Never been a better time to buy a house in France 

The cost of French mortgages has fallen to a new all-time low, according to brokers.

Some banks are offering British buyers a rate of 3.1pc on a 20-year repayment mortgage, down from 3.75pc a year ago.

Coupled with this some deals only require a 20pc deposit.

These are now officially the lowest rates for French mortgages in this century and even the last century.

There is more good news as house prices in Brittany are at rock bottom. We still haven’t climbed out of the recession and confidence is low and consequently people just aren’t moving. Those desperate to sell are selling at ridiculously cheap prices because it is such a buyers market.

So, if you are thinking about buying a second home in Brittany… now is an excellent time to snap up a bargain!

See pour web page for our free advice !

http://www.frenchgites.com/Tourism%20Brittany%20House%20buying.htm

Indian Summer, great wine !

After a gloomy summer, sunny skies are smiling on Bordeaux, France’s premier wine-growing region, since the start of September, sparking sudden talk of high-end vintages.

“We are making up an awful lot of ground,” says Antoine Medeville, a winemaking consultant for several vineyards in the Medoc region. “This September sunshine is a godsend.”

The harvest is well under way for white varieties in Bordeaux, and picking has just begun for the reds.

August just simply wasn’t hot enough for the vines but the exceptionally hot September has gone some way to make up for the heat deficit.

Thanks to the unexpected Indian summer, the outlook is rosy for white varieties, including sweet wines, that make up some 12 percent of the 112,600 hectares (272,000 acres) given over to vineyards in Bordeaux.

This year the white wine grapes are reported to be acid, sweet, fruity and healthy, which are the four perfect ingredients for great wine.

As for the reds, they have been left on the vines for as long as possible in the hope that the heat of the Indian summer will burn off their acidity.

Unlike for white wine, a good red requires low acidity and the longer the grapes are left to ripen the more fruitier they become.

The unexpected turnaround in the weather is welcome news in Bordeaux, which saw harvests nearly wiped out by severe hailstorms in 2013.

So 2014 could be a very very good ‘wine year’ !

New window into La Maison Blanche

A few days later once the concrete has effectively gone off I teturn to finish building up the side of the reveals around the new lintels. This ties it all into place and strenghtens it all up. At the same time I cast the exterieur windowsill and the one inside as well

Outside window sill is cast

And so is the inside window sill...

Next I can finish the lounge side  of the reveals which entails reworking the interior studs around the new opening and plasterboarding the inside of the reveals so that they join up with the inside  walls. A couple of coats of plaster, some paint, a curtain rail  and I am done !!!!

All that remains is to remove the three steel  ACROW probs that are were holding up the first floor durining the works – the new lintels are now doing that job instead.

ACROW props MUST go....

That’s it …. a nice new window in the lounge that looks as if it’s been there forever. It’s made a massive difference to the light levels inside and has given the whole room a much lighter, airier feel.

The new window at La Maison Blanche

Next job (so I’m told) is to remove (and dispose) of the kitchen from it’s current spot off to one side of the lounge/ dining area and fit a brand new one it what was the downstairs bedroom. As the bedroom was a large room the new kitchen will be much bigger with lots of work surfaces and units etc and will look something like Verte’s when finished.

To add to the the work, Nicola, not content with the existing hall  door into the room wants it blocked up and a new much wider entrance made facing the lounge side (another stone wall to go through for me I see). This I am informed is so that the kitchen and lounge area `flow into one` —  apparently so the cook doesen’t  feel ‘cut-off’ when they are cooking on their lonesome

Once this is all done the groundfloor of Blanche will be totally transformed as the dining table will be moved to the old kitchen area which will free up a large amount of space in the lounge. In addition, we are removing the bunks from the third bedroom upstairs so Blanche will sleep five people in three large (upstairs) bedrooms: One double, and a total of three singles

I have instructions to have it all ready by 1st March next year (2015) so I’ll be starting in January- the odd photo to follow then !

Failing to vaccinate your children against diphtheria, tetanus and polio in France could result in a €30,000 fine and 2 years in jail

Samia and Marc Larère, from Auxerre in the Burgundy region in central France, are accused of deliberately mistreating their two children, aged three and 15 months as they are refusing to vaccinate them against diphtheria, tetanus and polio.

The Larère parents’ gripe is not the vaccines themselves, but the additives in the jabs that improve their stability and performance, such as aluminium salts.

All French children are obliged to be inoculated against diphtheria, tetanus and polio (DTP). Until 2007, they were also required to be vaccinated against tuberculosis (BCG).

Beyond simply breaking the law, the Larères also risk their children being barred from education in France.

While BCG is no longer a legal requirement, many schools and nurseries will not accept children who have not had the jab.

Mumps, measles and rubella (MMR) jabs are not compulsory either, although doctors will strongly recommend parents to have their children inoculated.

France and Italy are the only western European countries that oblige parents to vaccinate their children for DTP.

Professor Daniel Floret, who heads France’s Technical Council for Vaccination (which reports to the health ministry), warned that failure to inoculate children could lead to the return of diseases once believed to be eradicated.