Clé France

Hello David and Sharon,

We have been in our beautiful cottage in St Aignan de Couptrain for three weeks now and would like to thank Cle France for your invaluable help both in arranging the viewing with a very professional agent, thanks you for your continued assistance in completing our purchase.

We had been looking, off and on in Brittany and Normandy for ten years and this property really ticks all the boxes!

A new adventure in your early seventies is very rewarding!

Best wishes, Mel and Carole.

We are so pleased to have helped Mel and Carole find the perfect property fit for them and in the process we helped our vendor sell the house and move back to the UK, so happy vendors and happy new buyers completes the circle for us at Cle France.

Mel and Carole bought a house with Cle France in the Mayenne department of the Pays de la Loire Region of France and moved in at the start of September 2015. We wish them many happy years at the property.

Do you want anothe reason to visit France apart from buying a property in France?

How about this; a Humpback Whale caught on video off the coast of Arcachon on the Atlantic coast of France.

FISHERMEN off the coast of the Bassin d'Arcachon captured on video a humpback whale leaping, twisting and jumping into the air from the depths of the Atlantic ocean, magnificent.

We hope you enjoy browsing through these pages of blogs. Please feel free to contact us to discuss your search, or indeed for any further information you may require.

NO HIDDEN FEES: The price you pay is the same as anyone walking through the door of the agency, same as the price paid by the French buyer.

All quoted prices are INCLUSIVE OF AGENCY FEES (FAI): with Notaire’s fees (around 7/8%) to be added.

OUR AGENTS: are all registered and insured in France, or they are holders of the 'carte professionnelle' as required by French law.

So when you buy through Clé France: you have the benefit of a bi-lingual support team & can be confident that you are paying no more than the standard commission rates you would pay anyway.

CONTACT US: to discuss your search for property in France, or indeed for any further information you may require on French property sales.

Blog submitted by: Alex at The French Property Network - Cle France.

This blog was originally posted on The French Language Blog pages.

Only 24 Hours in a Day – French Time

Getting the time right from the basics of France being 1 hour ahead of the UK, let alone thinking about all the other time zones where Cle France clients travel from! Organising all the viewings with our 150+ agents at various times of the day can be a challenge but it is what we do everyday, day in and day out so we are pretty good at telling the time in French, are you?

Before moving to France I had never said seventeen o’clock. In France, that’s the normal way to say five o’clock PM.

France uses a 24 hour clock rather than an AM/PM system. This extends into the spoken language, and while you can say huit heures du soir (eight o’clock in the evening) or huit heures du matin (eight o’clock in the morning), it’s common to just say vingt heures (twenty o’clock) or huit heures (eight o’clock).

Image by Kyle Steed on Flickr.

It’s not too hard to get used to the system, but it can lead to strange mixups. Aujourd’hui (today) I still occasionally get mixed up with the time and show up at the wrong time because mon cerveau (my brain) tried too hard to convert the 24 hour time.

One time I showed up to a meeting deux heures en avant (two hours early). I had checked l’horloge (the clock) about cinquante fois (fifty times) before leaving the house and I was just as surprised as the person I was meeting.

Ce n’est pas la bonne heure ? 

On a dit 17 heures et il est 15 heures !

It’s not the right time? 

We said 5 PM and it’s 3 PM!

I started to rougir (turn red) once I realised my mistake. I told myself that dix-sept heures is 5 o’clock so many times that once I saw a 5 sur l’horloge (on the clock) mon cerveau jumped ahead!

Once I was used to le nouveau système (the new system), I quite enjoyed the clarity that comes from never wondering if it’s 12 AM or PM, even if I still show up deux heures en avant sometimes.

We at Cle France have to be good with time planning as we send hundreds of people every week visiting properties in France and one other chap who is very good with timing is Ben, our Cle France dedicated currency expert, he makes sure your money is where it needs to be and on time.

Ben Amrany from FC Exchange follow this link or phone and ask for myself and quote "Cle France" on 020 7989 0000.

You may contact me directly using this form (click here) with your requirement and I will explain the options that are available to you in getting the best exchange rate.  

Blog submitted by: Alex at The French Property Network - Cle France.

This blog was originally posted on The French Language Blog pages.

For everything you need to know about French property visit www.clefrance.co.uk

Are you looking forward to the "A Place in the Sun LIve" Exhibition this weekend?

It is at the NEC Birmingham between the 25th-27th September 2015, experts from around the globe will gather at the London venue for A Place in the Sun Live exhibition.

YOU can get a FREE TICKET HERE still, just a few left.

