Deep and crisp and even

No not a pizza and it's too early for christmas - at least in my book.

I am talking about the snow which has arrived in the Haute Savoie, we live at 850m and there 4cm has fallen at our level.

Don't get too excited just yet, lifts won't be open for a while.

But it bodes well.

This is the Mole Mountain which lies between Geneva and Mont Blanc, it dominates the Arve valley and is a great winter ski tour and summer walk.



Miles Jefferson
www.chaletdoctors.com
For all your property needs in the French alps

Faux Pas

Well, we're coming up to Toussaint or All Saints day for us Brits and it reminded me of a slight foot in mouth experience I had when I first moved to France. Beware!

Invited out by some French friends in the village and being slightly unsure of the form, we hit upon the old standby of some flowers, as a gift.

And as it was the same sort of time of year and French shops, you may have noticed are at the moment rife with chrysanthemums, so our choice was easily made.

The colours are fabulous and the choice extensive, all in their own pots too.

I do recall a slight wistfulness on our host's face as I handed the flowers over, I wasn't sure whether it was because I had only gone for the single bisou on the cheek, not two as it should be here in the Haute Savoie (3 in the south of france - must be the heat) or for some other unknown reason.

Anyway passing a graveyard a year later, I realised what we had perpetrated, for there festooning every grave in the place was a myriad of the self same blooms.

It's obvious now, designed to commemorate the dead they don't go down too well with the not

Miles Jefferson
www.chaletdoctors.com
For all your property needs in the French alps

You've heard of the X Factor.......

Well we have the egg factor here in France.

Here I am on a saturday family evening, in the minority, and reminded of the impact of reality tv shows on our lives, but for the first time I think I have found a positive aspect of this genre of tv.

Not being able to elect parental control over the remote control I found myself being forcibly made to endure Strictly Come Dancing. IT; is on and there is nothing I can do about it.

Like all reality tv shows for 4O something grumpy blokes, I suppose.

But this evening I was heartened by the glimmering signs of my 9 year old daughter Amelia's complete immersion into this Country's country way of life, that not only has she become completely bilingual (but also cheeky with it - laughing at my French accent) but she has also learnt that her meat comes from animals and notprepackaged from supermarkets, but also that her tv has to be taken in context.

The other day she was helping me sort our flock of chickens into eaters and layers, we, being as we are self sufficient both in eggs and chicken meat thanks to our flock of Sussex and Rhode Island Red breeds, one being a multi purpose bird and the latter a pure egg layer.

Dependent on whether it is one or the other, certain birds can be awarded a given name and more importantly, for them at least, a lease of life. Others are just chickens for obvious reasons, with a one way to the pot.

Amelia, an avid X Factor fan suggested that we should give the chickens a chance at prolonging their own lives and reality reality was born in Mont Saxonnex, France, forget reality tv, or at least put it in perspective.

So we now have the egg factor.

You've guessed it, the ones that pass muster, laying the most and tastiest eggs before a panel of 3 judges get to survive - my daughter's idea entirely, I assure you.

Being at the same time quite aghast at her encyclopaedic knowledge of drivel like tv shows and fantastically proud of her humour and earthiness I am at a loss to decide whether to rip the sky dish off the wall of our farmhouse or tune it into the next episode of "who gives a **** as long as I have my Malcolm Mclaren 15 minutes show"

But she hasn't stopped either. She has also come up with, for our Gingers at least (yes named after Chicken run), a new competition "I would lay anything" dedicated to the tedious, in my mind, reality tv show to find the next Nancy.

Where will her mind take her next? Bloody brilliant.

I would like to point out that I am not Simon Cowell, we don't have the sister of a famous antipodean songstress on call, but my wife is a bit like Sharon and she says I am a bit like Ozzy too. Especially on saturday night.

Miles Jefferson
www.chaletdoctors.com
For all your property needs in the French alps

Editors note

No chickens were hurt in the making of this blog, unless they were designated an eater.

