Clé France

We couldn't have done this without Sharon & her planning, organising & advice. She was an absolute star.

We had to do the house insurance through the bank in the end because we couldn't supply any bills as to our rental costs as it was all included in the rental, so by doing the house insurance it fulfilled our obligation & opening of the account.

Anyway we love the houses, tons of work to do but our French neighbours have been fantastic!

All the very best,

Alex & Dave.

Lower Normandy is a great place to have a guest gite or a B&B Business or simply just to live and enjoy the slow pace of life and mix with the ever-friendly locals. We wish Alex and Dave many many years of happiness in their new home in La Manche.

Types of Certificat d'Urbanisme

I bet you did not know there are actually two types of certificat d’urbanisme ?

Certificat d’urbanisme d'information -

This merely states whether or not the land is zoned for building, together with information on public utilities and local taxes, and any rights of pre-emption that might exist on the site to the benefit of the commune.

If you have purchased land for building or redevelopment then you should have been provided with this document by the notaire at the time of purchase.

A certificat d'information does not state what permitted development may take place on the site, which is only elaborated by the more detailed certificate outlined below.

As a result, the certificat d'information is of limited value, particularly where there is any doubt about the status of the land, or what can be build upon it.

Certificat d’urbanisme opérationnel -

This sets out the rules on density, location and size of building that may be permitted, as well as any architectural rules that may apply and information on utilities and the requirements of public utility providors.

The certificate is not always highly specific where there are few planning constraints, as is often the case in rural areas.

If you have a specific project then you can provide basic details to the planning authority and, provided its complies with the planning rules, an operational planning certificate can be issued. You then have a fairly strong guarantee that a later planning application on the same terms will be approved.

A certificat d'urbanisme is valid for eighteen months, which can be extended for a year, provided the planning rules and services requirements have not changed. To extend the certificate you need to make application at least two months before the expiry of the current certificate.

Contact Us for more information on this issue and many more questions you may have.

We have thousands of houses for sale across most of the Regions of France ranging from cheap houses to renovate right up to Luxury Dream Homes, Maniors, Chateaux and perfectly charming Holiday Homes for sale. Countryside, town, village and coastal property for sale.

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

I guess you read French Property News, Living France, A Place in the Sun magazines etc. I hope you even enjoy reading the Cle France Newsletters! but to really learn more about life and living in France a French newspaper can not be beaten.

Continuing our look at French Newspapers - Part 5

Welcome to our final installment in this series on French newspapers. Click the following links if you’ve missed any of the earlier posts: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4. I hope this has been an enjoyable and informative set of posts for you and I trust you will take advantage of some of the abonnements (subscriptions) I mentioned.

At the very least, I would encourage you to visit your newspaper’s website of choice on a daily basis. Not only will you learn about what is going on in the world but you will ameliorate your reading skills and no doubt expand your vocabulaire (vocabulary).

In part 1, we had an overview of the different sections found in a typical newspaper that will help you navigate its contents.

In part 2, we learned about Le Monde and Le Figaro.

In part 3, we looked at Le Nouvel Observateur and Libération.

In part 4, we looked at L’Express and l’Humanité - two popular journaux (newspapers) that grace the racks of most newsstands in France. Today we are lloking at Le Canard Enchaîné and La Croix.

Image by Thomas0847 on Flickr

To conclude this series we will be looking at two fascinating newspapers with a rich history. Much like the newspapers we discovered in previous posts, Le Canard Enchaîné and La Croix are not completely neutre (neutral) in their journalism but offer their lecteurs (readers) a unique angle on the news.

Le Canard enchaîné :

Le Canard enchaîné (The Chained Duck) is a French hebdomadaire satirique (satirical weekly) printed le mercredi (Wednesday). Founded in 1915, the paper often features breaking news about many affaires scandaleuses (scandalous affairs), a selection of humorous cartoons and numbers only huit pages (eight pages). The paper’s slogan “La liberté de la presse ne s’use que quand on ne s’en sert pas” (Freedom of the press only wears out when we do not use it) is a testament to its willingness to dig deep in order to uncover scandals and corrupt practices in politics and business.

Although the paper does not claim to be affiliated with any parti politique (political party), it adheres to an anticlerical ideology and supports the doctrine of antimilitarism. And in order to maintain its editorial independence, Le Canard is devoid of any annonces (advertisements).

