Pound at four year high against euro

When I turned my PC on this morning it told me that £1 buys around €1.28 which is a four year high seemingly.

This is still a far way from the heady days of €1.45 when I first arrived in France but it's also a significant shift that makes French property more attractive to UK buyers.

With the eurozone in such a mess I wouldn't bet against this trend continuing.

Having been in France for nine years this October I would, however, say that (in my humble opinion) you shouldn't let exchange rates be the driving factor behind your move. 

I genuinely still get a buzz from living in France.  Whether it's simple things like having the Courvoisier chateau next door to my local café or having access to simply sensational healthcare (as I experienced yesterday in my local hospital) it is the everyday positive experiences that should drive your decision making.

Of course, it's not all sunshine and roses here and I don't want to paint a false picture....I just think that the recent buying power given by the strengthening of the pound should be the icing on the cake not the filling!

www.cognacproperty.com

Cognac golf course - a review

Regular readers of a certain age will know that around this time of year I go off on a 4-5 day golfing trip wth some old school friends from the UK.

We travel all over Europe to find decent courses and, in France, we have played some crackers like Chantilly, Paris International and Royal Medoc.

This year we are popping across the border into Spain and will be sampling the delights of San Sebastian among others.

The point of the post though is to highlight what a superb course and practice facilities I have here in Cognac.  I haven't played since our last tournament and thought I'd better dust off the cobwebs (literally and figuratively) and get in some training.

Cognac golf club is a championship, 18 hole, course of 6,125 metres from the back tees.  It's always well kept and the holes meander through the vines giving some lovely views down into the river valley. The par five 9th is my favourite hole - 484 metres all downhill and eminently reachable in two.  The great thing is that the hole funnels down, getting narrower and narrower, with a huge lake protecting the green and out of bounds tight to the left.  It's a potential card killer for those (like me) who think golf is about the glory not protecting your score-card!

The attractive clubhouse has an excellent restaurant (same team that runs the Chateau de l'Yeuse restaurant) with terrace overlooking the par three 18th.  The pro-shop is well stocked with knowledgeable staff.

The practice facilities are first class with four holes, a large, bunkered, green and two driving ranges (one covered area with mats and one uncovered off the grass).

It's definitely worth visiting if you're in the area and if you'd like to buy a house on/close to the course then for the price of a 2 bed apartment on the Algarve you'd get a wonderful family home with pool!

www.cognacproperty.com

Tom Jones and Sting headline the Cognac Blues festival 2012

Following on from my last post about the town of Cognac punching above its weight how's this for a musical line up?

Sir Tom Jones (younger readers will know him as a judge from The Voice on BBC1), Sting (older readers will know him as the Ace Face from Quadrophenia), Hugh Laurie and The Cranberries.

These, and many more, acts will be gracing the annual Cognac Blues Passions festival which takes place between 3-8th July.  You can see full details, or buy tickets, here.

All of that is really exciting of course but not quite as exciting as the headline act for the annual Fete du Cognac which runs for three days later that month (26-28th July).  For just €5 (yes that's five euros) you can get admission to the quayside and see......The Stranglers.  Full details here.

Now, Sir Tom may well have sung with Elvis and The Beatles but he didn't supply the soundtrack to my youth (unless you count track 67A in The Grotto, Weybridge circa 1980 - "what's new pussycat" is a jukebox classic).

I'm pretty excited about all the concerts but suspect that it will be my €5 tickets that offer greatest pleasure for money.

You have to admit though that for a town of under 20,000 inhabitants Cognac really does pack a wallop. To paraphrase a certain lager ad:

 "If Carling made towns to live in...."

www.cognacproperty.com

Want to buy a house in Charente? Now here's an offer....

Spring is definitely sprung here in the Charente and the temperatures are in the high twenties.

Last week we went with some friends (& ex clients) to La Tonnellerie riverside restaurant in Chateauneuf sur Charente for a long and lazy lunch.  It's a charming place in an idyllic spot with a small terrace and views out over the weir.

We slowly cooked in the sunshine whilst enjoying an excellent meal and David showed us a painting he had done to give as a gift to the owners of his favourite bar in Jarnac (pictured above).

I was blown away - it captures the essence and character of this typically French bar brilliantly.  David told me that he'd been commissioned to paint a house in Montpellier too.

This got me thinking that having a painting such as this of your dream home in France would be a superb gift.

Therefore, dear readers, my offer is that any of you who mandate me to find them a property this year (2012) will receive a unique and original oil painting of their new house (subject to David's availability) paid for by yours truly.

All you have to do is quote "David Hughes fine art" before signing my standard T&C's and, of course, my search has to prove successful!

Now there's an offer you won't find from any other buying agent or estate agent in France.

To see a gallery of David's work visit www.davidhughesfineart.co.uk.  Even if you already own a house in France you may want something to gaze at longingly while you're away from the place! 


www.cognacproperty.com

Charente Monopoly - which are the dream home locations?

Regular readers will know that my youngest daughter is a keen Monopoly player.  A career following in her father's illustrious footsteps beckons perhaps!

Recently we borrowed the "Charente" version and it was fascinating to see which towns & villages were deemed as the Whitechapel & Old Kent Road clones and which were deemed to be Mayfair & Park Lane.  I have no idea who took the final decisions but I'm guessing that a few local mayors got involved in the politics.

I have no problem with the two prime areas - Cognac as the highest value (€400) and Angouleme second (€350).  I love Cognac - the town not the digestif - and think that it's the perfect size with a real "buzz" all year round.  It has beautiful & ancient pedestrian streets, a lovely stretch of river, world class restaurants and a championship golf course.