The weather

OK I know we Brits talk about the weather but let's face it it really is worth talking about here in the French Alps and just to prove that it wouldn't be the first thing I held a discourse on, I left it until item 10 on my blog.

But the pressure of 2,000 years meteorogical history and ingrained awkwardness in front of canapés can be resisted no more.

You can't keep a Brit off the subject I guess.

But there is a difference, the subject here not only merits discourse, but more often than not, it evokes silence and inspiration.

Speaking for itself rather than being the tame release from awkward social situations. You can be inspired by actual events; snow in August, sunburn in January, golf ball size hail to rival anything them across the pond can produce, better fog than SanFrancisco, albeit not as mobile and glory upon glory and what prompted me to write this piece, colours to rival New England and Canada manifested in the trees.

Where else than the Haute Savoie.

Miles Jefferson
www.chaletdoctors.com
For all your property needs in the French alps

Thanks to Adrian Frearson film maker and photographer of Mont Saxonnex, Haute Savoie for this pic of Mont Blanc

Eating out!

As pretty much a local these days having been here since 2004, I get fairly blasé about Savoyarde food, whilst hearty and filling if you over indulge you can quickly go off off it... for a time.

I remember gorging on paté, reblochon, tomme de savoie and comté when we first arrived in the region and then couldn't eat anything like it for 6 months. The maxim less is more definitely applies here.

But over time and little by little you eat more moderately and get schooled by the locals; my neighbour Charles introduced me to all sorts of combinations that I regret never having known about. For example the first time I tried a chilled Gerwuztraminer from Alsace with his home made sausage and cured ham, I was sold.


That combination of slight sweetness marries wonderfully with the salt and fat taste of the meat, it cannot be beaten. Yum. This is my own ham and sausage.

So here I was having lunch in the 4 épices in St Gervais the other day and I found myself ordering tartiflette, another freely available Savoyarde food item that normally I wouldn't have looked twice at, having been way too friendly with it in the past. But absence, heart and fonder my mouth was actually watering at the idea of this staple of wintry days and the thought of taking the chill off the air with this harbinger of winter actually left me relishing the carbohydrate boost that all that reblochon cheese, potato and lardon gives.


So I sat down to the restaurant's slight twist of the tartiflette and a crisp green salad with delicious oil and mustard dressing.

I don't know where the 4 épices got the idea from but instead of the usual oven proof dish presentation it looked as if it had been done like a tortilla - Crispy on both sides and not at all gloopy.

Not only did the 4 épices reinvigorate my liking for this dish but its not a bad restaurant either.

Try it next time you are in St Gervais.

• 138, avenue Mont Arbois 74190 Saint Gervais Les Bains
  
  
• Téléphone : 04 50 47 75 75

Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall take note! Tartiflette is made with Reblochon not Tomme!

Miles Jefferson
www.chaletdoctors.com
For all your property needs in the French alps

Les Contamines

Les Contamines is a less well known ski area in the French alps and I just don't know why that is. Just over an hour from Geneva, soon to be linked to the Mont Blanc area and less busy than Chamonix and Megeve which are nearby, it is a real gem. Long the home from home of Parisians and Lyonnais it has now been discovered by us Brits as it has enough piste skiing for most and some great off piste too. Savoyarde style restaurants and bars serving local cuisine make this an ideal and safe family environment.

I was there yesterday looking at a renovated 68m² apartment in an old hotel. Near to the centre of Les Contamines, but in a quiet location, this 2 bedroom 2 bathroom apartment will be finished in chablis and smoked wood. The easterly facing balcony is ideal for those morning coffees and the full width balcony is enough to avoid the cramped feeling you sometimes get from some apartments. It comes with all the guarantees of a new build apartment and you have a big say in how it will be finished, if you get in quick.

It comes with the usual cave and parking and the ski bus stop is 100m away and the asking price is 339,000€ which at under 5,000€/m² is very well priced for the French alps.

