It is certainly time for an update…to recap, on Friday, September 2, we made an offer on the Bed and Breakfast we visited in France in June. Since May, we have been corresponding with the sellers, who in the last 12 years bought, restored, started and operated Repos a’ Riberac in Southwest France, and we saw the property ourselves in June. Finally, we were able to make an offer and they accepted.
Since then, the notaire in France has drawn up a Compromis de Venti, a purchase sale agreement, and taken our 10% down payment(now in an escrow account) and a 400 euro admin fee. By the way, the exchange rate on the day we wired the money was the best it has been in a week–Yay!
We received and read all of the inspection reports (lead, asbestos, termites, water drainage, electric…so many reports). Yes, they were all in French, so Google translate has become our best friend. We received and read the entire agreement, translated into English. The sellers signed last Friday, and all went well until we tried to sign via Docusign.
Ah…our first French/American hiccup. It seems that it is common for French official documents to use a woman’s maiden name–no problem there, as I just signed the document using my maiden name. The problem is Docusign has only one ID they will accept to verify your identity–your passport. My passport is in my legal name, which is my married name. My identity would not match. In another verification issue, Darrell’s cell phone is erroneously listed with a French country code, not allowing him to verify. We have been trying for the last four days to connect with the notaire to explain the issue–we have signed, but can’t finalize because of the identity verifications. We haven’t gotten any response. Perhaps he thinks it is a Docusign issue, not his issue?
So, yesterday morning, we got on a call with the sellers who speak fluent French and live in the town where the notaire has his office. They paid him a visit today, and we’ve learned that the notaire’s office is now going to send us another document that we will sign with a notary here in the US and then we will have a fully executed agreement! Voila! Here is what I have learned:
–Find your allies if you’re not getting what you need; there is help–sometimes you just have to look for it another way, and when in a real pinch–find someone who speaks French!
–if at all possible, do business in France in person
–don’t expect the French to change their way of doing things just because it is not working, find a way to make it work
All that being said, we expect to be able to execute our side of this agreement by the end of the week, and we are buying Repos a’ Riberac, a chambres d’hotes, in southwest France! It is a lovely mid-19th century fully renovated town house, courtyard, and converted stables in the center of Riberac, a lively market village of 4000 people. Our closing date is tentatively scheduled for December 9, and we will be there to sign the papers, get the keys, and pop a bottle of champagne!
So many emotions right now–excitement, fear, trepidation..
Every night and at odd moments in the day, I think can we really do this? Will we make enough money to live? Have we bitten off way more than we can chew? What about all of the things I haven’t thought of? In those moments, I take a deep breath (or Darrell takes one and helps me take one) and think, “ONE STEP AT A TIME.” This will be hard, but we can do it.
We would love to have you (and your friends, family, acquaintances, neighbors, etc.) visit us in France–the sellers are reserving rooms beyond the close date for us (so kind of them!), so feel free to reserve if your plans take you to Southwest France in the coming year. The website for the B & B and the booking.com site are below:
https://www.booking.com/hotel/fr/repos-a-riberac-b-amp-b.html
Also, the property has a lovely eco loft apartment on AirBNB that is part of our purchase–it is newly renovated space on the upper floor of the converted stables. You can find that here:
A Cariad Life 
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