Tuxedocat

Well, at least it's not well-liked. Summer travelers beware. We bought a house just south of the Loire Valley in an idyllic little village, right on the town square. My husband's ancestors came from this very town some 300+ years ago and we were psyched to get in for 2 weeks in mid-July to do some renovating work, travel around a bit, etc. We had inquired about installing a/c and our neighbors were all insisting that the weather is so lovely that a/c is never required. They keep forgetting we're Americans... The long and short of it, my husband now says we'll never go back in summer without a/c. Since we're on the town square, that once adorable 17th century church was announcing the hour 24 hours day and night. It's like living with Quasimoto. We didn't sleep well as you never get any R.E.M. and of course, you can't close those lovely, quaint, shuttered windows (no screens, they don't believe in screens either) because it's so warm otherwise. AAHHHH! Did I mention the trucks thundering by all hours of the day and night as all of France rushes to get the work done so everyone can go on vacation in August? So much for living the "Chocolat" life. Only plus, our mayor (or maire) is a peach of a guy. We also visited Geneva and London this trip and the a/c is scarce in those 2 places too. Even the 5 star Beaux Rivage in Geneva had some anemic a/c. Makes me want to buy stock in "Trane" amd take it to Europe. Please feel free to ask questions about the TGV and Eurostar trains which we used to travel. Now those had a/c.

francophile03

So reality sets in now. But at least you have a house in the Loire and I don't!

rex

So... you wanna rent it to me for the full month of 2007... for a dollar?

I'll cope.



Best wishes,

Rex

Robespierre

You bought a house without realizing that the church bells tolled the hours and trucks used the roads outside?

Interesting.

LoveItaly

LOL, Tuxedocat, it is always a very good idea to check everything out before buying property, the location, the local rules and regulations, the noise factor and so forth and so on.

I don't know which country you are a citizen of but I do hope you did check out the French law regarding inheritance issues regarding real estate.

Anyway, I hope you two are able to adjust to the European way of life and will be able to enjoy your new home in France in the future.

tower

Tux...name of village, please...so us map freaks can get a thrill out of finding it. Merci...
Stu T.

Scarlett

One of the reasons I am so afraid of buying anything without living there for at least 6 months..
But at least you can put in a/c and screens and with the a/c on, you will have the windows closed and the rumble of trucks will not be so bad, the bells you can get used to..

Pegontheroad

Earplugs!

Michael

AC is becoming more common, but alternatives are always sought, and at any rate, it is usually not set as low as in the States. The new Vesuna museum in Périgueux has no AC and presumably was designed to stay relatively cool even in the summer; Jean Nouvel did not succeed to well with this one.

parisnow

France Loire Valley, sighhhh
Churchbells in the blissful night sky, aahhhh.

Police and Fire Sirens SCREAMING every 5 minutes causing you to ask "Whats REM". Snowplows, garbage trucks BEEP BEEP at 4-5 in the morning. Screens? Oh those things that let in the city smog and carbon dioxide. Central Air? Cool recirculated, recirculated, recirculated, recirculated air because I can't open the window. See above.

Just being my typical Devil's Advocate self!

FauxSteMarie

This sort of issue just makes me more firm in my decision never to buy in Europe. You own a place in Europe? Every time you spend a bundle to go over there, you spend all your time working on the house for YEARS before you can enjoy it.

Rent someone else's aggravation and ask about the church bells first. That is a familiar problem. I stayed in a B&B once in the heat in Austria. Every fifteen minutes all night the church bells rang. We couldn't close the windows because it was too darn hot.

Live and learn. And, if you install a/c, you are going to get one heck of an electricity bill. Electricity is much more expensive in Europe--which is the real reason a/c is rarer.

parisnow

O.K. I'm back after closing my eyes for a minute to dream of those quaint lovely shutters, breathing in the fresh Loire Valley night air, with a honey bee buzzing around the window, and people with a work ethic rushing about to finish their projects so they can enjoy their long anticipated vacation.

