We've really gone and done it now! I've
been interested in buying a place to do up for several years,
and have even contemplated building a brand new place from
scratch, a prospect that worried Rita no end. But England has got so expensive for old barns
and even a small bit of decent building land can cost a fortune,
so we started looking at Europe. These
pages are a brief account of our search for and purchase of our
property at Le Vivier, near Tinchebray in Normandy, and our
diary after we moved in. It's
an old farm with a house and several barns, built towards the
end of the 18th century, around the time of the French
revolution, set in a couple of acres of farmland. It needs
a lot of work to make it habitable, it hasn't been lived in for
thirty years, there's a large amount of clutter accumulated over
the years and there's no sign of a toilet, let alone a
bathroom. The main house does have a corrugated fibrous
cement roof, which at least keeps out the rain, but the rooves
on the barns are either in the process of falling in or already
have. The plan is that I will be
working on the buildings, probably for several years, and Rita
will be working the land to feed us. Simple really.
If anyone wants to come out and help, or just watch and laugh,
you're more than welcome. Accommodation may be limited to
tents and possibly a caravan at first, but things can only get
better! |
