Well we find ourselves back in Conflon, a beautiful place and really ironically I was just literally across the road a few weeks ago. Funny how these things happen and just coincidence in terms of that. I'm actually here today in Conflon seeing a lovely Irish couple who recently moved here.
They took ownership last November of this beautiful property, which if you're just looking, we're literally situated on the river here. The bridge is there moving away from us. I've had a little look around, but I'm going to give you a really good look around in a minute of what they've done with this place.
what they're looking to do, and also I've got a fantastic interview with them about why they chose here, how easy, how difficult it was to move to France, what they're looking to do, and actually find out just a little bit more about this really fascinating couple, what they're doing, and everything that's here. So, let's go and have a look. Well, over the years we holidayed in France with the kids as they were growing up.
And I always said to Colonel, when the boys grew up and flayed a nest, so to speak, that we would try it ourselves, come back and try and find a property and give it a go. And so here we are. No regrets. I suppose I started the ball rolling.
Carmel picked the ball up and ran with it and caught me by surprise when she said she had organized everything really and off we went and we arrived here and that's it. I suppose we've always loved France. Like, I think it's got a real kind of family vibe about it.
I know sometimes people think with rose-coloured tinted glasses, it's not all for everybody. It doesn't suit some people. But for us, like when we came over here last year, it wasn't everything we thought it was going to be. But when we came to Confluence and stayed here, it was a very different experience, and we just fell in love with the area, and fell in love with the people from the time we actually... arrived.
At Confluence, people were really helpful in the restaurant, in the Chambord d'Hôte, in the shops and we were only here for two days and I think that made a bigger impression on us for the area of Confluence more than France. Well I suppose basically when we decided we were moving to France then it was to find a property so what we did was we went on to all the websites and we picked houses that we thought we would like so for us in our head we thought we wanted to have a house that we would have our family and our friends come visit us we wanted to have a swimming pool we wanted to have a large garden because Sean wants to go around he always wanted to ride on lawnmower And as well as that we wanted to have sheets because we wanted to have an extra income, you know, to keep us going like. So what we did was we shortlisted 12 properties the whole way down from De Serves to Toulouse, which was, I think we did approximately how many thousand miles?
I don't know. It was a lot of traveling. So we set off from Ross Lair last June, our two week holiday in France, just me and Sean. And we started off and In the various locations where we were, what we did was we looked at different properties with different house agencies.
And we just happened to, we were driving down the motorway and Sean had said to me, he said, well where do you want to stay tonight or how long more do you want me to drive? And I said, shall we drive for another hour? And I just went into Bookman.com and Confluence came up and I said, right, that looks like a nice B&B beside the bridge.
And we just booked in here overnight. and the next morning then we just started talking to the guys who owned it and they said they were thinking about selling and we had a look around i said sean come on downstairs and have a look and we went off then that day went down as far as chile absolutely beautiful city beautiful properties down in the area and then we kind of fell in love with another property down there but there was something about confluence and i think it was the location it was the people it was the house was right beside the van river It had access onto the river as well as that it had absolutely stunning views from every single bedroom and every single room in the house like and that even to this day is actually evidential because sometimes I can't find Sean because I say Sean he could be down the bottom terrace he could be on the garden he could be on the balcony terrace he could be on the bottom terrace He could be just simply sitting outside on the bridge talking to all the neighbours. And it's about having a community feeling. So I loved all that when we came here.
We both did. And then we went back home to Ireland. It just happened that we had sold our house. There was a lot of things going on and Sean worked full time in kennels.
He was self-employed. I was a manager in tourism industry. And we just kind of felt now was the time we wanted to have a chance. change so we came back on to the guys made him an offer and the rest was history well as carmel said we left ross lear in the southeast of ireland and we arrived in cherbourg we were obviously driving and we started our journey from there and the first place we actually stayed in overnight was a little cheese in the middle of the country it was absolutely lovely stayed there for one night and we continued our journey the following day and I was driving and Driving for what four or five hours maybe and Carmel actually said to me How long more do you want to drive for because you know you must be getting tired said i am sure look if we give it another hour maybe so that was fine she went on to her googly googly on the phone and came up with uh this summer water uh in confluence and we arrived here that night it was late 10 o'clock actually and uh it was nine well it was nine o'clock actually we were hungry we got it you got it on this yeah yeah yeah we went for something to eat a restaurant across the way in the square we knew nine o'clock everything closed in france yeah and we arrived here then and we met Nick and we met him in more detail the following morning as we were having breakfast he appeared and had some coffee with us and and we said we were here to view properties and he said well I was often thinking about selling the place here and all right as I and put no more pests on it I looked around at one stage Carmel was gone he was showing her around where we are now downstairs here and I didn't realize what was going on to be honest So we set off our journey that day, later on that day, and we headed south and viewed properties, some stunning properties I have to say, some good, some not so good, some excellent. But the excellent ones were pretty isolated, we didn't want that, we wanted to be around people.
