Our Story
Our story describes our experiences in Allier. The story was extended with text and pictures after every visit to the region. Now that we live in Allier, we inform you about the more interesting developments.
If you want to read about a specific period, please choose the chapter from the menu below.
From the beginning
After another splendid summer holiday in a beautiful French region, we take a decision, because “it's now or never!”
We surf the internet, looking for interesting offers, but where to start - how to approach this?

France is a big place with a diversity of areas and climates.

  • We can cope with three weeks of heat in Provence, but will we manage a full year?

  • Morvan in Burgundy is a beautiful, green area, but this is caused by many rain showers.

We have to make a choice!
The various web sites on the internet perfectly know how to influence the search engines. Within a couple of minutes I have the names of several friendly compatriots who offer their help in our search for a (second) house in France.

We do not want to reject these kind of offers and show interest for a number of houses.

We notice that the French housing agents are very reluctant to share information. We only find a very limited number of houses with scarce information, no exact location and hardly any pictures.

Later on we discover why the French agent is protecting his merchandise.

We choose for Allier, the region in the centre of France that used to be called Bourbonnais. 

Read more about our search for a house in [The search] and how we make [Our choice].

Next we have [The purchase], a few months later, followed by [The champagne].

Also [The administration] has its chapter. 

At the end of our story you will find our plans for [The future]. 

Click on the map for more details.