Our Adventure Begins
The Château de Riolas Chronicles
Byline: Château de Riolas Chronicles - July 02, 2023
It all began with the idea that we should live in Europe one day…and why not the south of France? It feels like a cliche these days; you see stories on Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube about people from other countries who come to France and buy a French ruin. Or a small house in the country. Obsessed with history and property, mornings with butter croissants and coffee, and life in France…Well, that is us!
Our last house could not have been more different from Château de Riolas. A typical suburban home minutes away from San Francisco. Perched on a ridge next to a regional park (and its rattlesnakes), central heating, underfloor heating in the bathrooms, polished alabaster floors, open plan living, and brilliant sunshine flooding in from all angles. It was a beautiful home. It was where our children came of age and where, for almost 20 years, we thought we would never leave.
Whenever we traveled, I fell in love with every destination: Bali, Singapore, Florence, Sicily, Lisbon, Barcelona, Madrid, Paris... What if we could live there…? I have always wanted to return to live in Europe since I was a child.
John listens and remembers everything, and sometime in 2018, he suggested we move to Portugal. I couldn’t believe he meant it, so I said, “Sure...” And that is a story for another day.
We’re in 2023 now, and Portugal is not a good fit for us. Browsing the internet, we turned our gaze to France (I speak French). John wanted someplace warm…the south of France. In the next three months, we drove from east to west and east again and learned as much as possible about what it means to be in the south of France. The French Riviera? Sure! How about Biarritz! Oh, yes! What about Avignon? Hmmm…
We met agents and visited what felt like a hundred properties, all with one goal - to have enough room for us, our friends, our little dog, and my horses. I also began to think about the investment we were making and that we were looking at fixed incomes moving forward. No more clients or corporate workplaces for us! I added another goal to our search at that point: a house that would bring us a small income to lift some of the pressure from the tired need to continue to work work work!
And then we found it. A charming little farmhouse minutes away from the fourth largest city in France, with sheep, stables, ten acres of land, abundant water (in case of drought) and a pond, farm machines, and a reliable tenant who was used to taking care of the property when the owners traveled! It was absolutely charming. The dream. We were in love.
We put in an offer, and it was accepted! We were so thrilled!
Our negotiations went back and forth. We were so excited when we thought about our new home! Then, minutes after accepting our last offer, the sellers said they wanted to entertain another prospect, an architect who was visiting.
I said, “Of course, you have eight hours to accept our offer.”
More than twenty-four hours later (the next day), the sellers’ agent called to congratulate us on our acquisition. The architect declined their property, but in the hours between communications, we browsed online and found many equally lovely properties at better prices. And they had allowed the eight hours to slip…so we continued our search.
John went home to California, and I stayed behind. Working with several agents this time, I went on property visits in the French Riviera, Montpelier, and Toulouse. And one day, I visited a château. I took videos and sent the listing to John. He called me that night and asked if I was out of my mind. We’re suburbanites, not “château types!”
After a couple of weeks, my shortlist was down to four properties, maybe five, including the château. John returned to France to visit the shortlisted properties, and we agreed on everything until we got to the château and another property in the back country of the French Riviera. I never thought he’d like the last two, but he’s a man who can still surprise me when he agreed both properties were perfect for us.
Long to short, we made spreadsheets outlining the financial (and personal) kamikaze mission we were taking on and negotiated with the sellers. We learned about defects on the property (but John and I were so starry-eyed we felt we could work with them), and to our surprise, we not only signed the last counteroffer but a few weeks later signed the second contract entering into escrow (and the ten-day cooling off period required by French law). We realize we might be either brave or stupid to take something like this on.
It takes months to get through the legalities of buying property in France. As we were dealing with a rural property of 7 hectares (about 14 acres), we had to wait for the SAFER (Société d’Aménagement Foncier et d’Établissement Rural), a mysterious anonymous non-profit group whose mission, under the ministries of Agriculture and Finance, is to protect France’s regional way of life. With rural properties, it is an agricultural office with the right of first refusal whose goal, in this case, is to protect agricultural communities from becoming suburban developments or industrial complexes. On August 3, we received the good news that we would receive the keys to our Château on the 7th of September of 2023!
During the months of the acquisition process, we became friends with the sellers, Matt and Linda. They bought the estate during the Pandemic and graciously allowed us to visit (almost) every time we asked (which was many, maybe a bit too much!). And I think they are happy their estate is going on to support our dreams. Linda said to us…
“I hope you’ll give us the right of first refusal if you decide to sell. We would really love to come back.” -Linda, the last owner of the chateau
-Chateau de Riolas