So we viewed all the properties we had, didn't find the right ones, so we ended up back in Confluence for a second night's stay. And spoke to Nick again, took it more seriously, and looked at the place. in more detail. The rest is history. We had it back to Ireland, spoke about it on the phone to Nick or an email or whatever it was, I can't remember what, but anyway we met on offer and it was accepted.
And the rest is history as they say, we ended up back in Confluence and we're here for good now since, I think we're here since July. So we arrived in Cherbourg. We actually decided to come there and we actually rent us a jeep further up north in a little town called, or a village rather, Chateau D'Aune, which is in the Loire region of France. And we spent four weeks there. Beautiful.
The weather was great. Fantastic, if you know what I mean. And we were there for four weeks. Then we arrived down here in Confluence. Our furniture arrived before we even got here.
Nick and Mary, the previous owners, in fairness to them, unloaded the truck. all our furniture was here we you know when we arrived everything was here and they actually let us move in not a piece of paper signed and no money yet changed hands and I couldn't believe this sort of thing but as Nick explained everything was done on trust and that was fine with us and you know we settled in and the guys actually said to us if you want to make changes you can start now if you want we don't mind so we bulldozed into it and started the Cosmo cosmetic surgery is the sale all that sort of thing like you know what I mean and it was fantastic really we couldn't have asked for better the guys were fantastic with us and let us go ahead like that you know we could have been three months behind at this stage where we are now only for the guys like you know but we were here for the long run we were here to stay and they knew it so they had every fate in us so after our offer was accepted and I think the paperwork was very intimidating Sean doesn't really like paperwork so I kind of I suppose I just went ahead and did it so we had to do things like I'm lucky enough the guy who's gave us a notary in France here who speaks English and we made contact with him we had to set him up as a direct debit then we had to try and get the deposit across to him and all in all it took from when we made the offer in July we actually only got the property signed over to us in the end of November and we had to open a bank account because to open a bank account here in France there's lots of different paperwork. It took about three different appointments to actually get that to get bank cards, to get checks to get house insurance on the property. You couldn't do that unless you had something else.
You couldn't do something else with something else So I suppose from the time that we actually started until the time we actually moved in here there was a lot of paperwork and paperwork and it can be very daunting It really can be very daunting like I suppose I take I do a lot of admin so I didn't mind doing any of that I If Sean had known all the paperwork going on he would have just thrown his hat at it. Sean the Tauilach. And even the biggest part for us like when we were transferring money from Ireland to France because we expected to complete on a certain date and we realised the money hadn't transferred.
We didn't know that from things. So they're important things to learn for people to have all the funds in place before. I just go in and transfer it doesn't happen like that you should have told them this you needed to have you won't have if you don't have the house insurance you won't get that and on the day like when we went in we were lucky enough we didn't have to get anything you most people go in transfer the money and get the keys we already had the keys like so there was nothing kind of new on that side but a lot of admin and actually getting a pay for work we didn't go through an agency there are advantages and disadvantages well we didn't really see anything we had made contact with the guys, we had all of the paperwork done from say, to make sure that the gas was alright, electricity was alright, the asbestos was alright, dry rot, there was all these different things and when we went to the English speaking notary absolutely brilliant, so he went through everything in detail from saying this is your plot of land, this is what you're buying, the house is as it is and that's the most important thing, you can't go back afterwards and say well you didn't say this and that because all of the works and all are done before that like. So it was a lot of detail going in and actually buying a house in France like and that's it.
The first day when we came in here and we walked up the 24 steps as I call them and it was just I suppose it was dark but when I got to the top the balcony door was open and I could see this bright light and I walked straight out onto the balcony door because it was the first thing I saw at the top of the steps so I always think when you're going somewhere if you have something beyond that you forget about the 24 steps you walked up that's my concept on things anyway and when i walked out on the terrace and i could see the old bridge to my right i could see the river vienna in front of me beautiful garden and then i saw the point view which is the old bridge on my left hand side and i just stood there and the wisteria was blown and the smell of it and i hadn't seen much rest of the house the tiles were absolutely exquisite i love them on the floor And I suppose from there, the first room we stayed in that night, it was lovely, really comfortable beds, powerful showers and things like that. So to me, I suppose I still get goosebumps when I think about it, which is great. And I kept saying when I went to, I had this kind of vision and everyone laughs when I say I have the vision.
