More wine tasting - regular occurance now!

We have had a steady stream of visitors, in this our first year of running our holiday gite business, and each time someone visits we are recommending a trip out to Saint Sardos and to Donzac to the cave of Cotes du Brulhois. Not that we are encouraging people to increase their alcohol consumption of course............but a lovely way to spend a sunny afternoon in France.

Last Friday...yes you've guessed it we went back again! This time the people at Saint Sardos recognised me!! and invited us into the bottling plant to watch my favourite Gilles du Morban being bottled. Our guests purchased a number of cases after a condsiderable time testing different wines and as a thank you we were given a discount and a free bottle of wine!

Leaving Saint Sardos behind we drove the short 25 minutes back towards Auvillar and on into Dune and Donzac to find the wine cave. The lady there, who was supporting a neck brace (we didnt dare ask!) offered a number of white, rose and red wines to taste. Again, already feeling more than a bit relaxed from the previous tasting, our guests purchased yet more red and rose wine! Good job they were driving their own car home!

Later that evening, we discussed our afternoon over a BBQ and a few bottles of the said wine by the pool and went to bed happy and relaxed.

So at Le Farat, we have now decided to offer a wine tasting trip once a week to our guests, with me driving so that everyone can partake in a tipple or two and not have to worry.

Who's going to be next to experience what Le Farat has to offer?

A new life in France - section 2

Are you ready for the next instalment?

So where was I, oh yes, we have found our dream home. I was amazed that it ticked all of our boxes and that the structure was sound. The property had been well maintained by a live in caretaker and house keeper for its elderly English owner who only visited a couple of times a year, perfect.

After a number of visits with my husband and children as well as friends and relatives, we decided in November 2009 to put in an offer. The Euro was against us but due to the fact that the property market was in decline in the whole scheme of things we got a bargain.

So where are we up to now. Well after much tooing and froing we signed the acte de vente and paid over our deposit once our offer had been accepted. I did extensive research into how best to transfer money and came up with a company called currencies direct, they were excellent. Quick and efficient transfer of money and we forward purchased a specific exchange rate in advance. To do this you need to specify a preferred currency rate, ours was 1.15Euro to 1 pound sterling. Terrible I know and if only we had done this three years ago when the rate was over 1.45Euro to 1pound sterling! Anyway, We watched the currency rates fluctuate on a daily basis and being sad that I am had www.xe.com as a window on my PC at work everyday to keep check of what was happening! When we hit the magic rate our purchase kicked in. We paid an initial deposit for the money bought and had a month to pay the balance.

We then set to sorting out our French bank account. Be warned bureaucracy rules and it takes forever, for us it took over 3 months! The mortgage process is even worse, we move next week and it is still not completely finalised after nearly 5 months!

Bored yet?