From Listings to Living Rooms

After arriving in Toulouse we found our one and only arranged viewing had been cancelled. It was starting to feel like a property purchase was not meant to happen for us.

We headed to our holiday rental, stopping for supplies on route. Our rental property, a short journey from the airport, was stunning both inside and out, and we soon began to relax. If you are ever in the area, we wholly recommend this place. The French owners and the chickens roosting in the garden are very friendly and welcoming.

After a few days (and leisurely nights) relaxing by the pool, the disappointment slowly began fading with each vodka and Fanta Limon. We once again started to search online to see if anything new had come up or maybe we had missed one in our previous searches.

Our search was focused on a large, detached family home with a little land, no close neighbours and a pool or suitable space. This didn’t seem like a big ask but it was like playing a game of Where’s Wally. Finally, we saw a house online that was reasonably close to our beautiful holiday gîte.

We emailed the agent explaining we were in the Gers area and would like to view any suitable properties. The agency contacted us straight away to arrange a date and time. They also sent us a list of other properties that were just inside neighbouring departments. These properties would not have come up during our search but they were still fairly close to the area we had grown so fond of.​​ By the end of that sun-drenched day, our once empty calendar cheered with the promise of three viewings. The search, once seemingly doomed, had taken a swift U-turn, leaving us giddy and eager to explore these houses – in the flesh, not just pixels!

The first week of our holiday saw glorious sunshine everyday with temperatures in the thirties. However, on the day of our first two viewings it was dull and rainy. Was this an omen? Maybe the universe was trying to tell us something. Our map told us it was thirty minutes away and unusually for us, we found our way there with ease. It was still raining when we pulled off the road onto the short gravel driveway. First impressions were not favourable. My heart sank a little as I realised the house was really close to the road and from an external perspective looked decidedly smaller than the online images we had seen.

The house itself was a pretty colombage property. A colombage property is a type of traditional French house characterised by its half-timbered construction. This means that the walls are made up of a framework of wooden beams, filled in with materials such as brick, stone, or wattle and daub. Yes, I have done some homework on different types of properties and now this is paying off! Colombage houses are found in many parts of Europe, but they are particularly common in Gers, where they are a distinctive feature of the region’s architectural heritage.

We were greeted by a lovely agent who showed us around. My son and husband were my partners in crime on this visit. They both proceeded to knock on walls and looked intense as they discussed what needed to be done to update the house. I wandered around snapping photos and trying to imagine myself living there. I could not. There was just not enough space or light. The downstairs rooms were crammed with beautiful original features which I loved but it soon became apparent that this style of house would not work for our family. As we wandered the property and garden, lorry after lorry thundered past at speed. My initial niggle about the road was turning into a real concern. Overall, it was a lovely, traditional house but not at all what we had imagined for our French dream. During the drive back I think we were all in agreement that it was not for us.

Later that afternoon, we were back in the car heading out of the Gers to the neighbouring Lot-et-Garonne. We had never visited this area before but despite the weather the journey was pleasant and the scenery was gorgeous. This area is simply stunning, wide open spaces, amazing flora and super picturesque towns.

We arrived early at the property and drove through the gates. The entrance was quite grand and super private, I could feel boxes being energetically ticked. Everyone fell silent as we drank in the stunning granite farmhouse with its royal blue shutters.

On paper I was not sure about this house. We didn’t know the area and the pictures we had seen were not great. Holly %!£ the pictures of this place did not do it justice. We pulled up outside behind another car which we assumed was that of the agent.

The property had a courtyard featuring a quaint bistro table and chairs, carefully positioned under a beautiful willow tree. The location where we parked was nestled between the main house and an enormous outbuilding. We got out of the car and drank in the surroundings. The old farmhouse was stunning. It was everything we had dreamed about all these years. The agent was nowhere in sight, so we started to wander around the gardens. After a few moments I spotted a lady and waved…..as I approached her, a man appeared from inside the barn. It turned out the agent had not yet arrived and we were wandering around someone’s private property whilst they were going about their day…..whoops!. Fortunately the couple were very gracious about it and chatted away with us even offering us refreshments under the shade of the courtyard willow tree.