And people, even the painter got loving like, all of my friends say, yeah, I have the vision. The vision is actually coming to life because now they can see what I was talking about. So basically what we have done is.
We've taken a house that basically was a not tired not it was perfectly structurally found so there was no maintenance work to be done really absolutely none so basically what I've done is I've varnished all the sanded all the floors I've varnished all the floors we've painted the entire house and we've literally replaced all of the furniture we've upgraded so for example we have kind of like espresso machines and coffee so we brought it up to the 21st century I think that's what I'm trying to say We've all mod cons, like we've slippers and we've got bathrobes and nice plush towels and comfy beds and things like that. So I wanted everyone to have the experience that I've always enjoyed when I go away. I don't want someone to come in and say, oh, it's too dark or it's too dull, it's drab. I wanted to just brighten up the place with, you know, modern luxuries, as I call them.
And, you know, I think everybody expects them nowadays. It's not like years ago where people were going to, you know, sheets and just kind of like, oh, yeah, it was all about the kids. Because nowadays. kids are wanting more too as well like and the more amenities that are in the area and things like that i think it's really important but the vision for downstairs here as i call downstairs this used to be the restaurant so this is our living accommodation and at the front what we're going to do in the next few weeks is we're going to open up a takeaway option out there and that will be open for hopefully six months maybe longer depending we're kind of hoping from march until the end of october and we'll just do that for that kind of many months and we'll see where that takes if all goes well we can expand in here if we want to we can do less we can do more we have our options off but i think for the first year we're just going to crawl along and just do you know the chamber don't upstairs we don't want to take on too much but we don't it's not we don't take on too much we kind of want to crawl before we can run And we want to enjoy our time here, that at least if we do the Shambhada up stairs, we come down here in the afternoon and work for a few hours, that we still have time together to go do the things that we want to do. Like, you know, we both had busy lifestyles at home, so it's kind of about taking a slower pace.
Like, we didn't come over here to work 24-7 like we were doing. Like, that's not really what it's about. yeah thank God for Carmel because she's more of a visionary than I am I can tell you that was anyway yeah we started from the top floor and started to work about down all the work upstairs I put it on the camera because as she said she's done all the sanding and the varnishing and the painting and things like that I'm not into DIY really yeah but it's getting there it's more or less completed ...the stage just to install the kitchen at the minute, or the dining room, had that ready for guests and then we're away. As Karen said, last week in March, early April, we hoped to be up and running and we take it from there. Yeah, a lot of work has gone into it.
it all cosmetic no heavy renovation as such we were looking in that sense no heavy renovated renovation no knocking of walls or anything like that it was all cosmetic paintways furniture upgrading as karma said just all the little things like um yeah we had a painter and he was there for three months and um he was on his own so that's why it took so long i suppose but but yeah we're really happy you know starting to come together now and i'm starting to see the vision maybe a little bit this vision that is eluding me for the last i don't know but anyway starting to see you a little bit now okay yeah yeah yeah it's good yeah happy enough happy out So when we walked up the stairs the first room that I saw was what everybody sees when they're from outside which is called the balcony suite. The balcony suite is as I said it speaks for itself it's got beautiful panoramic doors that open out onto a balcony with two chairs on it. you can look over the Vienne, you can look over the old river as we call it Point View. The sun comes up there in the morning so now when I put in the coffee machines you can have your coffee, sit out on the terrace, just look at the sunrise and coming up along the sky and just go back in.
Lovely powerful showers, toiletries, you've got everything, all that room is en suite and it's done to the last. Then as well as that we also have another smaller room, it can be done as a single or a double. Has a built-in shower and all in it except the bathroom is separate.
Now that room is fantastic because the fact of it is so underutilized it's got a beautiful view down along the river and of the terrace as well like which is right outside the door. Then on top of that then I always found the top room on the top floor I call it the botanic suite. The botanical suite because it's up on the third floor. It looks out over the garden and it's absolutely beautiful so I've claimed that as our room because it is beautiful and you know we don't want to be kind of like no we want to enjoy our life as well and then there's another beautiful room it's a double room.
