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Post by Jody on Feb 22, 2012 9:35:24 GMT -5
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Post by jo on Feb 22, 2012 12:45:10 GMT -5
I'm in!!!!!!! ;D
Jo
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Post by Happygoin on Feb 22, 2012 14:09:20 GMT -5
I'm in too. What fun! Now who's going to be the mayor??  |
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Post by Jody on Feb 22, 2012 17:06:40 GMT -5
I;m the oldest but I seceed power to the youngest!!
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Post by jo on Feb 22, 2012 18:26:16 GMT -5
I'm in too. What fun! Now who's going to be the mayor?? I'd be happy to be the janitor if it would bring me closer to Paris!  Jo |
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Post by holger on Feb 22, 2012 22:34:10 GMT -5
Hey,
It isn't that close to Paris but it could be charming and fun.
If enough of us chipped in it would be really a good buy. But then there would be upkeep, renovations, taxes. But fun to dream.
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Post by PariS on Feb 22, 2012 23:33:47 GMT -5
I don't know about the mayor, but who would be our boulanger?!  We'd have to pool together to entice one to move away from Paris! |
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Post by Shoesy on Feb 23, 2012 0:21:13 GMT -5
A village! How cool is that !  |
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Post by sunshine817 on Feb 23, 2012 4:19:02 GMT -5
It's fun to talk about, yes -- but the reality? Yike.
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Post by Happygoin on Feb 23, 2012 8:33:46 GMT -5
Sunshine, I was thinking the same thing yesterday, even as I was thinking about how fun it would be. After your recent experience with visas, I can only imagine the French bureaucrats foaming at the mouth in anticipation of a bunch of foreigners buying one of their villages...
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Post by mossie on Feb 23, 2012 9:36:23 GMT -5
I can only imagine the French bureaucrats foaming at the mouth in anticipation of a bunch of foreigners buying one of their villages... No doubt a law would soon be quoted, or invented, which prohibits such a thing. To come down to earth the train from the nearest (about 3 miles) station takes 6 or 7 hours for about 100 euros. Lovely idea all the same, I would be the village idiot ;D ;D and never leave the cafe bar.  |
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Post by jo on Feb 23, 2012 12:58:44 GMT -5
Lovely idea all the same, I would be the village idiot ;D ;D and never leave the cafe bar. Ah Mossie, here's an exalt for always putting a smile on my face! ;D Jo (and I would change your title to "village man about town"!) |
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Post by Happygoin on Feb 23, 2012 13:11:38 GMT -5
Ooh, I like that, Jo. And having met Mossie, I can say that he is definitely the village-man-about-town type...quite suave and debonair, I'd say! <Mossie In fact, I have another job for you, Mossie. You can give tourists the walking tour of our little village. You did quite a good job in Belleville  |
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Post by sunshine817 on Feb 24, 2012 9:22:13 GMT -5
Here's another writeup, this one from Connexion France: AN ABANDONED village is on sale in the Haute-Vienne – for €330,000. Anyone interested in becoming the new owner of Courbefy has just 10 days to make up their mind, after which it will remain the property of the Crédit Agricole bank. Put up for auction on Monday by a court in Limoges, it did not find a taker. The hamlet, 40km from Limoges in the commune of Bussière-Galant, consists of 19 buildings as well as sports facilities such as a tennis court, stables and a swimming pool. It was inhabited until the 1970s, but became deserted as people moved away to towns. For a period it was then used as a holiday village and in the 1990s a couple from the Gers tried to run it as a hotel and restaurant complex, but failed. It is now abandoned and overrun by vegetation, only visited by drunkards and squatters; however older residents of the region say they regret its current state and remember it had a good atmosphere and there used to be country fêtes there in honour of the local patron saint. Nearby, a chapel and ruins of a castle attest to a more prosperous past. It is said that in the Middle Ages it had a population of 2,000. The local intercommunal body considered buying it, but said that it could not afford to take it on as restoring it would cost at least as much as buying it. **** So -- it hasn't been inhabited in 20 years...they couldn't find a buyer at the auction, and even the local council won't touch it, because of the cost of restoration. (that photo from the Mail article shows a frozen swimming pool covered in snow...you can bet your lunch money that it's not clear blue water under all that ice....yuck.) And the 17th-century chapel? You can see it here: www.detours-en-limousin.com/Chapelle-de-Courbefy-et-Bonnes-FontainesNot one of the more picturesque chapels around.....and all this can be yours, only an hour's drive from Limoges on twisty little roads.....but the bright side is that you'd definitely be getting away from it all! (and all includes things like plumbing...electricity.....heat.....) |
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Post by Happygoin on Feb 24, 2012 9:52:24 GMT -5
Geez, that chapel looks more like a barn.  Perhaps we should re-think the plan, people. |
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Post by sunshine817 on Feb 24, 2012 11:16:41 GMT -5
and they manage to skim over the fact that the "13th century chateau" is but a pile of rubble...
This is a perfect setting for a French version of Don't Stop the Carnival.
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Post by jo on Feb 24, 2012 13:49:02 GMT -5
Sunshine, you are raining on my parade, lol. Ah well, back to hoping for a big lottery win to buy that little apartment in the Marais. Jo |
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Post by sunshine817 on Feb 24, 2012 14:02:16 GMT -5
I know, but parades are a lot more fun when they're not celebrating a descent into the seventh circle of hell!
I have a student who is from that part of the country, so I asked him -- when I mentioned the name of the village, he rolled his eyes and blew the French version of a raspberry. He said the price is basically for the land only, as that's really all that's salvageable.
That raspberry says a lot!
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Post by PariS on Feb 24, 2012 17:00:08 GMT -5
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Post by sunshine817 on Feb 24, 2012 17:45:59 GMT -5
It's a much better deal!
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We'd have to pool together to entice one to move away from Paris!
hahahha