Those of you who were reading here in the summer of 2014 might remember that we came back from France with a bigger-than-usual souvenir, a house! No, it’s not one of those “we fell in love with it and bought it on the spot” stories – I challenge anyone to purchase a house spontaneously in France, in fact. It’s a tale that lasts months, nay, years, starting back in 2013 when we first started talking seriously about maybe buying a little piece of France that we could enjoy in our retirement. Of course, we can’t simply afford to own two houses outright so the French house would need to become a holiday rental… and thus began the search – because as they say, location is everything…
In the summer of 2012 I had visited Nérac with Kate, Tim and Monica when I was in the region taking a food photography workshop and our task had been to head to the market and find a story in photos.
That day in Nérac was life-changing in a few ways – it changed the way I take photographs as well as my attitude to making pastry from scratch (yes, I can!).
On that trip, I stood just a few hundred metres from where we would end up buying our house and wondered aloud “Imagine living here”.
And while we don’t live there, exactly, we do have a little pied-a-terre amongst the sunflowers now…
The months it took to actually find the house, purchase it and renovate it from a distance are a story for another but but for now…
Can’t you imagine enjoying a meal or an apéro right here?
And now you can!
Yes, that’s right, we’re thrilled to launch our vacation rental website for our little maison de la fontaine!
“Maison de la fontaine is a fully-furnished, newly-renovated vacation home featuring all modern conveniences, sleeping up to 7 people. Located in the historic town of Nérac, in Gascony, South West France, the house is easily reached from Bordeaux or Toulouse via train and is just a short drive to San Sebastian in Spain. It’s the perfect base from which to explore the surrounding wine regions and a great “home base” if you’re checking out Euro 2016!”
We’re so happy to be able to share a little piece of France with the world and now you can check our our holiday home too. We’d love to welcome you to beautiful Gascony.
Okay, I will admit is more than a little surreal to read this, and realize we *finally* actually, truly, honestly, have a completed home!
After all our trips of work (measuring, architect meetings, building furniture, re-measuring, shopping for heaps of supplies, re-re-measuring, choosing lighting, re-arranging furniture,…) I am sooooo looking forward to having a Christmas that is actually a holiday. Or at least mostly. We still have art to get on the walls an 😉
It’s a lovely little lesser-known corner of France (despite being close to Bordeaux!) we look forward to sharing with people – now for real, not just through stories.
Welcome. 🙂
Congratulations you two. The place looks absolutely spectacular (and warm and cozy), like a little bijou…
I am adding this house to my “list”! I have so enjoyed your posts about Nerac. It looks like a wonderful town to visit.
I recognise that hat 🙂
Congratulations on buying the house and getting it renovated – anything home improvement related is not simple (at least based on my experience from selling my house this year). It is stressful enough to manage while living there and being in “control”, I can’t imagine doing it from afar.
That sunflower shot alone could sell me on the place!