Now it's smaller than the balcony room it's got a full-on suite beautiful size and all like that and the views from there out over the river and as well as that you can see straight out of the garden you just open the windows and everything is there in front of you. As well as that then we have a quite larger room on the other side that's got another double bed there's also a single bed in that if someone wants to share as a twin or something. That room is more or less the same it's on top of where the balcony suite is and when you open the two windows on that you can sit on the couch at night have your glass of wine have your cup of coffee it has spectacular views the whole way around. So basically the four rooms that we're actually renting out in our Chambordode upstairs they have three out of the four have got all got ensuite.
but four out of the four have all got fantastic views of the river and of the gardens there's not one of them where you don't see it as well as that another bonus to the champadour here it's called shell's jack in confluence it's called shell's jack because sean is always called sean john jack but there is no traffic outside our door absolutely no traffic it's a pedestrian bridge so people come and they sit outside the bridge and you can just walk across the bridge over to the little channel conference parking is outside down on the river it's free of charge you don't have to make reservations right before it and we're right beside the old fountain as well like so the fountain itself that's why it's called the fountain now what's the one bisplastil fontos that's our address here like so basically then what we're going to do hopefully in the next few weeks is we're going to open what's called the fountain de glas which is the fountain of the ices so we're going to have an ice cream parlor out here and the reason that that is going to be is because there's so many people come across that bridge they come across they walk and they just want something you know a little ice cream or something like that to look at now hopefully if all that goes well in the near future we can expand we can do tea rooms we can do teas and coffees but mom we're just going to start small and just kind of go from there like so between the shell sheds jack and then we have the fountain glass downstairs and then we have our own space here with our own beautiful garden with everything outside for our dogs and all. Quite simply but, we got on the boat, arrived in France and that was it. To this day I still can't understand it. Very important, we're very fortunate that the previous owners Nick and Mary are our next door neighbours, they haven't moved out of the vicinity, they're still here.
Carmel was just talking about barriers there, about trying to get people, Treadsmen to do things. We are so lucky in that regard as well because Nick is the Jack of all Treads and a master of ball as well, I can tell you. He's fantastic.
network of people. It's very important we take French lessons every Monday in Rosemary's, down the road and there's 12 of us in the class and we've made a good connection with the people there. become friends uh we have coffees and after classes every monday we you know we meet them in the shopping center socialize and yeah getting to know the neighborhood that we're in now at the minute and you know we're surrounded by people from the uk people from america people from australia new zealand canada we get to know them all it's like a little community uh it's fantastic really it's great like you know what i mean uh barriers i suppose a lot of people would think that the language is the biggest barrier Personally, I don't think the language is a barrier. It's a challenge, but it's not a barrier.
You know, I'm relaxed about it. Like, you know, I feel like that I would, I'm learning more by talking to people on the street, talking to my French neighbor next door, rather than being in a classroom where you're sort of under pressure a little bit, sort of thing. And when you're asked something, you freeze. I think it's easy, well, for me, it's easier being out and about, mixing with people. I think the French people are fantastic because if you try with them they're more than willing to help.
I have no issues with them at all whatsoever like you know. And I think a smile and a bit of the banter goes a long way with them as well. Do you know what I mean?
And so that's how I break down the so-called barriers. As I said, the language is not a barrier for me. It's a challenge, but not a barrier.
For me, the biggest barrier would be paperwork. As Carol said, it's just in triplicate. Everything is just paperwork.
It's unbelievable. Trying to get tradesmen, yes. If we were looking for tradesmen, I suppose back in Ireland, picked up the phone and around your doorstep in an hour or two sort of thing or the next step here it you know it's just you know it's unbelievable like you know what i mean everybody is busy all the time um no no barriers just challenges for me just no barriers French?
Well I love it because even when you walk outside the door there's always somebody walking up the street and like we came here with our flat French bonjour where Benoît was like bonjour you have to say it in a really kind of like quirky voice and when you go to the supermarket now you don't feel intimidated before it was kind of like oh my god what's she going to say to me whereby now you know they're asking you want to you know straight away what they're saying like the barriers i suppose for me is writing checks because i have to be it's a different way of actually writing the checks it's not like if you have a check for 72 euro it's not 72 it's 60 plus 12 so it's like as if i'm going back to school and adding things i find that a huge barrier as regards to going into the chemist or anything like that you Google Translate is absolutely brilliant. Our 19 year old son showed us how to use them. He was sitting down and we were in tours one day having a menu and he was like this is fun.
I said, Paul would you get off your phone when you were here at the restaurant. He said, I'm just reading what's on the menu. We never knew what that was like.
