Buying and Living in
France
Reproduced from Expatica.com,
recommended website telling you about living and working
in France.
Teresa Dolan is a living example of someone who pursued
the 'French Dream'; she dumped her mortgage in Tunbridge Wells
and is now running her own chambre d'hôtes/salon
de thé/English food store in the heart of the Loire Valley. Here are
her top tips for launching your own tourist-sector business in France.
Expat Tales are real-life stories on making the move to France and learning
to thrive here. We hope these stories will provide tips and help make connections
among our readers.
It was the summer of 2005. My husband I were somewhat disillusioned with England
and wanting very much to do something different with our lives. We also still
had a mortgage and were approaching the dreaded middle age.
All in all, it seemed a good time to junk the mortgage and buy a place for cash
that could also serve as a business. So, we headed for France just like in all
the 'French dream' television shows on the BBC.
When we started talking about this, some friends cautioned against it saying
that they feared for what we might do to earn a crust. And what about the fact
that we hardly spoke any French?
And they weren't wrong; getting from Point A in the UK to Point B in France involves
a lot of decisions and plans and, yes, risks, and no two families will make the
same choices.
But this is how we did it and what we learned along the way.
Why the first property you really like is not necessarily the one
By November 2005, the three of us, along with our cat William, left Tunbridge
Wells in Kent en route for a Christmas in Brittany.
Over the next month we rented a friend's cottage in St. Jean de Villenard, using
it as a base and travelling thousands of miles across France from Brittany to
the Limousin to the Languedoc.
All of our property search had been carried out on the Internet
before leaving England and we started with an itinerary of about
10 houses in various locations. We knew that we wanted something
with character and with business potential. My dream was to run
a small café cum arts centre and we all felt that
to offer a B&B would be a good idea, but not by itself.
Some of the properties we viewed were truly appalling; those pictures
you see on the Internet are a great testimony to the fact that
the 'camera can lie'. After what seemed like viewing hundreds of
unsuitable properties, we found a beautiful house in Casouls les
Beziers that lived up to its picture. It was a very lovely spacious
property well below our budget and 15 minutes either side from
the sea and the mountains. It was also currently being used as
a hairdressing salon and had great potential to make a fabulous
café.
But we still wanted to see a couple more houses, one in the Limousin and one
in the Loire Valley. The first one was so appalling that it is not worth describing
except to say that everyone in the hamlet seemed to be related and the house
literally untouched by time.
We arrived back at St. Jean de Villenard exhausted. We were scheduled to visit
the Loire Valley property two days later and almost cancelled our trip.
Little clues however, were making us think that maybe the Casouls les Beziers
property was not quite right for us. Clues such as the fact that the owner didn't
want her clients to know she was selling her business so we had to view the property
'under cover of darkness'.
Also the village, though pretty, seemed not a little off the beaten track, certainly
not ideal for a business dependent on tourists. After all, we needed to be making
some sort of income from the very launch of our business. We are not here to
make a fortune, but enough to pay the bills certainly.
And so we decided to visit number 6, Avenue Rochechouart, next to the ancient
abbey of Fontevraud. It was a bitterly cold December afternoon when we drove
the 15 kilometres from Saumur to Fontevraud and discovered the most amazing house.
Built in 1865 of creamy Tuffeau stone with ornate carvings and arranged over
four floors with an amazing spiral staircase, it had retained lots of original
features including stone fire-places, oak beams and a splendid dining room.
It also had a salon that would be perfect for what we now describe
as our Salon de Thé and where we now also sell arts and crafts, English groceries,
health-foods, books, bric-a-brac and gifts. With enough accommodation to run
a chambre d'hôtes and for us to live comfortably, it had
the added bonus of a roof terrace with a panoramic view of Fontevraud
Abbey.
We fell in love instantly with both the house and the abbey plus there even seemed
to be tourists walking about on this cold winter's day. The house was a little
pricier then we had budgeted for, but we put in an offer there and then and we
have not regretted making the bigger investment.
We moved in March 2006. Most new acquisitions including some rather
wonderful tapestries we bought on a budget from brocantes and the
fantastic Emmaüs
and Aspire projects —charities that earn money by running thrift stores— plus
Conforama and But.
The house for its age was in surprisingly good order and the only thing we have
really had to do is create an en-suite for the first-floor guest room. We had
enormous difficulty finding a plumber to do the work; in fact, we never did find
one who was available when we needed him so we 'took the plunge' and did the
work ourselves. As none of our visitors has complained yet, we can only assume
we've done a reasonable job.