_

For more information please contact

miles@chaletdoctors.com

Miles Jefferson
www.chaletdoctors.com
For all your property needs in the French alps

Farm in St Gervais

Let the picture do the talking, this is what it is all about.

A lovely half farm in St Gervais dating from 1840 views of Mont Blanc for less than 400,000€ impossible - no - think again.

A steal at 355,000€

Miles Jefferson
www.chaletdoctors.com
For all your property needs in the French alps

EDF

It should be error delay and frustration and that is the most fun you can have with EDF (or Electricity de France)

If life was a monopoly board this is one utility company whose card you would leave well alone, but at times you may also be driven to rip it to pieces and burn the bits left and then scatter the ashes to the four winds.

If you have ever tried to get a new electricity connection then you might know how I feel. This is one of the less pleasurable aspects of what I do.

Client J bought a renovated property in St Gervais through us at chaletdoctors and part of the service we offer is to do everything that needs doing for the client. In this case as it was a renovation EDF oblige you to get a certificate of conformity, which is brilliant and a jolly good idea.

Except try getting one. You phone EDF with the reference numbers of the meters that they put in and try a few that you have invented for good measure and they have absolutely no idea what you are talking about. I think I would have been better off calling my mate Dave in London, at least I could have had a pleasant chat.

I am convinced that EDF's "customer services" compete with France Telecom's to do the most disservice to that department's appelation. But I think EDF edge the competition because they don't even talk to their own people, let alone us punters. Certainly not their technical department, whose simple task it was to meet me at the address in St Gervais between 1330 hrs and 1500hrs a few days ago.

Having given my contact details when I took the slot allocated by EDF and made sure that they had recorded my mobile number correctly, I dutifully hung around St Gervais, which is a pleasant little ski town, so normally no great task.

Eternal pessimist that I am, when it it comes to monolithic utility companies, anyway. I rang EDF just to make sure that I had not been forgotten, amazingly the pleasant lady at the other end even recited my mobile number and confirmed that it was all go and said that I would be contacted if there was any problem. I almost tipped my noisette down my front in shock.

Relishing the thought that at last they were actually going to fulfill a task at the first asking I allowed my thoughts to wander and briefly I thought of a brave new bureaucratic world where achievements were made and light switches could actually work.

Lost as I was in this fantasy. Before I knew it, we had arrived at and accelerated past the witching hour, but as this was France I allowed an extra 20 minutes for the j'arrive factor (this is what any French persons says when they are late, you expect that to mean 2 minutes they mean anytime in the next hour). My French colleague Laurence is a master at it, but us brits are pants. You say j'arrive and you do.

Anyway I digress, back to the debacle. So I ring EDF and point out J's lack of electricity and am stunned to be informed that the technician had been and gone. Cue apoplexy and steam contained within a shell of external calm (Miles - learn the lesson never shout at people in a public street in inadequate French - it just makes you look silly and achieves nothing and you know deep down the person to whom you are thinking vitriol but enouncing pleasantries is just gallicly shrugging their life away)

Having feebly accepted the new rendezvous sometime hence I was left to reflect on the waste of my life at that point and I concluded that there must be some new EDF think tank out there whose participants have come to the realisation that just as there is light and dark in the world - and that they have something to do with it, there is also late and early. They must have come up with the premise that they can't stop being late, after all they are French and a French utility company, so what to do? "I know, we can be early as well - that cancels all that late stuff out"

And I reckon that is what happened.



OK they are not all that bad - there are a few lights on in France.

Miles Jefferson
www.chaletdoctors.com
For all your property needs in the French alps

Whats your motivation?

Why come to live in another country? change everything that you know, have a limited or no understanding of the language, have a total feeling of vulnerability. Is it just for the fantastic view, the opportunity of giving your children the gift of being bilingual, the outdoor life or the attraction of living in the French Alps?

