Clé France

I highly recommend Cle France for providing me with an informed, hassle free purchase process with outstanding customer service. I welcome the opportunity to deal with them on my next property venture and wholeheartedly endorse them.

Regards, Neil

Neil bought his 'first' French House with Cle France to use as a base whilst looking for a house for sale in Mayenne of more substance, a good idea to keep accommodation costs down. We continue to work closely together with our client to find him a good selection of houses for sale in France to view and choose the best house from.

Thanks - Great local support

Hi David - thanks for all your help with both the marketing and sale of our property. The whole process was very efficient and straightforward. The local estate agents have been fantastic with regard to general communication and managing the overall process.

I have also found it very simple using your currency partner with regard to currency transactions, I will recommend Cle France and partners to others.

Best Regards, Mark.

Cle France help as many people to sell their house in France as we help people buy a property in France. We sold Mark's holiday home in Pays de la Loire recently.

Mark took advantage of our Gold Level Marketing package to make sure he got the maximum exposure and interest in his property, so we have a happy vendor and we also have a happy buyer.

With his property sold by Cle France, Mark needed to move Euros back into Sterling, no problem... we are always on hand to help and make sure everything goes according to plan and without a hitch especially where your money is concerned!

With the return of summer comes beach season.

Volleyball, bikinis, and ice cream, what more do you want?

Because France is surrounded by water on 3 of her 5 sides, you are bound to find a beach you’ll like and we have many coastal properties for sale across France to tempt you.

Tu veux faire un petit plouf (want to make a splash) in the Atlantic? try Aquitaine properties for sale.

Try a beach at Les Sables d’Olonne, a beautiful beach town in Western France, we have many houses for sale in the Vendee.

Prefer une petite baignade (a little dip) in la Méditeranée? Can’t go wrong with the options on our property for sale on the French Riviera down south or even our properties for sale in the Languedoc region in the south west of France. 

Want to sunbathe on the sand but still look up to see the Eiffel Tower? Sorry, Paris is landlocked. No beaches there… or are there?

In 2002, Bertrand Delanoe, the newly-elected mayor, decided to bring the beach to Paris. August is a prime time for vacation, and many shops close down for a few weeks. It’s the perfect time to head out to the beach. Some people aren’t able to leave the city, but that’s no reason to not be able to feel le sable (sand) between your toes. The banks of the Seine river are  blocked off to host various beach activities including volleyball and sandcastles. To top it all off, il y a également des palmiers (there are also palm trees)!

At first, there was only one beach on the Rive Droite (The Right Bank of the river). Four years later in 2006, an additional beach was opened on the Rive Gauche (The Left Bank). Paris-Plage as it was called would henceforth be known as Paris-Plages (notice the –s?). The budget for the improvised beach has been cut in the past few years, but thousands of tons of sand are still brought in.

This year, Paris-Plages is back for its 15th year. It opened on le 20 juillet (July 20th) and will run through le 23 août (August 23rd). In addition to the normal oversized lawn chairs, Paris-Plages is introducing some new events this year for everyone! There are chances to win entrance into the Louvre museum (they sponsor Paris-Plages and have a stand), see cute animals, and see The Little Prince and his plane. Want to learn Tai Chi? You’re in luck – there are free lessons! Coca-Cola has put into place quite a few sports: le football, le disc-golf, et le badminton, par exemple (soccer, disc golf, and badminton, for example). In August, there’s a dance competition on un grand dance-floor on the beach. And that’s not all! You can read all the events planned here. It’s all free!

So, if you have the “misfortune” of being “stuck” in Paris and want to get out to the beach (or if you can’t decide between staying in the city or going to the beach), look no further than the Seine river! Just don’t swim in it.

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

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

My computer problems quickly led to hardware problems, which meant finding a DIY / hardware store. Les problèmes were that my hardware vocabulary isn’t very good in English never mind in French, and that it was still incredibly hot. I needed a very small screwdriver to take off the screws on the bottom of my laptop and get to its insides.

My original thought was to just go to le magasin d’informatique (the computer store) and ask them for what I needed, but on the way there I ran into un ami (a friend) and we had a brief conversation.

It went something like this:

– Ça va ?

– Oui, ça va. Je vais au magasin d’informatique. Mon disque dur a planté et donc j’ai besoin de le remplacer.

– Ah ouais ? tu sait comment faire tout ça ?

– Oui, il faut juste enlever les petites choses en bas et puis c’est simple à faire.

– Les petites choses ? Ah tu veux dire les vis ! Demande aux gens du spuermarché ! J’imagine qu’ils ont ce que tu veux.

Hey, how’s it going?

It’s going alright. I’m going to the computer store. My hard drive broke and so I need to replace it.

Ah yeah? You know how to do all that?

Yes, you just have to take out the little things on the bottom and then doing it is easy.

The little things? Ah you mean the screws! Ask the people at the supermarket! They probably have what you want.

So I went to le supermarché and asked:

– Excusez-moi, est-ce que vous avez la chose pour enlever les vis ?

– Un tournevis ?

– Oui c’est ça !

– Oui, suivez-moi.

– Voilà toutes les tournevis qu’on a.

– Vous n’en avez pas des plus petits ?

– Non, désolé. Tout ce qu’on a est ici.

