Dordogne - we did it!
 

So we did buy the place in the Dordogne and it is beautiful.

Obviously it will take sometime to complete, but we are already thinking of the best way to arrange furnishings etc. I have a few questions that i would be grateful if anyones has any views on.

Would it be better to buy things such as sofas, televisions, tables, cushions, garden furniture etc in the UK and have them shipped to the house or is it just as economic to buy such things locally in the Dordogne. I noticed Peregueux had quite a few large shops. There are companies that deliver to France from the UK and charge by the weight.

Initially at least there will need to be quite a few deliveries to the property ( furniture, sky, boradband etc) and we will need someone to be there to take delivery. We would obviously pay someone to take delivery and wondered whether this is a service people have heard of being provided.

Many thanks in advance.

I don't know of any service of people waiting for delivery, but since you will probably need some kind of property manager to look after things when you are not there, this is certainly something they should do.

Regarding where you should buy furniture, etc., I will give you my personal and possibly controversial response. If you have a house in France and are going to benefit from living in France, why not buy what you need here. I have to say it really bothers me how many British people in this area live as if they were still in the UK. If it's good enough to live here, why isn't it good enough to shop here?

There are large shops in Perigueux and Bordeax, usually in industrial areas outside the centre of the city - not sure where you have bought. In addition there are IKEA stores in Bordeaux and Toulouse. We've bought from all of them over the years.

And you mention you will be having SKY set up. Why not a French service? Orange, the French national system has TV through their broadband network (with English language channels), depending where you live. In addition there is Canalsat, which again gives you English language programs. Both however have the full French public Television system, as well as a number of specialist French channels - cooking, decorating, history, etc.

My personal crusade is to have more people actually integrating into France, rather than spending their time here as if it was the UK. End of rant.

I agree with Carlux.

A French house should have French furniture. With the possible exception of the beds ;)

Actually, we have French beds, and they are just fine.

Agree completely with Carlux. You have a home in France now. Start by being a French resident and not importing everything from the UK. I'm not British, but I bought every single thing for my Dordogne home in France. Did a huge delivery from the IKEA in Bordeaux, picked up the rest at brocantes and local sales.

With regard to deliveries, I mostly arranged to be there myself when things were delivered, but I also talked to all my neighbors and eventually found one who was happy to act as a kind of property manager for certain things, including deliveries. You can do that or you can hire one of the super-expensive (British) companies like Simply Périgord to do it for you if, for example, your French isn't adequate to work directly with the locals (and if it isn't, please take lessons).

Can't help with the TV, as we don't have one anymore, but also agree that you should subscribe to a French service.

Carlux, it's just that French beds tend to be a bit short. Otherwise they are fine I agree.

Half the fun of furnishing a second home is, I would think, touring the brocantes and finding gems for it.

All sound advice.

I am not cencerned with the nationaility of the retailer so much as going to 20 different shops for twenty different items. I like the sounds of IKEA and thank you for that tip.

I am enhancing my French by way of tuition as i fully expect to integrate as much as possible. I haven't bought in France to mix with Brits - i do that all year. No offence to us Brits, but....

For anyone looking to buy beds in France, they normally come in:
90x190 cm. Although I see IKEA now does 90 by 200.

140 by 190 cm. - double. This used to be pretty much what you got as a double bed when we first moved here. It was difficult to get wider and longer.

HOWEVER, now it is quite easy to get 160 by 200 cm. equivalent to a queen size bed, which I seem to remember is 80 inches, or 203 cm. long.

If you want king size, normally it's two 90 cm beds put together, (Can then be 200 cm long) although not many French rooms are big enough.

A useful thing to know is that the box spring (sommier) can be a problem with narrow staircases. Although the mattress itself was flexible, we could never have got a 160cm. box spring up our stairs - it wouldn't even go through the window, the other typical approach. That's why you can get box springs at 80 or 90 cm wide. Just put them together. The store where we bought ours in Sarlat did it for us.

The advantage of buying here is that you get to know local merchants, and develop a relationship, and important part of living in France. SO now when I go to buy bedding, or linens, I know Jean-Claude Durand from having shopped there, from meeting him at the Mayor's house, etc. We always have a chat, and he usually gives me a discount!