Of course you do not need to leave home to talk to the experts, all you have to do is visit the Cle France website and everything is on hand but get yourself along to the London Olympia venue for A Place in the Sun Live exhibition for a great day out anyway!

Buying a home in your own country is stressful enough with chains, last minute jitters and that constant nagging question in your head – is this the right place for me? When you add to that distance and a whole new French buying and selling process it’s easy to understand why for some people a home in the sun remains just a dream. 

But it doesn’t have to. We can’t take away all of the stress, but we can give you the knowledge to make informed decisions, based on fact and a wealth of experience.

Use these tips to help you make the most of your visit to A Place in the Sun Live.

REALISTIC EXPECTATION - It is unlikely that you will find the property you want to buy at the Exhibition BUT that is fine and to be expected, use the exhibititors to get as much information on the process and the areas of France as you can, this way when you get home you will be able to focus in on the right regions and properties on the Cle France website.

PLAN – do you have an idea where you want to buy or are you just browsing what’s on offer? If you know you want to buy in France, think about the areas you like and focus on these. If you have a specfic knowledge gap, say inheritance law then target the solitor stands who specialise in this areas. Check out the floor plan in the Show Guide before you go. 

EXPLORE - At the exhibition there are specialised hubs for most popular areas, walk the entire arena as the same issues could be covered by companies operating in various countries. These hubs can give you information about individual agents as well as more specialist stands offering legal, tax and healthcare advice. 

LISTEN – Remember that your ticket price includes entry to all of the seminars. Here you’ll find in depth information about the pros and cons of buying in your particular area often by people with first-hand experience.  

KEEP AN OPEN MIND – This is the chance of a lifetime – a time when you can allow your heart to influence your head. Be prepared to compromise when you see all the available property but stay focussed on what really matters to you. 

ENJOY – Take a screen test for A Place in the Sun TV shows, meet the presenters and get your free copy of A Place in the Sun Magazine signed by one of them. 

FOLLOW UP – You’ll probably be offered a small mountain of literature to take away with you. Be selective about what you really need, and be assured that you can contact Cle France and any of our partners any time just by visiting the website or calling us on 01440 820 358.

FORGOT SOMETHING - if you think of any questions you forgot to ask on the day, no problem simply contact us and ask the question.

Blog submitted by: Alex at The French Property Network - Cle France. 

We tend to deal in more 'normal' numbers at Cle France but we would be happy to have clients with a budget of say 'un billion' but what are these big numbers?

Les grands nombres (large numbers) are hard to understand in any language. The difference between one trillion and one billion seems so abstract that it’s impossible to conceptualise the huge quantities that are being referenced.

French numbers are already difficult at 70 and 80 et en plus (and what’s more) the punctuation for numbers is not the same as in English. Now add on to that the confusion of un billion not being the same number as one billion!

The technical description of why they’re different is that in English every number greater than a million gets a new name for every number that is a thousand times larger than the previous number. Mais en français (but in French), every number greater than a million gets a new name for every number that is a million times larger than the previous number.

 Photo by Jorge Franganillo on Flickr.

After that confusing paragraph, I can already hear the shouting.

Je ne comprends pas ! 

I don’t understand!

To make things easier to understand, voici des exemples (here are some examples): 

One million 1,000,000 

One billion 1,000,000,000 (UK 1,000,000,000,000 and America 1,000,000,000)

One trillion 1,000,000,000,000 

One quadrillion 1,000,000,000,000,000

Un million 1 000 000 

Un milliard 1 000 000 000 

Un billion 1 000 000 000 000 

Un billiard 1 000 000 000 000 000

The French words un milliard et un billiard (one billion and one quadrillion) make these grands nombres a bit confusing. Ce qui est important (what’s important) is remembering that un milliard is not one million and un billion is not one billion.

Heuresement, there’s another way to express these large numbers if you get confused. Un milliard (one billion) can also be called mille millions (thousand millions), and un billiard can be mille billions. Keep all this in mind the next time you have to count les zéros of a large number!

As a challenge, try to count all the way to un milliard in French!

One chap who is very good with numbers is Ben, our Cle France dedicated currency expert.

Ben Amrany from FC Exchange follow this link or phone and ask for myself and quote "Cle France" on 020 7989 0000.

You may contact me directly using this form (click here) with your requirement and I will explain the options that are available to you in getting the best exchange rate.  

Blog submitted by: Alex at The French Property Network - Cle France.

This blog was originally posted on The French Language Blog pages.

For everything you need to know about French property visit www.clefrance.co.uk