Coup De Coeur #1: Moulin du Roy (EN)

(A series of "what do they not have" posts)

What we wanted: a nice stone house, "pierres apparentes", preferably in the middle of a few hectares of woodland to A) keep neighbours at a distance and B) have eco-friendly firewood to heat the house in winter. Where in France did not matter really, we like all regions, though the more south the better.

This house caught our eye quickly, end of August 2012. It had been for sale quite a while, but it was a bit above our budget. Then a price drop came, and we decided to send an email to the estate agent. This was my first mail exchange in French, but it was taken surprisingly well. And, he disclosed that the price was even "negociable un peu". Even better, he was willing to tell me the location. This is a house that you cannot find with Google Maps or Earth, it is completely hidden in between trees. Lovely!

There were some doubts too. A small sewage processing facility can be clearly seen on Street View, and this is less than 50 meters from the house. Is that a pumping station, too, in that little building...? (yes). The kitchen looked a bit tired. As did some other rooms. Well, this is a house that was restored in the 80's, so some upgrading was probably necessary. Remember this is the first house we spotted long-distance, today we would not fuss about such details. Further doubts: this house is located in a valley, on the north side of a hill. That means it's nice and cool when it's hot, and nice and cold in winter. Not much sun anyway, while we planned solar panels for electricity. But, the plan cadastrale revealed there's a bit of land near the top of the hill, on the other side of a small road.

The small waterfall apparently was not part of the property itself. That did not feel good. It's owned by the community, so at least not by a neighbour. But, being quite neighbour-sensitive it was a worry for us. Anyway, end of September 2012 we decided to go and visit, October 13th. No, a Saturday. Booked a Ryan Air flight (140€ all-in).

When I confirmed the flight to the estate agent I got back an apologetic mail: the house was sold that afternoon, for the asking price.

That was a huge disappointment. I had quite fallen in like with the place. The waterfall, the quirky layout, the trees... And I had scanned the environment with Street View quite well. Even though the house is secluded it would have been easy to get to shops on a bike. Sigh.

They would go and sign with the notary that afternoon, but if anything happened and the sale would halt they'd let me know. The buying process of a house can halt for various reasons. There's a cooling-off period, there's a period where you can arrange finances, mortgage, etc. Or, they may buy a house on condition of obtaining building-permits.

When listlessly googling the house a bit more I stumbled upon a vacation house rental site. And, there was my house! Advertised by English owners, complete with e-mail address. Damn, could have contacted them, and discussed the place in English, and probably could have bought the house at the asking price minus the estate agent's fee! (Up to 8% in France!) The extra pictures of the interior, and the photo's of children bathing in the sun only added insult to injury.

I wrote them an a-mail anyway, telling them I was sorry not to have found them earlier, etc. Got mail back that they were sorry for me, but that they would let me know if the sale did not go as planned.

Then, early November I got mail from the (old) owners if I was still interested? Apparently there was a clause in the contract that they had overlooked, where the new owners would only buy if they obtained planning permission, and that this still was not granted, so they still did not know if the sale would actually happen.

It finally did, early January 2013.

I was very sad. And that for a house I had nearly visited. I still dream of this place, at times.

I later learned that my contacting the owners has made it a bit difficult for the estate agent, as they had to wait more than 3 months before finalizing the sale, while another party was more than interested...

And now, 3 years later? I'm not sure. It still looks like an immensely romantic and lovely property, when the sun is shining. But, in winter it can be dark, humid, cold, miserable and depressing. And that little building indeed is a pumping station. If there's anything that I find annoying it is a machine droning nearby. If it'd be for sale again it would certainly be like an electric shock, but it would probably be out of reach. It was at the upper end of our budget then, and the new owners are putting in work. So, Their buying price + taxes + work means it is out of reach for us.