Clé France

Hi Sharon, We met you agent in Manche, Lower Normandy who is absolutely delightful, and we discussed how she had come to France etc.  She is absolutely charming and very very helpful. It's a shame that the French don't seem to understand the idea of marketing their properties in terms of leaving underwear lying about, just general stuff lying about but that's something that makes for diversity!

Throughout this process your agents were extremely helpful at all times, and very patient, and we could not have asked for a better service which please pass onto them.

With our many thanks indeed and we will continue accessing properties until we have decided one way or the other on anything we have seen so far.

Many thanks for all your help in arranging viewings and we will be happy to recommend you to our friends if any of them decide to buy in France.  

We will also be making use of the facilities offered by your currency partner following your introduction and recommendation.

Mike.

Whenever we send clients viewing to France we follow up with them to make sure their experience was everything we expect, it is nice to hear specific feedback about how our clients 'got on' in France and especially the contact they had with our agents [not all agents are as professional as Cle France agents!].

We make sure that every part of the process is open and stress free for our clients.

I had been interested in buying a property in France for some time before my partner discovered the Cle France website. Once I saw the site, my decision was made as I flicked through all the available properties, and the amazing choice there.

The site was well constructed, easy to look through and I had regular emails keeping me up to date with news of new properties.

Eventually we found a house we immediately fell in love with (even though we only saw the photos!) and Cle France  arranged a viewing for us with the minimum of fuss. Everything went smoothly, the Cle France agent was terrific, and we now have our lovely house in France!

I cannot thank everyone at Cle France enough.

I would like to continue to receive your newsletters.

Neil.

Always nice to hear the feedback from our clients that have bought in France, Neil bought a lovley property in the Deux Sevres department in the Poitou Charentes region of France. We at Cle France make sure each and evryone of our agents works hard to meet the clients needs and sometimes if they don't? well... shall we say they are not a Cle France agent for much longer.

Hi there, As you can well imagine we have been extremely busy setting up our new house etc.

I would like to say that your agent in France did a fantastic job, showing us around the properties, also around the towns on each properties which was very useful, she also helped out with the solicitors/notaries as her English was quite good and was very helpful as our French was quite poor but now improving.

We are now in the process of decorating and putting the final touches to our property and would like to thank your agent with the choices that were put forward to us.

Thank you, Julian and Anne.

Cle France understands that going beyond the normal scope of an Estate Agent is often a requirement for a client when buying in France [in Julian and Anne's case they bought a House in Brittany], it is after all a foreign country! But Cle France makes sure that you know what is happening and are able to consider every angle at each step of the buying process. 

Good luck with the decorating Julian and Anne!

After all my hardware problems in the summer heat, I finally had to go out and buy a new computer.

Qfter thqt; there zqs q proble, – After that, there was a problem.

Le clavier (the keyboard) was in French, and Le clavier français is a bit different from le clavier anglais.

Photo by Remko van Dokkum on Flickr.

Le clavier has to have a way to type les accents, but on top of that le clavier is rearranged!

If you’re familiar with QWERTY, you’ll quickly notice that A is where Q normally is, and several other letters and puntuation marks that aren’t in their “normal” locations.

“KB France” by Yitscar. Licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0 via Commons

Pour les accents (for the accents), there are keys for é è à ù ç, but for l’accent circonflexe, you have to first hit the ^ key and then the vowel you want it to go on top of:

 ^ + e = ê

^ + a = â

^ + o = ô

^ + u = û

It works for les lettres majuscules (upper case letters) as well, making it easy to type Ê Â Ô Û if you need to.

The same pattern is used for le tréma:

“ + e = ë

“ + a = ä

“ + o = ö

“ + u = ü

Oddly, there is no way to type É È À Ù Ç or the less common French letters œ (oe) and æ (ae). As a result les accents are generally left off of upper case letters and the œ and æ ligatures are often written as two separate letters.

Although it varies greatly between les logiciels différents (different software), and often spell check or autocorrect will put les accents on for you.

The less obvious things about le clavier français are how the numbers aren’t on by default. You have to hold shift or turn on caps lock in order to type them! That is also why it’s impossible to type é è à ù ç en majuscule.

Holding shift and pressing the keys makes a number appear!

It doesn’t take long to get used to le clavier, even with it’s limitations.

Switching between the two? zell; thqt cqn be hqrd – well, that can be hard.

Blog submitted by: Alex at The French Property Network - Cle France.

This blog was originally posted on The French Language Blog pages.

For everything you need to know about French property visit www.clefrance.co.uk

Hello, Sharon,

As you know we completed the "acte de vente" on Tuesday for the little house in Lonlay l'Abbaye. Everything went well. As promised your agent joined us on the part of the sellers, and Maître Notaire was charming too. 

After the "acte de vente", I met with the English builders recommended by your property surveyor, and with your help, I had all the paperwork needed to open a French bank account and acquire the crucial RIB.

My husband and I are so very grateful to you for all of your good advice and direction for this project. With the exception of the delay caused by the probate court (which was unavoidable and out of all of our control), the process was smooth and painless.

"I especially appreciate your responsiveness to me on what was a very minimal project. I felt that I was given as much attention as if I had been purchasing a chateau".

It goes without saying that we are over the moon having the key in hand (in the builders' hands now in fact). Surprisingly, our 22 year old daughter has also taken a great interest in the place, refers to it as "her house," and wants to help with all the choices and decoration. 

Your agency was just what we needed to find our little Norman 'pied à terre', and we will always be grateful to you. Thank you so very much. Have a beautiful weekend.

Best, Ellen.

At Cle France we give our clients the same level of support whether they are indeed buying a Chateau or a little renovation project. Ellen bought a village property in Lower Normandy and already has big plans to make it her dream home, we wish her every success and the best luck possible, we are sure she will have many happy years in her hew home.

Checkout our properties for sale in the Orne Department of Lower Normandy.