I don't know what my original motivation was to move here, I know we talked about it for a long time, but the actual move away from everything I knew was hard, but what a revelation, meeting people with the same aspirations of the mountain life, being welcomed by the community, the school and the neighbours. Here really does feel like home.

The motivation to start chaletdoctors came from the problems we experienced when buying our property here in the Haute Savoie, Using local agents is great to get a look at the local properties but that is it. No answers to the hundred and one questions that you have, No help with the all the extras such as insurance, phone lines, builders, furnishing, managment, letting and just about anything else you can think of.

Being on the ground so to speak, also having gone through the process ourselves gives you a great insight. Hopefully that will help you avoid some of the pitfalls.

N says thanks

Now we have spent a first few days in our new home we'd like to say a big thanks to you and all at Chalet Doctors for making the transaction as smooth and quick as possible. Right from the start it was clear that you had put a lot of thought into providing a range of property options to suit our budget along with some frank and honset advice on the pros and cons of each. Being our first purchase in France, we were a little concerned about negotiating our way through the French house buying market, but we needn't have been. The whole process was completed in 10 weeks from first viewing to accepting the keys, and in no small part this was because of the extra support that Chalet Doctors provided throughout the purchase - from arranging extra viewings at a moment's notice, to negotiating with vendors and government officials on our behalf. The level service provided from start to finish was second to none. Now we can look forward to spending many summer and winter holidays in our new beautiful new alpine residence, and hopefully make some extra pocket money along the way. We'll certainly be in touch to see if you can help



This is the unedited email and all I have changed is the font.

Miles Jefferson
www.chaletdoctors.com
For all your property needs in the French alps

How big can I afford?

I am sure you have arrived at a budget, what you think you might want to spend on a place in the mountains, but do you know if you can borrow that amount? If you do great; read on.

If you don't ask our mortgage advisor. It helps define your search and keeps you realistic.

First things first, think about how much time you think you will spend using it, what is guaranteed is that friends and relatives will come out of the woodwork as soon as you have announced your intention to buy a ski chalet or apartment.

So think about this, after all the getaway is for you and doesn't work if some of the things that you are trying to get away from come with you.

Or just keep quiet!

This may help you focus on how many bedrooms you might want as well.

Then think about your budget, if you can stretch to owning a property outright then you avoid the copropriete charges, but are then responsible for all the upkeep. Don't forget to include, utility bills, insurance costs in your equation. Also ask yourself if you want to spend all your holiday time hacking at the metre high grass in summer or the same depth of ice in winter.


Maybe you can persuade some F****R's to help?

Of course I mean Friends and Relatives.


But if you can't get them to do it then we can find someone who can.

So if you need someone to cut the grass, someone to maintain your property, need wood to burn, or replacement bedlinen any of those things that take up holiday time. Then just ask us we are here to help.

info@chaletdoctors.com

Farmhouse

It is the dream for a lot of people who move over here, buy a farmhouse for a song, quick lick of paint and there you go. Fabulous views of Mont Blanc and a short drive to Megeve or Chamonix all for less than a family day out to Wembley. Trouble is, the reality for most, the work involved in renovating a 200 year old building which needs a new roof, new electrics and a fosse septique is beyond most people.

But for those with the vision
You can turn this















Into this














If you have the cash you can achieve the caché.

For more information please contact miles@chaletdoctors.com

There are some hidden gems out there

It's funny how things go. My first appointment blew out so I had an early lunch and got chatting to a French couple at the next table. Lo and behold they had some land for sale and not just a tiddly one chalet parcel of land either, but 1.5 hectares of land between St Gervais and Les Contamines in the the Haute Savoie.

Flat as well. Should please the flat earthers as well as prospective new builders!

I should explain that I am Miles and with Danielle we run www.chaletdoctors.com and I will be posting all things relevant to buying a home in France, I live and work the dream and will tell you about it over the coming months.