Premian

Exactly one week after our planned first visit and feeling optimistic we set off yet again for the airport and though the knock on effects were still being felt this time fate was on our side. We flew into Perpignan and landed in France on Thursday the 6^th April very excited at what hopefully lay ahead. With the help of Keith Pow-Williams at ALR Associates we had made appointments with 3 local agents to view properties, based on the fairly broad criteria we had given him.

We had booked into the Chateau Saint Martin des Champs at Murviel les Béziers, it did not disappoint, lovely surroundings and extremely friendly staff. We set out on the Friday full of optimism to see 2 agents and saw a total of 5 properties, most of them below our fairly modest budget, but needing various amounts of renovation or refreshment. We had seen a couple of possibilities but wondered about the difficulties that we would have to undergo having to oversee a renovation project from the UK whilst speaking very little French.

On the Saturday morning we had an appointment with Jenny Malmberg at AFI agency at Bedarieux, and set off bright and early from the relative plains to the mountains. The first property she showed us, whilst having potential was not for us, we then travelled along the D908 heading for Premian. The mountain scenery around every bend was breathtaking, the valley was full of cherry trees in blossom, I was captivated – if we were to buy in Herault then it had to be in the hills. The second house we saw that day was in the village of Premian but was a little large for us, we then walked further along the village to the next property, we both had the same feeling – this was it, our perfect holiday home, and the mountain view I so dearly wanted from my window.

After many weeks planning and researching online, reading up on several departments and looking at what we could get for our budget the time was right to go and visit France. We felt that the Languedoc offered us everything we wanted and planned our visit to the Herault region of the Languedoc in the south of France. We were looking forward to the trip, and hoping to find our perfect holiday home or at least begin to narrow down the type of property we wanted, in what is a very diverse area of mountains, plains, coastline and of course vineyards!

Alas, things were not to go as smoothly as we’d hoped and in the week leading up to our trip there was unrest in France due to the new Youth Employment Laws that had been introduced. Our lives suddenly became obsessed by watching the news and looking on Ryanair’s website for news on the effect on flights. Some flights were being cancelled, some were still going ahead, so on the morning of Thursday 30th March 2006, our bags packed and our hearts full of uncertainty we left for the airport. We had just got onto the A1 when we got a text from a friend (thanks Tony), to tell us that our flight had been cancelled. Gutted, (sorry but there is no other word for it), we got off at the next exit and came home. Once home, determined our trip would go ahead, although things were still very uncertain due to no resolution and threats of yet more strikes we rebooked for the following week.

Comment – Its hard to be unbiased when affected by such chaos but one must look at the wider picture – I read that youth unemployment stands at 23% in France.