As my job at Euronews is about to end, Cath and I headed south to look at houses for rent for the next few months.
Based on our last experience of French estate agents we didn’t have huge expectations.
And the very first agency we walked into used an expression that I hadn’t heard since our original search for a flat two years ago.
Le marché est tres tendu
French estate agents
Tres tendu – very stretched, of course it is.
Our hearts sank.
We then visited agents in Aubagne, La Ciotat, Aix-en-Provence and Éguilles. Most weren’t open, or the person in charge of rentals wasn’t available or they didn’t have anything.
Of course we needed to have our dossier ready but even then it needed to be studied – in some cases before we were even allowed to see any properties.
Toute cette paparasse!
Everyone trying to do anything official in France
So we ended the weekend without setting foot inside a single place! We did walk round the outside of one though.
There was one upside to the weekend – apart from the glorious weather…
And there will soon be another reason to hang around.
Alma will soon be une grande soeur.
Thrown to (the) Lyon 