Warnings

My friend John wrote in about my idea of buying and renovating a house in France. I won't publish his comments because much of what he says is personal, but he certainly knows whereof he speaks: He's American, operates a business in Paris, and is renovating a ruin in Brittany. He provided the valuable service of reality-checker and warned me about all the many challenges I'll face. The famous French bureaucracy, different attitudes about work and customer service than I'm used to, high taxes...these are just a few potential sources of frustration. It's important to know as much gritty detail as possible about a process such as this, and I appreciate the time he took to lay everything out for me.

It occurred to me that John's e-mail and my response to it might provide a useful outline for my blog, and I'll share some of it here.

1) "I would in most cases agree with your commenter Randy above, but when it comes to France, I would caution you to expect--depending on the region where you choose to buy--nothing but delays, frustration and eventual grief."

So I've read. I know that the countryside is littered with half-finished and never-started renovation projects. It brings to mind, though, the incredibly bad odds that restaurants face. Yes, 90-some percent of restaurants don't survive a year, and 90-some percent of those that do don't survive a second year. But people with varying combinations of money, talent and grit keep jumping into the pool and paddling. I look at it that way.

I moved with a friend from Chicago to LA in the Fall of 1989. It was whimsy, mainly; I was restless and it seemed like a good enough idea. In fact it didn't turn out to be a good experience at all. As I saw it, the chemistry just wasn't right between the city and me, and I left after about six months. Years later, though, at a different stage of life, circumstances brought me back, and I loved LA!

The point is that every place and time and experience - and relationship - is different for every person, and this France Project of mine simply feels right. Further, I've never been terribly goal-driven even for the short term, much less ten or twenty years down the road, so it requires some effort.

2) "The longer I am here, the more I question my decision to be here."

In "Travels with Charley," Steinbeck talks about us Americans. With some exceptions (fewer in 1960, when the book was written, than now), we generally descend from Europeans. There are people in Europe whose families have been in the same town, sometimes even the same HOUSE, for generations. But we don't descend from those Europeans. Our ancestors are the Europeans whose families had lived in the same place for centuries, but who then decided to PACK UP AND LEAVE. There are lots of variables, of course, but I've always liked that take on what I accept is our nature. We don't have to be one place or another.

If we get a year or even ten years into a renovation project and decide it's not right, well...we'll skip it. We're not planning to go all-in moneywise, after all. Our stake will be fairly small, which is why we're looking at the bottom end of the market, i.e., less than 50,000 euros.

3) "Visit, but don't stay too long. Rent, don't buy."

I know that we'll never LIVE live there, mainly because of the visa issues. I've spoken with consular people and have a good handle on that. As old folks we won't be able to afford private health insurance, and without that we won't qualify for a long-term visa. 90 days at a time is it. Buying, though, is part of the commitment. Like a marriage. The ring is just a symbol but a very important one. Also, I'm not very disciplined and I know there will be times when that extra tie will keep me from throwing in the towel.

4) "...don't become one of them."

Maybe I already am one of them.
This might sound fanciful and silly but I seriously believe that a tiny piece of my attraction to France, of the connection I feel, comes from my heritage. My surname is a Scottish name but it was originally French and it came to Britain with the Norman invasion. Maybe my buying a little house in France, spending time renovating it and moving in (even part-time) will be the end of a 950-year-long odyssey.