This week we meet Tony and Natasha, who have recently settled in the Dordogne along with Natasha’s 75 year old mum. The welcome they have received from their new home in the Dordogne is heartwarming.
Tony originates from East London, while Natasha and her mum are from Ukraine. Tony and Natasha arrived in France in early February this year, while Natasha’s mum followed a few months later when the couple finally received keys to the property they had bought.
It was the end of a whirlwind adventure for all three of them, inspired by watching A Place In The Sun during Covid.
“We were stuck indoors watching that in lockdown and then we came here on holiday for three years on the trot. We visited all the regions of the Dordogne and also travelled through France to visit other areas, such as the Loire Valley and the Champagne region, but we just fell in love with the Dordogne. There was just something about it that we weren’t expecting.”
For Tony, the pace of life was a revelation. “For me, it was like going back in time and I can revisit my childhood while I’m here. It reminds me very much of ‘Old England’ – everyone’s smiling. I’m not saying they don’t smile in England, but it’s so friendly here! We realised that if we were to consolidate what we had in the UK, we could afford something really nice here and almost semi-retire, but have a gite business as well…”
“That was naive thinking”, laughs Natasha. “We told the agent we didn’t want a project, but we ended up buying a huge project! We’ve just ordered 29 windows, so you can imagine the size and the scale of it.”
A Place In The Sun was more than an inspiration. It was also how Tony and Natasha met Richard Hammond from French Connections HCB. “We went to the ‘Place In The Sun’ show at Olympia and met Richard and his team on their stand there.”
Tony greatly appreciates the help Richard gave them.
“What I like about Richard is there’s no leading you down a garden path and suddenly saying, ‘Oh sorry, we can’t go any further’. He openly tells you the facts and the risks and how to do things the right way. French administration is a minefield! I’ve run my own businesses, been in the corporate world, and my experience is that if you’ve got experts in their field, try to use them if you can afford them because it will save you an awful lot of time and money and you will know where you stand. That was paramount for us because we were taking a huge risk by selling up. “
It was fortunate that Tony and Natasha had already asked for Richard’s advice because things moved faster than they could ever have foreseen.
“We put our house on the market thinking it might take 6-8 months, but we sold within two weeks, cash buyer, full asking price! That sort of accelerated us putting in the offer on our house in France, which was accepted, and we were thinking, ‘Well, this is real now!’ To have Richard there to help us through the process of how fast the next steps would be, and knowing that we weren’t going to fall foul of being tripped up, was very reassuring because we were essentially homeless in the UK for about a month…”
Natasha agrees. “It was a bit more than a month actually. During that time, Tony stayed with his parents while Mum and I stayed with my sister, who also lives in London. After that, we rented somewhere here in France for a few weeks before we got the keys to the house, so we were apart in England but reunited in France!’
Tony smiles at the memory. “As lovely as it is moving back in with your parents and moving in with your sister, it made us realise how lucky we are to have our own house!”
As Tony and Natasha’s plans began to take shape, they naturally included Mum ‘whether she wanted to or not!’ as Tony laughingly puts it.
Visas for all three were not a problem. Tony was already a UK citizen and Natasha had lived in the UK for over 20 years and holds a British passport, but it was surprisingly easy to include Mum’s application with their own.
“We submitted Mum’s visa application along with ours, with her declared as a dependant. We had to provide a letter saying that we would be looking after her and that she would be living with us. She also needed special medical insurance because of her age.”
Tony admits that Natasha’s mum was initially hesitant about the property and the location they had chosen.
“From what Natasha tells me, her experience of doing refurbs in the Ukraine with Natasha’s father wasn’t always plain sailing, so she’s had some bad experiences. I think she was expecting something more finished on the main house; she found it quite grand but very big. The thing that really concerned her is that we are classed as rural, even though we are in a little hamlet, whereas Natasha and her mum have always lived in cities, in Ukraine and later on the outskirts of London, and it’s a huge change.”
Being made to feel welcome by the people in their hamlet has been hugely important to all of them.
Natasha explains: “We have lovely neighbours. Our nearest neighbour was a Head Gardener in Montpellier. His garden is absolutely spectacular – he should be charging money for people to go in! He gives us plants constantly as well as advice. He and his wife took us to the village where there was an African concert and they introduced us to local people and kind of adopted us in a way.”
Tony agrees: “Yes, we are very lucky to have them as neighbours because although Jackie doesn’t speak much English, his wife Christine is an English teacher, so she is helping us with our French and we are helping them with their English. The other neighbours are a selection: a couple from Paris who come here for the whole summer, and an English woman who has married a French guy. We are all really close. We’ve also met loads of people just around the area, mainly Brits but also a Russian and some more Ukrainians. We have a better social life here in a couple of months than we had in years in England.”
Meanwhile, Tony and Natasha have been going full steam ahead with the first gite.
“We are up and running! Thankfully we have two properties here that are liveable. The main house is not a refurbishment; it has been built very traditionally but it’s only 14 years old and is not completed, so it’s basically a blank canvas. Natasha sees it as quite daunting but I’m from the construction industry and for me, although it’s quite a big area to do, once we get started it will happen very quickly. We are marketing one of the gites this year, basically as a learning curve for us and something we can manage, so hopefully we don’t make too many mistakes. We also took a lot of advice from people in and around the area and we’ve spent 12 months doing our due diligence on what we need to do and the best way to do it. We put up our website and went on platforms three weeks ago and we’re almost fully booked for the period we anticipated, which is pretty good, we think.”
As they settle into their new life, the help from Richard and the French Connections team has been ongoing, as Natasha explains. “We’ve just been to Bordeaux for our medical, so now Richard will be applying for our carte Vitale, and then in November he’ll apply for an extension of our visa.”
Tony is the first to admit that Richard’s expertise has been crucial In terms of navigating complex business rules.
“Richard is helping with the set-up of the business and he registered our company for us. He has also given us strong advice on what we can and can’t do functionally as a business to fit in with Brexit rules. Not only regarding the gite, but also working remotely back in the UK if I have to. All of that has been invaluable. With our visa, we want to be seen to be doing everything right and it helps to have a good understanding of how the process works on the legalities of Brexit. I don’t even think the French always know what the rules are; it seems to be a moving target!”, laughs Tony.
We’ve promised to catch up with Tony and Natasha again at the other end of the year for an update on what they have learned from their first year running a gite.
In the meantime, if you are moving to France, or already here and looking for advice, we invite you to visit our YouTube channel where you will find a growing selection of ‘How To’ videos that take you step by step through many of the administrative processes. These include visa applications, car registration, buying a property, applying for a carte de Séjour and eligibility for French health cover. We’ll be recording and uploading new videos every week.
If you are stuck and need help with your specific situation, you can book an initial 30 minute consultation with one of our team here. The consultation costs 90 euros but that amount is fully deducted for the first service you book with us.
And if you are planning to visit the Dordogne, you’ll find Tony and Natasha’s beautiful gite at www.latrilogiedor.com
