Page 320 - Demo

316Part 3 France.Chapter 27As I have said we had bought the French house a few years earlier, but this would be a good time to talk about the whole process. We had looked at quite a few houses in the area with an agent who we had contacted in advance. We did not have much time as trips were limited by how much leave we both had and it took a full day to travel there each time. We looked at several houses before we decided on La Villatte. Once we had agreed to buy it there were a number of formalities to go through which included insuring it and getting a French bank account.The house had been owned by an old lady and she left it to her 3 children. The final paperwork was completed in one of the vendors houses as he was too ill to go out. It was important to finalise everything before he died as if he died first, then his share would go to his children and the legal side would have to start again. We went into his house with our agent who translated everything. The owners were friendly, and I think we had a drink with them. At the time we did not realise that they were actually neighbours who lived a bit down a lane in the opposite direction to the way we came in. In the years ahead we used to buy cheese from them that they made in a small cellar. There were live wires around the roof to power the light. Eventually they were banned