House #4: Ceilhes

We saw this in "S"'s window and asked about it. At 218,000 euros, it's above our stated budget, but considering the guy hasn't sold it in 6 months, including 3 months since he reduced the price from 248,000, we figured we might be able to cut a deal. Besides, it looked nice in the picture. And besides besides, we want to see properties. We're not here for the climate. Well, ok, so we are here for the climate... and to see properties. So let's go.

We drove out of Lodeve and out into the windy world of valley roads, where you can't see what's coming around the next corner, including trucks, and where there's mostly very little around the next corner, except for more corners. And then we came down to a river, with a defunkt rail line, and a small hamlet of buildings. Ceilhes. Here's the house.

Looks big, doesn't it? But it isn't. Tall, maybe. But narrow and surprisingly small inside. 1930s style in these parts, dontcha know. We were shown around it by a nice old man who is no doubt really itching to unload this place on somebody. But he could obviously tell from our obviously underwhelmedness that we were not rising to the bait.

Not that there was anything wrong with the house per se, except that its rooms were very high and very narrow, which gave us a weird sort of vertigo feeling. The whole place would actually have been a much more useful space if you just tipped the house over and lay it on its side. And it was due for a complete interior rehab, the walls being all in the wrong places, of course, and the decor another shining example of what you can only ever find on ebay nowadays. The garden was pretty enough, a nice garden stretching from the front of the house down to the river...

...across which river lay all sorts of atrocious-looking industrial buildings with huge power lines running every which way. Plus a great view of the abandoned rail-switching house (not for sale, alas), as well as a horrible cinder-block villa being constructed right next door. "Why," I asked myself, "would someone build that, and why here?!" But I had no answer for myself.

The village of Ceilhes proper, where to find school and bread and such, was a mile or two further down the road. But you know what? We didn't even go look at it. We just thanked the nice man nicely, climbed back into "S"'s car, and headed for home.