Traitement Curatif Du Bois

One of the things we knew we’d have to attend to was some woodworm infestion, in particular in the cave behind the chimney breast in in the floor of the top room. Nothing too bad; but it needed to be treated.

While we were in the contract stage we’d arranged a quote from Callisto Systems and organized for them to come out as soon as we’d completed the purchase. So we pitched up to the village for 11am expecting a technician to call to do the work.

As we waited we supped coffee under clear blue skies and beautiful spring sunshine. As a result I got a decent sunburn on my head. But the coffee was lovely and so was the sunshine so we didn’t mind waiting.

Eventually the technician arrived and did an excellent job injecting the beams and spraying the floors while we ate a cracking plat du jour at the local restaurant.

We Bought A House!

The reason for coming to France this week was to sign the final papers and buy a house here. We visited the house this morning to check everything was OK (not having seen it since last November) and this afternoon at the notaire’s in Montignac we signed the purchase contract.

So now we own a little piece of France. The house is in the village of Badefols-D’Ans in the north east of the Dordogne. The village itself only has around 450 inhabitants (plus 2 more now) but has a restaurant /café and a tabac.

Now our life in the Dordogne really begins. Here’s a couple of pictures of the house from the outside.

Our house in Badefols D'Ans

Our house in Badefols D'Ans

It All Began With Bordeaux

Bordeaux Miroir d'EauOur love affair with South West France, and in particular the Dordogne region, started relatively recently. It’s not like we’ve been going there for years – in fact it’s only in later life that we started to travel and got bitten by the Dordogne bug.

It all started with Bordeaux. Even though the city isn’t in the Dordogne it has great air links to Ireland, where we were at the time and is an excellent base for exploring the south-west of France. So it was from Bordeaux that we branched out visiting St Emilion, Hautefort, Eymet, Beaumont, Castelnaud-la-Chapelle, Bergerac and loads of places in-between.

Cloisters at St. EmilionNow it’s a few years and a few visits later and we’ve made a major decision; to buy a house in the Dordogne with the intention of moving to France at the earliest possible opportunity. The purpose of this blog is to chart our adventures moving to a new country and to provide a resource for others thinking of doing the same thing. Over the years I hope you’ll follow my posts and get a flavour for life in the Dordogne.