Free Our House is Not in Paris by Susan Cutsforth Page A

she had to stay. Certainly there were none of the usual questions you might expect, like how had we come to buy our house in Cuzance or how long we were staying. So, while we were grateful that she had made the effort to drop in, we knew it was a friendship we didn’t want to pursue — even if we didn’t have any new friends at all, yet you come to a point in your life where you realise it is possible to make such choices. However, it is never our intention to be rude or hurt anyone, and we were mindful that the village is very small. We politely declined an invitation to dinner, stating that we were simply too busy working on the house. It meant that when we visited Jean-Claude and Françoise, and then later Dominique and Gerard, we felt that we had to make our way very stealthily through the village as we didn’t want to offend Betty Miller if she glimpsed us.

Real Estate and Technology
    The advent of the internet has changed the landscape of travel enormously for us. Back in the eighties, when I did the classic mid-twenties ‘take a year off and go to Europe’, all I needed was a backpack and a hefty volume of Let’s Go Europe . Now, not only did we virtually buy a house over the internet — well, there was a long flight involved as well, but the Web narrowed down our choices and made it all far more possible — while all our arrangements to meet friends were also made through email. Just like with the pool and buying the car, no phone calls were ever needed.
    In fact, without the abundant number of French real estate sites, buying our house would have been impossible. Finding Kim’s website was also a huge advantage, as it made all our communication and the whole process so much easier in many respects. A strange peculiarity of French agents is that the ads for properties don’t indicate precisely where the houses are located. It took us a while to discover why that is. Apparently, properties are listed with a number of agents. The closest they will come to revealing any details at all is:
    Set in a charming quiet village a few kilometres from Montcuq. The area is situated north of Toulouse, south of Cahors, within a triangle of major towns such as Agen and Moissac. Popular villages in our area include Touiffailles, Roquecor and Saint-Maurin.
    Well, it gives you an idea of the département and surrounding area, but where is it exactly? It was a huge advantage to discover Kim’s Century 21 site, for she tells you precisely the condition of the property:
    Hope you’ve finished your lunch before seeing this property! ‘Beurk’, as they say in France! They come in all shapes and sizes and some in better condition than others. None so bad as this one! I’m looking forward to meeting the person that is interested in this one.
    Kim’s ads will tell you, for example, ‘A spacious house on the outskirts of Souillac.’ So while her ads are certainly very honest and more direct, nevertheless, in keeping with the French real estate way, the exact location is still not precisely revealed.
    It was only through a number of phone calls, and the fact that Stuart was flying from Australia, that Kim made an exception and told him the names of the villages for the properties he had shortlisted. It was all very fascinating.
    To prevent you from simply driving to investigate whether the house is actually what you are searching for, and then rejecting it from a mere drive-by and cursory inspection, the agents are committed to taking you to see the property in the hope that, as a result of their persuasive charm and extolling the virtues of the house, you will recklessly abandon all the criteria on your extensive checklist and fall in love with the home. Thus, the ad will read:
    Delightful old station master’s cottage, some renovating required but ready to live in. Idyllic rural setting, the perfect holiday escape yet with a town just an easy stroll to wander