Our Mixed Bag….
What we are aiming for at Chez Teresa/A Taste d'Angleterre is a synthesis of
English and French culture.
Rather than relying on one revenue stream to carry the whole, we have put in
place several different, complementary businesses based on this theme. The trick
we hope is to juggle all the balls at once.
First, we showcase both local artists' work as well as English pottery etcetera.
Although our salon/shop space is relatively small, we have to date sold a number
of pieces including some drawings of Fontevraud Abbey that local artist Crystelle
Aveline sketched on our roof terrace.
Second, our rooms feature Internet access and in addition to regular guests,
we will in the near future be opening the house in order to run creative-writing
workshops, both non-residential and residential. The plan is to create an on-line
anthology of work and to use the blog as a tool for creative expression and dialogue.
On the cuisine front, we also offer visitors the possibility, by reservation
only, to enjoy an evening meal and can accommodate up to eight people in our
dining room. To date, we have served a French family with a 'traditional' veggie
version of an English Roast dinner (which they described as 'superb'); another
with a traditional English Tea of sandwiches, scones and a Victoria Sandwich;
and several other families from a range of nationalities with Italian, Mexican
and Indian cuisine.
During lunchtimes, we serve fresh salads, both house salads and an extensive
salad bar. Private tea-parties can also be arranged by reservation.
Our customers
Fontevraud is a small village that, thanks to the abbey, attracts thousands of
visitors from all over the world and to date we have met visitors from South
America, the States, Canada, England, Belgium, Germany, Spain, the Czech Republic
and of course France. One of this season's customers from the Czech Republic
described his experience at Chez Teresa as 'a taste of English heaven'.
Local people are still a little wary of us, but not unfriendly and some are beginning
to come in and refer their friends and family.
Chez Teresa is open all year round. Our next plans include launching our website
and planning a special Christmas offering of either dining at Chez Teresa for
Christmas Day lunch or inviting people to stay from Christmas Eve until 27 December.
My 'Hot' Tips for Starting a Business in France
—Try to not to be too fixed on one location, unless of course
you know that location really well before arriving.
—Have some kind of plan before you arrive, including writing a draft
business plan. It will help keep you focused as you look at properties.
—On the other hand, unless you are a plumber, builder, electrician or
satellite engineer where clearly you will have a marketable trade, try to have
an open mind as to what you might do. We, for example, had no notion that we
would run an English shop as such, but we now sell many English food products
as tourists often want them and even the French enjoy our English Jams, Chutneys
and Marmalades. Cadbury's chocolate is our best seller with French customers.
—Try to make contact with people who are doing something similar to what
you want to do: we communicated with a couple in the Charentes
before we came and they were able to give us some useful tips and contacts.
Plus they have since become our friends; your business will ultimately bear
the mark of your own personality but sharing notes is essential.
—If you don't speak French, take some lessons and buy some tapes before
you come over. Once you get here, get a private tutor. They not
only help improve your skills, but offer good insight into the community and
local culture.
—If you are running a B&B (unless it will be rural retreat) and/or
shop, select somewhere that is on the tourist route with a number of close-by
tourist attractions. Fontevraud, for example, is renowned not only for the Abbey,
but also for its proximity to châteaux, vineyards, scenic
walks and many sports facilities including golf, fishing, swimming
and riding.
—Try and identify you unique selling point.
—Invest in a website and use your email contacts. (Like writing an Expat
Tale for Expatica!)
—Produce some good quality publicity materials.
—Make sure that you do all the necessary paperwork and register with
the relevant organizations, such as the Chambre de Commerce.
—Be prepared to diversify; unless you have a full-proof way of making
a living think of pooling your respective skills (do a skills audit) and have
some fun thinking about ways in which you might make a living.
—Be prepared to build bridges with other businesses; for
example the local hotel, La Croix Blanche, in the the centre of
Fontevraud, sends guest over to use our Internet facility or if
they are overbooked.
—Try to network and integrate with the local community. For example,
we recently attended a village picnic and made several new friends, plus I
am going to join the local gospel choir as a direct result of meeting villagers
at the event. We also have plans to collaborate with a new cross-art form project
that should be up and running in 2007. All this from attending one picnic!
You just never know who you might meet at such events that can make all the
difference to your quality of life and your business prospects.
—Finally, don't be put off by friends and family who mean well, but might
try to put you off. Go by your gut instinct. If you're not sure,
come and stay three months in the region that interests you and see how you
feel at the end.
We refused to be deterred and now, although we do miss friends
and family, England is only a drive and a ferry away…. |