Excuse me, do you have the thing for taking out screws?

A screwdriver?

Yes that’s it!

Yes, follow me.

Here’s all the screwdrivers that we have.

Do you have any smaller ones?

No, sorry. Everything we have is here.

Dans une ultime tentative (In a last ditch effort) I decided to ask another shop I passed, une bijouterie (a jewelry store).

– Bonjour Monsieur.

– Bonjour.

– Est-ce que vous avez des très petits tournevis ?

– Non, je suis désolé.

– Et bien, est-ce que vous savez où je pourrais en acheter ?

– Oui ! Allez au magasin de bricolage. Ils en ont j’en suis sûr.

Hello Sir.

Hello.

Do you have any very small screwdrivers?

No, I’m sorry.

Well, do you know where I could buy some?

Yes! Go to the hardware store. They have some I’m sure of it.

Vive la France!

And after asking a few people along the way where exactly le magasin de bricolage is located I found mon tournevis (my screwdriver)!

I learned trois nouveaux mots (three new words)! Now to learn the difference between un tournevis plat (a flathead screwdriver) and un tournevis cruciformes (a Philip’s head screwdriver)!

Voici un petit vocabulaire :

La vis screw

Le tournevis screwdriver

Le clou nail

Le marteau hammer

Le magasin de bricolage hardware store

Le matériel informatique hardware (computer)

Le hardware hardware (computer)

La quincaillerie hardware (tools).

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

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

Just like a heatwave!

Heat-Related Vocabulary in French

For the past couple of days, anyone in France who’s stepped foot outside or even opened a window has certainly noticed that Mother Nature a allumé le chauffage à fond (has turned the heat up on high)! It’s actually a result of hot winds making their way up from Africa. France isn’t the only one experiencing une canicule (a heatwave): l’Espagne, le Portugal, et certaines parties du Royaume-Uni (Spain, Portugal, and parts of the UK) have all been affected.

It’s a big deal, too. Temperatures in some places are soaring up to 42°C (107.6°F), and for un pays qui n’est pas habitué à la chaleur (a country that isn’t used to the heat), this can be very dangerous. Unlike the US, not many houses have la clim (shortened form of climitisation, meaning air conditioning). On beautiful days, French people open les volets (the blinds/shutters) of their windows and let the air blow in. When the air coming through is hot, though, it doesn’t serve much of a purpose. Even if some homes are equipped with an air conditioner, it doesn’t mean you can always run them. À cause de la canicule (because of the heatwave), 830,000 households lost power overnight in the western side of the country this week. In 2003, 14,802 heat-related deaths were reported after temperatures spiked in France.

This year, to keep their citizens cool, the French government has put into a place un plan anti-canicule (anti-heatwave plan). If you’re in Paris, you can find public air-conditioned rooms. They’ve also released the graphics to help the public. We’ve reproduced one of the graphics below. The language is pretty easy. Click the image for the full-sized version. What do you understand?

Today we’re going to look at some vocabulary related to heat and the words chaud and chaleur.

Describing Hot Weather

Il faut chaud – It’s hot out

Il y a du soleil – It’s sunny

Il fait beau – It’s nice out

Il fait lourd – It’s heavy out

Il fait __ degrés – It’s __ degrees (don’t forget to use Celsius!)

la canicule – heatwave

un coup de soleil – sunburn

cramer – to burn (here, because of the sun)

Words/Expressions with “Chaleur”

la chaleur – heat / warmth

la chaleur accablante – sweltering heat

un coup de chaleur – heatstroke

être en chaleur – to be in heat (for animals)

faire une chaleur épouvantable – to be unbearably hot

l’humidité – humidity

un échange de chaleur – heat exchange (physics)

un four à chaleur tournante  – convection oven

une bouffée de chaleur – hot flash

une perte de chaleur – heat loss

Words/Expressions with “Chaud”

chaud(e) – hot

à chaud – immediate, initial

au chaud – warm (food, for example)

avoir chaud – to be hot (don’t use être here! read below.)

avoir eu chaud – narrow escape/”a close one”

avoir le sang chaud – to be hot-blooded

battre le fer quand il est chaud – strike it while the iron’s hot

chaud devant – coming through (said when you’re carrying things and need people to move)

chaud lapin – horndog (familiar)

un commentaire à chaud – a comment made right after an event

craindre le chaud – to be sensitive to heat

crever de chaud – to bake/boil (from being in the heat)

être chaud – to be horny (familiar)

faire chaud au coeur – to warm your heart

faire des gorges chaudes – make fun of someone

garder au chaud – to keep something warm

des habits chauds – warm clothes

mettre au chaud – to put something away for a rainy day

mourir de chaud – to die from heat

ni faire chaud ni froid/cela ne me fait ni chaud ni froid – I don’t mind either way

pleurer à chaudes larmes – crying, but with many, many years

une réaction à chaud – a lively response

refiler la patate chaude – to drop/get rid of something/someone bothersome or annoying

souffler le chaud et le froid – blow hot and cold (alternate between 2 differing opinions)

un chaud et froid – a sudden drop in temperature

Did I miss any? Feel free to leave a comment below.

Thinking of moving to France full time? - book a viewing trip with Cle France today!

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

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