The agent arrived and the couple said their goodbyes and headed out. The agent showed us the extensive gardens and outbuildings. There was even a small vineyard and the owner made his own Floc (a delicious fortified wine aperitif that originates from the Gascony region in southwest France).

Could this place be any more perfect? We had not even set foot in the house and we were ready to sign.

It was finally time to see inside the house. We were fizzing with excitement. The house itself was gorgeous, full of light and bursting with the original features we craved. An original stone sink, exposed stone walls and amazing oak staircase wound up three floors, to mention just a few.

The farmhouse and outbuildings needed a fair bit of updating. However we were not put off by this in the slightest, in fact we were excited by the prospect. We took hundreds of photos and videos as we toured the house. This was more like it!

The viewing lasted a couple of hours and as we left to return to our gîte we were all excitedly chatting about what we could do to make this an amazing family home.

The next day we tried to clear our minds of the excitement of yesterday and make our way to the last viewing. The weather was beautiful. Too beautiful to be stuck in a car for hours. We were leaving our beloved Gers again, this time for the Haute Pyrenees. The journey was long but the scenery more than made up for it. We drove through lush countryside and sleepy villages. We even got to take a brief look through the car window at Marciac, home of the famous jazz festival (somewhere I had always wanted to visit) as we got closer to our destination.

We had arranged to meet the agent in a church car park. We arrived at the location to find the car park was more of a layby off a tiny country road. The journey had taken us up a very steep hill and now we were at the top looking out over an incredibly scenic view. For once we were early so we escaped the hire car and went exploring. The views were incredible from this elevated position, mile and miles of countryside sprawled in every direction. We were in a very small village containing a handful of houses and a small shed that served as the local Mairie (town hall). When looking at properties we had decided that we didn’t really want to be in a village but this was only the meeting spot so we were not overly concerned. As we stood taking in the views we heard dogs barking and stood frozen in horror as two large dogs came bounding straight for us. We couldn’t make it back to the car to seek shelter and just as it seemed we were to become doggie treats, the estate agent pulled into the carpark and the dogs turned tail and ran home. Phew!

The agent introduced herself and headed over the road. Turns out we stood outside the property the whole time. Unfortunately my alarm bells started to ring, the village, the road…..the dogs! I tried to focus on the beautiful photos we had seen online and enjoy the viewing.

We entered straight off the village road through an almost mediaeval looking gate. The beautiful courtyard complete with fountain was cool and inviting on this blisteringly hot day. We were ushered into a lovely tiled hallway in the centre of the house sporting a gorgeous staircase with colombage wall panels. The house was huge and once again crammed with some amazing original features. Beautiful fireplaces, a lovely big kitchen that led out to the garden and even an amazing reception room that would be perfect for parties. It was light and airy with countless possibilities for the use of the space. There was even a self contained gîte for guests or holiday rentals. We wandered the property taking pictures and asking questions. We spoke with the lovely owner and made pages of notes to help with later reflections.

We were starting to wonder if we had been a little hasty with our concerns about the village location. The house ticked all the boxes internally, now it was time to explore the garden. The first thing that struck us was the size. It was small, way too small for the size of the house! There was room for a pool but installing one would take up most of the available space. Then came the real kicker. The garden was overlooked by three neighbouring houses. Maybe our initial concerns were valid.

As we said our goodbyes to the friendly and informative property agent and drove off into the rolling hills we were all pretty quiet. The house was a great size, had the character we were after and was in pretty good condition but there were sacrifices to be made with this house. Our French dream was one of peace of tranquillity so the village location was not ideal, in fact if we had known this we would not have booked the viewing (Note to self, be more specific when asking questions about the location) and the garden was smaller than we wanted and overlooked by the neighbouring properties.

By the time we got back to our holiday rental I think we had agreed that the village location was a deal breaker for us, Great house! Wrong Location! We had to rule this one out too.

The next day the conversation was dominated by what we had seen. We had finally visited real life houses! To avoid confusion we had taken to referring to the properties as “House One”, “House Two” and “House Three”!

House Two was the only one we had not fully discounted. We liked the house, we loved the gardens and outbuildings but we were unfamiliar with the area. We contacted the agent and arranged a second viewing for the end of the week.

Could this really be our year?

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