Jarnac is unlucky not to share the slot next to Cognac but does take the place of Bond Street so you don't want to land there if it has houses or a hotel on it. In real life Jarnac is probably my favourite town in Charente with a simply gorgeous park and pretty riverside walks.

Where I would take issue is the ranking given to the villages of St Simon & Bassac which are in the light blue section just before the dreaded jail cell.  In reality these two small jewels sit beside the prettiest stretch of the Charente.

They are both no more than hamlets yet St Simon boasts its own popular bar/restaurant and Bassac hosts two of the best restaurants around - the Auberge de Condé and L'Essille.  I have had plenty of splendid meals with clients & friends in both.

That's a great word and so I'm going to use it again as the river between Chateaneuf and Cognac is simply splendid too.

With this in mind, why no place at all for Chateauneuf sur Charente?

Of course it's all good fun and fairly subjective - and the truth is that I get slaughtered by Downie Junior whether we play the traditional version or any of the newer derivatives.

Perhaps I should consider offering her a salaried partner position when she turns 12 next year.....

www.cognacproperty.com

Digital age comes to Jarnac schools

France has just introduced a national scheme to bring the digital revolution into rural schools and I'm all for it.

Our two (8 & 10) came back the other night saying that maitresse was excited because she's had it confirmed that they're taking delivery of fourteen new laptops - all wifi enabled and fully loaded.

That's one laptop between two pupils (CM1 and CM2 share a classroom) which I think is a pretty decent ratio for a state run rural school in one of the poorer regions of France. Hopefully now the girls will have sufficient time online in the classroom to stop them kicking me off the laptop when they get home.

I love the schooling out here as they seem to have a sensible mixture of "arty" cultural activities and rural field trips as well as an understanding that the basics of maths, french & computing need to be mastered early.

The lunches aren't bad either!

www.cognacproperty.com

Grande Champagne cognac - "the best of the best"

I live in an area called "Grande Champagne" and it's slap bang in the heart of the cognac region.

Clients often ask about this area and where else you can grow grapes to produce cognac.

The region authorised to produce cognac is divided up into six zones which are, in order of decreasing appreciation of the cognacs coming from them:

Grande Champagne, Petite Champagne, Borderies, Fins Bois, Bon Bois and finally Bois Ordinaire.

You can see from the map above that it's quite far reaching and doesn't follow departmental boundaries.

Now, obviously I'm biased but I'd say that the map above also highlights the best places to live in the area.

Grande Champagne hosts prime properties in the prettiest locations. Rolling hills, beautiful scenery and magical little villages.

I guess that "location, location, location" holds just as good for producing the world's finest drink as it does for the world of property.

www.cognacproperty.com

Charente property - what makes it special?

I was chatting to an old colleague from Chestertons this week-end and he asked me that very question.

"I know you love it out there Graham, but what makes the houses so special"?

The answer was threefold:

• the cost of land & housing. Even with the pound & euro at virtually identical levels you can still find a beautiful family home for around €250,000.


• the landscape. Regular readers will have gathered that I love the region deeply - and not just when the vines and sunflowers have their annual battle for your attention.


• the care that the "artisans" take when renovating the older properties. The stone masons were adding a terrace to my in-laws house and when they finished they had created a couple of wonderful carvings into the stone at each end because they felt it was "appropriate", no charge of course.

I know that everyone has different views on what they want & don't want in an area (it's what makes the world such an interesting place) but I really do feel that we struck lucky back in 2003 when we decided, on a whim, to book into a hotel in Jarnac overnight.

www.cognacproperty.com

French grape picking season begins

The "vendange" or annual grape picking season started this week-end.

It's an important couple of weeks for the whole cognac region. An excellent harvest brings higher sales and prosperity for the farmers and the myriad related industries in the area. A poor harvest and the outlook would be as gloomy as an album by Morrissey.

In all over 75,000 hectares of vines will be harvested in the charente and charente-maritime.

We have become firm friends with one of our local viticulteurs and the good news is that he's pretty optimistic that 2009 is going to be a good year. Those are his vines in the pic above - you can't buy his cognac, "Chez Bacou", in the shops but if you're ever passing this way you can buy it direct from his vineyard.....believe me, it's worth a visit.

The sleepy villages around us have come alive and we're woken at the crack of dawn by the huge picking machines rumbling off to work.

The roads become clogged with tractors pulling huge trailers filled to abundance with grapes and standing at the school gates all eyes are on the activity in the surrounding vines.

Picking lasts for 3-4 weeks and I enjoy this time of year so much that I'll be using our labrador as an excuse to get out into the vines at least two or three times every day throughout.

www.cognacproperty.com

Jarnac property search pays off

The senior partner received a text from some Arsenal season ticket holders who also happen to have gone from being old clients into new friends.

They are settling into the beautiful riverside house I found for them in Bourg Charente (pictured), midway between Jarnac & Cognac.

I was out cycling with a couple of friends and happened to be passing their house....I couldn't resist letting rip with a quick "come on you spurs" as we sped by.

The text read "Is your yob of a husband out cycling at the moment. If the answer is yes then you need to have words as he scared our guests".

Of course I have subsequently issued a grovelling apology and all isn't lost as we were invited to a truly scrumptious BBQ with them the other night.

It's a perk of the job that I sometimes get to enjoy the pleasures of the houses (and gardens) that I find in this way.

It's an added incentive when I'm searching to know that if I play my cards right there's a decent chance that I'll be invited to share a cold beer on the terrace - or, if I'm really lucky, maybe even some prime entrecote, a decent Bordeaux and plenty of laughter as with David & Lorraine.

www.cognacproperty.com