JOLT! Wide awake from that !@#$ Police siren wailing outside my double pane closed window with bars on it. Nasty roach outside my window trying to make my home his. (Pesticide or dog's health?) Crackhead loitering down the block waiting for me to go to work so he can burglarize my home to support his habit.

Have I made my point yet? Appreciate what you have, things could be worse!

AnthonyGA

Note that in some jurisdictions in France (such as Paris), there may be city ordinances against installing visible air-conditioning on the outside of a building. (All A/C requires some sort of external component to exhaust the heat.) There are often also many other rules and regulations about what you can or cannot do to your home, especially on the outside.

LoveItaly

Regarding church bells, I sleep so well when I hear the church bells in Italy. One thing I miss here at home. But we are all so different.

asbachnate

Most Germans don't have A/C because they are convinced it will make them ill ( a Germans worst fear).
In fact, I have no idea why BMW bothers putting A/C in their German made cars as every time I have turned on my A/C my passengers quickly close the nearest vent or ask me to turn it off as they are convinced it will give them a sore neck in the morning or cause them some phantom illness that only Germans get.
Ever try opening a window no a German train? Don't!!! lol

Dukey

I ove it when they come over to this forum from the Caribbean so they can fleece "the locals" and it certainly happened this time!

monpetit

More we advance in times, more T° is
growing...
Part of this elevated temperatures is pollution and great part of pollution is...A/C...(in cars, you have directly
the fact : more A/C is used, more the fuel consomation is high...and T° around the car is high...: open the windows
is less confortable but enough in the majority of cases...).
So, more you use A/C and more you'll
need it in the future...
Quadrature of the circle : we want well
being without thinking to the future...
An individual effort of anyone, because our gvt are unable to be courageous in taking some intelligent but unpopular
decisions should perhaps not inverse but
at least slowered the phenomen...
I don't think A/C for 15 days of high temperatures/year will be absolutely
a necessity...
Erik.

flanneruk

Tuxedocat and her husband have a very simple decision to make.

Either accept that they must adapt to the town they've bought a house in.

Or sell the house now, before wasting any more money on what they call "renovation"

Unlike the Cotswolds or Umbria, there's no profit going to be made at any point in the near future by selling a modified house. France has too many rural places, and there just aren't enough daft Londoners to inflate prices. Sitting on a house they can't live in will get Mr + Mrs Tuxedo nowhere.

But unlike southern Spain, central France is generally pretty robust about stopping houseowners from destroying other people's views. So it's very likely they won't be allowed to change anything at the front of their house (so no flyscreens, no a/c vents) And in a small town, it's possible they won't be allowed to mess around with screens or vents on any other wall.

There's no point whingeing about this. The Tuxedos have decided to buy a house in France, not in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. The citizens of the town manage perfectly happily with natural ventilation, the comforting sound of church bells and the odd moth in the bedroom. They're not going to change any of that, or allow incomers to ruin their streetscape or the view from their back bedroom.

France isn't going to adapt to the Tuxedos. If the Tuxedos aren't going to understand how to ventilate the house and invest in earplugs, they really ought to cut their losses right away.

PBProvence

They don't "detest" AC here in France, it's just that electricity costs a lot more, and screens are readily available everywhere. I put them in my house before I started indoor renovations in 1993 - and they're very discreet, rolling up and down, rather like blinds.

And those church bells ? I would have appreciated hearing ours, but I live too far outside the village. When I first moved here from city center Brussels, I couldn't sleep because it was too damn quiet. I've adapted, and I'm sure you will too once you've stay longer than two weeks - after awhile you won't even hear them. Sort of the way we don't even hear the roar of the cicadas (cigales) after the first week or so in summer.

Patricia

MyriamC

>>I don't think A/C for 15 days of high temperatures/year will be absolutely a necessity...<<
15 days? We've had almost two months of unbearable heat this summer (June and July, and I'm in Belgium). I'm so glad we had A/C installed in our bedrooms when we moved into this house. At least we could sleep decently.
OK, we won't have this kind of summers every year (and I sure hope we won't!) but global warming is a fact. Besides, we don't use our A/C only for cooling purposes but also for deshumidification in the spring and the fall.