! 

Undaunted, we thought we would take a look at these properties.  This is when we found that renting a home in France - a permanent rental not a holiday home - is really difficult. And it's become more difficult since we did our intial research last year.   You see, in France it's very common for someone to rent a home their entire life, as no one really has a burning need to own a house or an apartment. This means a contract between tenant and landlord can go on for twenty odd years. French law makes it very hard indeed for a landlord to evict a non-rent-paying tenant and impossible to evict one during the months November through March, due to hardship / winter stipulations. Thus, offering to pay a year's rent up front is of no interest to a landlord or agency - what about the other nineteen years you might possibly reside there rent free and unevictable?? Also, letting agencies have taken out insurance against being sued by disgruntled, out-of-pocket landlords to whom they have referred dodgy tenants, thus any letting prospect now needs to suit very stringent letting stipulations. 

Needless to say, we don't suit.

Furthermore, French houses are not equipped in the way we are used to. Most of them don't have a kitchen, just a sink, and the tenant is meant to supply the rest of the kitchen fittings, because he will most likely stay there for twenty years and will want to choose his own. Something we are not used to, needless to say.   Que faire?  Well, time became of the essence as our Montpellier apartment lease is over at the end of June, and being homeless in France over the summer would be very difficult given that the whole country goes into 'closed down for the holidays' mode.  Rather than struggling to build up rental dossiers, purchase entire kitchens including white goods, put our household shipment (arriving soon from Australia!) into storage and go without internet and telephone for several months, we looked for a holiday rental to see us through. Not easy at this time of year, and we were getting rather desperate.  Just as Alex was talking of camper vans and tents (rather too excitedly, I have to say) our luck turned.  Unexpectedly, a perfectly suitable place came up in the same Residence des Pins we lived in last year, and we gratefully took it. 

This does not solve our long term challenges nor is it exanding our horizons, since we are familiar with Clermont l'Herault, but it means we will have a very nice summer!  It means we will have a garden for pottering, a fireplace for wintertime, room to welcome guests and a lovely base to do more research into the Languedoc and Provence and hopefully find our future home.  And that can't be bad....in fact it's vachement bien!

Things We Miss and Things We Don't...

So we have been here a month now, and certain things are starting to feel normale and there are other things we really miss.  Here's a run down - in no particular order - and any suggestions / donations gratefully received!

Miss - Tim Tams.  No further explanation needed.

Miss - Crackers for cheese!  Love, love baguettes but sometimes would just really like a cracker.  My favourites in Australia were Premiums but, really, any cracker would do, and I don't dare dream of oat cakes or Carr's Water Biscuits...

Don't Miss - Colorbond Fencing.  Suffice to say this form of utilitarian, ugly perimeter containment was originally designed for detention centres and industrial estates.  And that is where it should stay. No one in France would ever consider surrounding their personal living space with such an affronting material, and I can only applaud their sound judgement.  If I never see Colorbond again I will die happy. 

Don't Miss - Humidity.  Always my bete noire, I am naturally delighted that there is no humidity here whatsoever (not even when it rains, it seems, although I know that's not possible!) and EVERY SINGLE DAY IS A GOOD HAIR DAY.  Without any effort on my part.  A good enough reason to be here, no matter what. Why did I wait so long..???

Don't Miss - Coles / Woolworths.  The supermarkets here are stunning displays of abundance with bewildering choice.  A recent visit to Géant Casino, a hypermarket the size of Heathrow Terminal 1, required a map, walkie talkies, supplementary fluids, four hours and a fully loaded credit card.  But the cheese we bought!! And the charcuterie!! The choice, the range, the selection!  All this and weekly markets, too.  Coles and Woolworths would sink without a trace.  No crackers, though..... 

Don't Miss - Utes.  Have not seen a single ute since arrival, and that's just fine.  Especially don't miss flamboyantly coloured, souped up V6 Utes secretly aspiring to be fancy sports cars but masquerading as work vehicles. However, am learning to be wary of white Renault vans and the drivers thereof, usually in possession of ruddy faces, loud music, aggressive attitudes and scant regard for pedestrians &/or their dogs.

Miss - Cattle dogs.  I just like their sturdy shape, blue coats and die-hard attitudes. Wonder if they could be happy here?  Probably not, as they are happiest in the back of a ute!

Miss - NZ Marlborough Whites.  Cloudy Bay.  No further explanation needed.  Oh, maybe there is for my legion of French followers (!). The flinty, fruity flavours, the prickly acidity combined with the rounded body of the palette = superlative and I have yet to find an equivalent here.  I do plan to keep searching, though...

Miss - homes with gardens.  Not at all the norm here and something we have come to realise we can't do without.  To have a garden one almost has to live in the country, and we can't make do with a balcony or terrasse it seems.  Nor can Roly, Pepper and Oscar.  Hereby hangs a very long tale, and a whole other blog. Watch this space.

Miss - Friends!  Irreplaceable, unforgettable, worth finding, worth keeping and the real reason a place on the map becomes a home.  Look forward to seeing y'all here soon and our new place will feel all the more like home!