Our Story – How we came to buy Rimbard Manor and make the move to live in France
Rimbard Manor was bought by ourselves in August 2003. We were on our way home by car, from a family holiday in Spain. We had made arrangements to stay for one night, with our friends in the next village, to break the journey. We had not seen our friends since they left England, to live in France, four years earlier.
Our friends 'cajoled' us into viewing Rimbard Manor, as it is one of the oldest houses in the area, and there was a great deal of curiosity about it. I say 'cajoled', because buying a house in France was not something we had ever thought about. In fact, this was our first stay in France.
However, from the very first sight Rimbard Manor stole our hearts {and also our money, but that follows in the renovation section}. We were both smitten, it was literally a life changing moment. We both felt as if the Manor had been waiting for us our whole life.
An offer was placed with the estate agent, which was accepted by the vendors, and literally two hours after viewing, Rimbard Manor was ours.
We drove home shell-shocked, but elated. When we had calmed down we formed a plan. The plan was simply to renovate Rimbard and use it as a holiday home.
So for the next few years we travelled to France as often as we could with our son Zachary who was 6 years old in 2003. Zachary was born with atopic eczema and asthma. He is also anaphylactic. His eczema was dreadful and his young life was a vicious circle of bleeding cracked skin, bandages, cream, cream and cream.
It did not take us long to notice that at Rimbard his skin and asthma improved, and would deteriorate on our return to England. A new plan was formed!
We decided to make a permanent move to France in 2008 when Zachary was ready for Secondary School. We put our UK house up for sale in 2007, and on the 11th July 2008 we became French residents.
The Renovation
Our first visit to Rimbard after the purchase in 2003 was in October. The rose-coloured glassed were off, and we were able to see what we had let ourselves in for.....which was one hell of a lot!