You might be surprised when you visit le site officiel du journal (the newspaper’s official website) at lecanardenchaine.fr as you will find very little information. On the homepage, you will read “Mais notre métier, c’est d’informer et de distraire nos lecteurs, avec du papier journal et de l’encre” (But our job, is to inform and entertain our readers, with newspaper and ink). Absent are the traditional sections such as Politique, Culture, Économie, Société, etc. Instead you will find scans of the paper’s front page under Les Unes; short synopses of Les Dossiers du Canard enchaîné (The Files/Records of Le Canard enchaîné—a short magazine printed by the newspaper) under Les Dossiers; Informations légales (Legal information) and little else. The publication’s modus operandi has always been to reach its readers through its physical newspaper and it sticks to this strategy even in the 21st century by maintaining a very sparse website.

La Croix :

Un journal quotidien (a daily paper), La Croix (The Cross) began as un mensuel (a monthly) in 1880 and three years later became a daily. As you might have guessed by its name, La Croix is a newspaper affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church in France. It was never considered un journal religieux (a religious newspaper) per se, but rather un journal populaire (popular newspaper) with a middle-of-the-road agenda that was neither liberal nor conservative.

As the years went by, La Croix adopted a new look and a new format to reflect the changing times. Beginning in 1956, the crucifix that had been part of the paper’s header since its inception was omitted. Due to a steadily declining readership, le journal est devenu plus moderne (the newspaper became more modern) in the 21st century with a reorganization of the different rubriques (columns/sections), a new layout and a new design for its website.

Visit la-croix.com and you will find fewer sections compared to the websites of most other major newspapers. Because of the paper’s connection to the Catholic Church, you will find sections such as Religion, Famille (Family), Ethique (Ethics) and Solidarité (Solidarity) along with the more traditional Actualité (Current Events) and Culture.

Original text from the French Language Blog.

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

Hi David,

All went to plan and organisation was good. Nothing suitable from the ones we saw. Some were ok but just too far out from our base. What it has done though is to make us revise our requirements and highlighted the optimum search area.

We are going back out in January / February and will be searching your website in great detail before we go in the hope we can set up some more viewings.

Kind regards, Peter.

You may not find your perfect property on your first viewing trip as Peter has found out following his recent trip to Brittany BUT you have to start somewhere and statisitcs tell us that most people buy on their 2nd viewing trip anyway, so good luck to Peter next time and don't worry we have thousands of properties for sale and your choice will only get better with time!

Jublains is a very pleasant little village on the road between Mayenne and Evron. You could almost be excused for sailing right through it without stopping or noticing that it has an amazing wealth of Roman history hidden from the main street. It was, in fact, a Roman fort and town of some importance. The fort is not large but the amazingly thick exterior wall are still standing and a number of the internal buildings are evident. The fort has a small but new state of the art museum attached to it and contains many of the implements and artefacts that have been dug up over the years in and around the old town.

After a visit to the fort and museum a gentle walk of about five minutes will lead you to the church in the centre of the town beneath which, and now well excavated and lit up, is a complete Roman hypocaust. About a quarter of a kilometre to the west of the church lies the remains of the Roman temple (to whom is not yet understood). Here the outline of the outer and inner walls are still just visible but the alter is in fairly good condition. Next to it and heading towards the church, in what is currently a pasture field, the vague outline of a street and little houses can be seen.

About the same distance east from the church is the amphitheatre still in remarkably good condition considering the amount of stone 'recycling' that has gone on over the centuries. Here you can sit on the old stone benches and imagine the comedies and tragedies being acted out by itinerant groups of troubadours that wandered the Roman empire in days of yore.

If you want more? then follow the links above, in the images, where you can buy Fraser's published books.

Fraser Blake, 70, author of 'Dear Chips' and 'A Rant Too Far?' grew up in Africa, was at school in Scotland, and worked for the British South Africa Police in Southern Rhodesia. He has taught English in Saudi Arabia and sold and renovated hundreds of properties in Northern France.

In 1998 Fraser was selling houses in the Mayenne department of the Pays de la Loire region and so was the obvious choice, when Cle France was started, to be their first agent on the ground in France. In retirement he writes, blogs, cooks, drinks wine, and hosts to dinner unlimited numbers of ex-pats.

Always on hand with a viewpoint, Fraser is going to share his views on France, the French and the British, and other people who buy in France. Sometimes informative, sometimes funny, painfully true, outrageously opinionated but always entertaining so we hope it adds a slightly different dimension to the usual normality of searching through the fantastic properties for sale on the Cle France website.

Watch out for more rants and opinion next week or buy the book today for a rollicking good read.