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We bought our house in France in 1989 before the rush to buy. We now let it out as a holiday home and make a small income from this - don't expect to get rich on the proceeds. Most guests are brilliant and leave the house clean and tidy as requested but do be prepared for the occasional awkward squad who make you wish you'd never put the house up for rent.
Buying a house in France
When considering moving to France do some online research and find Websites that offer advice about the legal and financial issues. Some are useful; others less so. You can buy through an estate agent but you pay more by doing this - Use a Notaire rather than an estate agent if you possibly can and avoid agencies who advertise in the UK as they take an enormous cut which you will pay for. Nothing is better than going there and looking for yourself.
Never, never, never accept the asking price; the French never do and it will be seen as a sign of weakness. The locals will also resent you for doing this as it pushes up prices for them.
Where in France
The first decision to make is "Where do we look?". If price is your highest priority, north is cheaper than south and rural is cheaper than coastal or cities. All pretty predictable, given that it's warmer down south. If weather is your highest priority then they say you must go south of the Loire. South west is cheaper than south east but then it doesn't have the same appeal to the Eurotrash that like to see and be seen around Nice, Antibes and Cannes. The south east is also more accessible as it's on the TGV (train grand vitesse) network and you can shoot down there from London or Paris in no time. There are pockets on the atlantic coast that seem to offer exceptional value for money but then we hit lucky and mapped these against a map nuclear power installations and the mystery was explained. Aside from price we had a second priority. It is notoriously difficult for a foreigner to gain the confidence of a French employer so it was important to keep our options open. So we opted for the north where prices were accessible but where we could also telecommute to London or perhaps Brussels or Amsterdam as necessary. Eventually we cast our eyes on Mayenne, next door to Brittany, in the northern part of the Pays de la Loire region and within striking distance of Rennes, Le Mans and Nantes.
Going over there
Our next step was to go and have a look. We booked ourselves into a gite just over the border in Brittany which is owned by an English couple with four children. These would be company for our children and I reckoned that English-speaking hosts could be very helpful in our quest. We came for 2 weeks around Halloween and spent the first week playing hookie from our responsibilities and just driving round having a ball. The weather was great, people friendly and the countryside was wonderful and, given the time of year, empty of tourists.
Compromis de Vente
The Compromis de Vente is the first of two binding legal documents that you sign before you purchase a property in France. In it you have to stipulate any conditions that will allow you pull out of the process without forfeiting your deposit, such as getting a mortgage, getting necessary planning permission etc. It is also at this point that you have to consider french inheritance laws which seem bizarre to say the least. I'm sure it's all very sensible in french eyes but I couldn't make head or tail of it.