It was really Patsy who began to push for a move to France. It was she who, whilst trawling the net, discovered mention of Montmorillon and the intriguingly named Cité de l’Écrit. We decided that, whilst on a visit to a friend living in the Dordogne, we would make a diversion and go and have a look.
We found a most attractive old town of some seven thousand inhabitants with the river Gartempe running through the middle. The two halves of the town are linked by a bridge, Le Vieux Pont, originally built in the 15th century (1404 to be precise). It was up the hill on the west side of the river where the Cité de l’Écrit was developing
It then seemed no time at all until we found a house located right in the centre of the Cité de l’Écrit that seemed ideal to all three of us (son Daniel was with us too) and we made an offer that was accepted. On 17 May 2007 we signed the Compris de Vente and we were then committed to buying the house.
We came out in June to finalise the purchase. We met the vendors (there were several family members who were involved) at the offices of the notary handling the sale, paid the money, signed the papers and the house was ours!