Day 264 (Monday)

Woke up this morning and it was bloody snowing! How wrong does this palm tree look?

And look at our glorious mountains!

This is so wrong on so many levels!

We had an appointment with the estate agent today to view a studio, which we thought was selling for €100,000 but when we got there it was actually €145,000. The studio was situated in a building where we had viewed another studio last summer but this one was a lot bigger and much nicer, with a great outdoors area.

The furniture was all too big and mostly really ugly, especially this breakfast bar.

 And this ridiculous oversized ladder leading up to the mezzanine bed.

But the studio is a good size and has great potential.

We wouldn’t buy it to live in it, but to rent it out and make some money out of it. Time to do some sums and really consider this purchase, we both really liked it and can see amazing potential in it as a holiday home and investment.

When we got home I opened an email from Guillaume, which made me laugh out loud. He started the email by talking about the rugby, his win, our loss and the excitement of Scotland winning and then on the next line he said, P.S. about the job and gave me my proposed hours and days of the week. I love his priorities, rugby first and oh by the way – this is your new job.

I also had a very interesting message on the Facebook expats messenger page. One day last week Beth had sent me details from this Facebook account about a teaching job in Nice. I replied to it but got nothing back but it appears that I have joined this group. There was a message from a Polish name working for an American TV channel asking if I was interested in being involved with a TV show encouraging Americans to consider moving to the Mediterranean. She had found me on this expat site and thought I might to suitable for the show. This is what she said…

We are producing a new HGTV's TV show entitled Mediterranean Life (similar to already existing House Hunters International, Mexico Life, Caribbean Life etc.), which tells stories of English native speaking families/couples/individuals who are moving to Mediterranean Spain or buying their holiday properties there. In the episode we show the participants visit three houses alongside the real estate agent and finally pick one. The show will be broadcast in the USA on HGTV station (it reaches over 40 million households in the U.S. and is accessible in 70 countries in the world). We think the show will create a beautiful opportunity to promote the region and show that it is not as hard as it may seem to relocate to Mediterranean Europe or just invest in a new place there.

Therefore, at the moment we are seeking: - native English speaking families/couples/individuals who have moved in a coastal property in Southern France not longer than 9 months ago (both rental and purchase) - real estate agencies who would help us source properties for filming locations - an agent who will star in the show as the guide around the houses for the buyers/renters to visit

If you are interested, please send me your e-mail address and I will send you more casting details

I asked Huw what he thought and he said we might as well have a look it so I asked for the guidelines and here they are…

VIDEO GUIDELINES

These are a few guidelines to give you an idea about the video we would like to receive. You can make the video with any device. If you use your mobile phone or camera, please remember about keeping it in a horizontal orientation all the time.
If you decide to put soundtrack in the background of your video, please do not include it simultaneously with the speech (for editing reasons please don’t play music or edit it as background while you speak).

The video will be edited, so you do not have to worry about its length, mistakes you may make or the number of files that you send. The video is for internal casting use only and it is not intended to be aired anywhere. Basically, there are three elements that we need.

(There is no need to put them together; you can send them as multiple files).

A.     PRESENTATION

In this part you briefly present yourselves. You can say for example: 
“Hello! We are... and we have moved from...to...”
If it is possible, please film this part outside your home and choose some attractive background (perhaps you can use your house as background).


B.     HOME & NEIGHBORHOOD TOUR


In this part, you show us around your home and surroundings. If possible take a few clips outside of the building to show. If it is possible, ask a third person to film you. If it is not, please exchange the camera and film each other. If you like, you could also make some extra shooting of the apartment on its own (without any person visible).


C. INTERVIEW
In this part you sit comfortably and answer the questions that you will find below. You can film it in your living room or any other place you like. Please feel free to make any comments and jokes, we would like you to feel comfortable and relaxed. And please speak interchangeably. We call it “an interview” but you do not need any third person to ask you the questions.
Questions/issues:
Decision
Why did you move to Southern France?

Stakes

What was the biggest challenge of moving to Southern France? Did you have any doubts or worries? What did you leave behind? What do you miss about your home country?
What was/is your life like back home? What is the lifestyle in Southern France like compared to your home country?

Home Search & Compromises

What kind of property were you looking for? Did you find exactly what you were searching? What were the differences between yours and your partner’s preferences concerning the house hunt?
What were the compromises you needed to make? (needs vs. budget, expectations vs. reality, different expectations or preferences between the two of you, etc.)

Have fun while recording and do not worry about the details! :-)

I’m sure they are looking for people who are buying much bigger properties than we are looking at but it might be fun. I don’t really want to be on TV but we could help her find other possible candidates and even estate agents as we have met them all in Villefranche and a few in Nice. I am happy to say that the snow didn’t settle and it stopped at around 3pm. The sun did try to come out, it didn’t succeed, but it tried.