Friday 6th – Céret

Wow! Not the result we expected, or really wanted. We have put in an “Intention to Purchase” on an old apartment in Céret. We had allowed 2 weeks here in the Pyrenees, 2 weeks in Liguria, Italy, and 2 weeks in northern Tuscany to look for a house, and here we are on our very first day signing (though not irrevocably) bits of paper to buy in Europe. Very scary, and we feel a bit overwhelmed.

First thing in the morning, a street washing machine went by, followed later on by a street sweeping machine. Such a nice contrast to Italy which was dusty, messy and in Naples totally disgusting. We started the day by touring local agents, the first two of whom more or less laughed at our minimal budget and said “no chance”. The next couple had some places vaguely closer to budget, but really pretty awful. I should say here that Céret ticks most of our boxes – near the Med (39 mins), big enough to have plenty of services, cafes, bakers, restaurants, supermarket etc. (7500 residents), character (it still has a near-mediaeval centre), lots of walks and MTB riding close, decent transport links and so on.

Little sitting room in our hotel

The last place we went to was one we visited last time here and amazingly one of the agents remembered and said “you were here in October 2009”. The principal said “come with me” and took us to a building plumb in the centre of the old town on the church square where he showed us two apartments that he had got in the previous day. The first was larger (60m²) but smelly, gloomy and awkward. The second was 47m², but only two rooms plus bathroom, i.e. a studio apartment. However it had three huge double shuttered windows looking out onto the square, and the rooms were very generous, light and airy. More important, the price was within our budget, and all the expensive work like new wiring and plumbing has been done, though the decorating hasn’t. We were quite impressed.

The agent had to head off, so we went back to our room to discuss it before meeting him again at 3pm. Very tricky. We have all this time ahead of us to look, and at lunchtime on the very first day we think we have what we want. The story from all the agents here was that further inland is not healthy real estate-wise, though Céret is. Judging from prices and the number of properties for sale, we’d have to agree. Our original choice (using the internet and Google and whatever to help us look) of Vernet-les-Bains looked lovely, but is heading down as the French no longer frequent spa towns like they used to. It is also another ¾ hour inland, which was always a bit of a problem. By contrast, it is quite clear that Céret is in very good shape – it is clean and bright, shops are busy, and there are plenty of people about even this early in the season.  At 3pm we were told somebody else has been through and will offer asking price, and we need to move. So after a fraught few hours, we signed an “Intention to Purchase” form. It is a step before an offer, and in France even on an accepted offer there is a 7-day cool-off period when you can back out free of charge. So here we are at the end of our first day of 6 weeks of house-hunting having signed up for an offer! We didn’t sleep well.