We actually didn't and I showed it to the guy, the paint fella as well. He was like, he thought I was magnifying something on it. but like when you go to a restaurant instead of saying well what's that well okay that's chicken that's that but what's it with and there's so many different sources you can get something and you don't know what it is whereby now you just sit there which one everybody does it so it's not that people are being unsociable about things like that like no there are no barriers i think honestly you know sean said if you smile at people and you make an effort and you've got the right words and just use google translate and even when you go to the supermarket so we were up in castorama last week The guy had no service on his phone. You can use it.
He can translate by speaking. So the only barriers you're going to have are the ones that you're going to make yourself. You just have to go and do it. If you're kind of going to stop and start thinking, oh well this is going to happen, that's going to happen, you have to be positive. You know, you just have to be positive and just go for it.
To be quite honest about it, if you want to do it, do it. Don't wait. If you're in the position to do it, do it.
I mean, from the UK or Ireland, it's not a million miles away. It's not the other side of the world. It's an hour and a half away on an airplane. It's not the end of the world.
So do it. I highly recommend it. I mean, you've got one shot at life. So if you want to do something, just go ahead and do it.
It's fantastic. What do you think? Honestly, if I was to say to someone in France that they were very unsure, I'd say to them, come out and rent.
But I would also say to them, come out in the wintertime. If people come out in the summertime like we did and we were over the summertime every time you go down the Dori Dori line in the canoe you go into the rocks you go to the water parks you do everything and it's absolutely it's picture postcard whereby when you're here in the wintertime it's very different like all the shops closed between say 12 o'clock and 2 o'clock the restaurants close at 9 o'clock at night the bars aren't open everything closes of a Sunday and of a Monday more most of the offices and things like that in the banks are closed on Monday it's a very different way of living but it's the French lifestyle and I have to say it's so laid-back it is absolutely brilliant the only thing I would say is when people come over here they think with as i said the rose-tinted glasses that doesn't always work like that and we find a lot of people what they do is they don't have enough money they actually don't keep themselves going and it's really important that if you're buying a house over here you can say well right okay you have that because we've heard so many horror stories and i don't mean horror stories for people who just can't afford to finish their houses or they're getting ripped off by road traders or things like that and i think Do not be very careful what you're doing, but I definitely say come over rent It would be 100% don't commit to it just come over and rent in the winter for three or four months and just see because Like it does rain a lot in plus encore. We've said that a lot this month like seriously But when you have beautiful days like we had the other day It was minus four the skies were blue and as Nick says next door There's no such thing as bad weather only bad clothing.
You know, you do get winters in France does the team people People don't realize that I suppose but yet you do get your winters and to say if you get over a winter in France You'll be fine. So anybody thinking about it. That's a good idea actually come and rent for a couple of weeks in the winter You know what the summer is like Yeah, so come in the winter for a couple of weeks or three weeks and see what you think that And in summertime you don't go and see you see all the nice things now this time of year We've gone to Angoulême, we've gone to Pottiers, we've been to Limoges for the Christmas markets for things. We've been to Tess it's it's it's not warm but it's absolutely beautiful and like i mean we even went down to san sebastian there a few weeks ago for christmas you know after christmas down with our son like just for a couple of days just to break it's just four hours down the road so we've got to kind of do more traveling and things like that i think yeah um that's another thing actually when you're into the likes of france you're on the mainland europe easy you can drive anywhere that's the plan if you don't mind driving you can drive anywhere as carmel said we went down to spain there last week the week before I think it was four, four and a half hours down to San Sebastian.
It's great. Fantastic city. Beautiful.
Fantastic down there. It's great. Absolutely beautiful. As I said, four and a half hours down the road. But you can easily drive down to Italy or drive across Germany, Switzerland.
There's so many things you can do here. Whereby in Ireland, I think, you almost have to get on a boat to go to England. Whereby now, you just get in a car and we can just, you know, now there's only the two of us.
Yeah, hard to say now. We do miss our family. We do miss the boys and the grandchildren.
I have one. We've two grandchildren, one grand-and I always wanted a granddaughter. The granddaughter arrived and we left her. But no, we haven't seen her and every time you see her in video, it's, you're getting different, like, yeah, you do miss that. And Sean misses his mother.
There's no point in saying that, but the boys are all happy. They have their own lives to live and, you know, I think we're kind of independent enough that... They've yet to pay us a visit actually.
One, one has. One of the youngest. Paul has been here now, so that's all. Yeah. Paul is in Manchester at college, so he comes over on his time off, so...
If someone wants to book it just google Chez Jack Confluence or send an email to ChezJackConfluence at gmail.com I'm going live on Booking.com at the beginning of February and after that then we will just try and do marketing and have the website up hopefully by the end of March and we go from there like or the contact number is 0788 361 oh 0788681364