Drive anywhere in the Dordogne region of France and you will see flyers advertising a local “brocante” or “vide- grenier” offering up some wonderful antique finds. My first job was as an auctioneer in the UK, running the fortnightly general sales. Everything would come into the saleroom, and from there be valued and either sold […]
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Category: blog uk
test guests at le mas & le mazet
In the past 3 weeks, 20 friends have come to stay at Le Mas as test guests. They ignored the builders (and us!) and put the house through its paces – trying out all the bedrooms, showers and baths, cooking in the kitchen, lying in the sun and jumping in the pool, visiting local tourist […]
getting to grips with a big property
In the Netherlands there is a brilliant TV programme called ‘Ik vertrek’ (I’m leaving). When we announced that we were leaving Amsterdam to move here, the first question everyone asked was if we were going to be on ‘Ik vertrek’. Not wanting a million viewers to see how obsessed I was with colour coding the […]
ricard and stroopwafels
We’ve been meeting our new neighbours. There are 85 of them in our village, but it’s so spread out I’m not sure where they all are…We started with the most important person, our impressive mayor Jean-Pierre. Not only has he been the mayor since 1971 but he’s also the most efficient mayor in France. When […]
our first month in france
A month ago we moved from Amsterdam to France. We swopped the security of jobs, a tiny flat and a wonderful life there for an old farm in the Dordogne, which we are renovating into holiday homes. The most surprising change to our lives is time. Time whizzes by faster than ever, but it’s vaguer […]