Naughty Credit Card Companies

I've never won anything in my life. I always assume that I've been so generally lucky that when it comes to raffles, lotteries and class action lawsuits, it is someone else's turn. So, when I got a notice with my credit card bill this month that I might be eligible for a refund as part of the winning side in a class action lawsuit, I threw the notice in the trash.

But then I read about it in USA Today and I checked out the Website set up by the plaintiff's counsel and it looks like I may be getting a little check.

And, it seemed worth spreading the word to anyone who has been traveling or living outside the United States over the last decade and exchanging money.

Here's the language from the Website, where you'll also find an online form for filing:

"Any person who held a Visa-, MasterCard- or Diners Club-branded credit, charge or debit/ATM card issued in the United States as of November 8, 2006 is a member of the Settlement Injunctive Class. Those persons who made a foreign transaction on at least one of those cards between February 1, 1996 and November 8, 2006 are members of the Settlement Damages Class. Only members of the Settlement Damages Class may seek refunds by submitting a claim. If you are only a member of the Settlement Injunctive Class because you did not make a foreign transaction between February 1, 1996 and November 8, 2006, you will still benefit from the settlement, which requires certain disclosures to cardholders concerning the rate used to calculate the U.S. dollar amount owed for a foreign transaction and any fees applied in connection with a foreign transaction."

With the exchange rate being what it is for dollars these days, the refund might buy you a baguette.

Useful Addresses

I spent three months searching the Web for properties, using both English and French versions of the sites created by various immobilier (real estate agents). Since there's no such thing in France as an "exclusive listing," in theory nearly all realtors should have the same properties. But they don't. You see a lot of overlap, but you also find unique properties on each site so it is definitely worth searching through various immobilier and forum.

I looked at Provence and the Languedoc Roussillon as a grid and searched area by area between Apt in Provence and Beziers in Languedoc Rousillon. I developed a standard list of key words and searched them in each area or town. You'll need to make your own list, but my search terms included Houses for Sale, Maison a Vendre, Immobilier (with name of city), Real Etate Agent (with name of city), French real estate and Maison de Village (name of city).

It is the subject of some debate whether you get a better deal buying directly from a homeowner or through an agent. If you work through an agent, between the agent fees and the fees charged by the Notaire -- the government officials who preside over property sales -- you pay an average of 8-12 percent more for older properties. (There are special breaks on taxes and fees for properties less than five years old.) You have to pay the notaire no matter what, so with the 3-5 percent agent fees, buying from an individual has real appeal. On the other hand, people selling their own homes often overvalue their properties and can be difficult in negotiations since they have more emotional investment. A good agent can answer questions and save you a lot of wear and tear. But don't forget, they represent the seller, not you, so question absolutely everything you're told and verify everything.

Beside the immobilier sites, I also quickly found other sites that were of great use, including online expatriate forum, online classified and portals, and some newspaper sites. There were sites that contained a huge amount of information on every topic related to buying a home and moving to France and there were even a number of independent Web sites set up by tech-savvy sellers for their own homes.

Here are a few Web addresses that I found useful and may provide a good place to start:

L'Immobilier en Provence CTI, the Website of the realtor who sold me my home, Vincent Dumond
Maison de Provence Immobilier Luberon
Immo30 for the area around Uzes/St. Quentin la Poterie. Agent Eric Bardel is fabulous.
ImmoFrance.com
French-Property.com which contains a great deal of relevant information and a forum
FrenchEntree.com, a portal to real estate listings, great general background and an e-newsletter
Franglo.com, a network of Websites, classifieds (including houses for sale and rent) and a forum for English speakers
Americans in France, a portal to all kinds of information, as well as classified ads
Creme de Languedoc, another portal and great resource with excellent listings by both individuals and agents

A long way from Southern France

I'm in New York City tonight for a meeting tomorrow. I'm in a trendy hotel adjacent to Lincoln Center, adorned for the holidays with a 50-foot-tall Christmas Tree illuminated with royal blue lights in the shape of snowflakes. It's freezing, with an icy wind barreling down Broadway and people rushing into taxis and buildings for shelter. I arrived late and went out right away to get a bite to eat, something to bring back to my room for a working dinner. On the corner between my hotel and the EuroPan coffee shop, an elegant store displayed brightly colored Lycra workout clothes, $125 a pop. Opposite the shop, huddled in a heap on the ground like a pile of dirty laundry was a man clutching a tattered paper cup containing some loose change.

"It's so cold," he wimpered, "please someone help me." His cry was muffled as he kept his face down to protect himself from the wind. His feet stuck out beneath a moth-eaten coat, the mismatched shoes were torn. People rushed by.

At the coffee shop, I ordered two large bowls of soup to go, two teas and two rolls with butter. On the way back to the hotel, I stopped and kneeled down by the man.

"Here's some warm soup and tea," I said, handing him the bag. "Can you find a doorway out of the wind to eat?"

After a moment, he lifted his head slightly and looked at the bag.

"Thank you," he said. He had three $1 bills clutched in his hand. "I'm trying to find a room. But nobody sees me.

"Nobody sees me."

And, it seems, nobody did.

Nice Neighborhood

France is a big place, nearly as big as Texas. But where Texas has just four or five regions -- and only one with any appeal -- France has dozens of regions and departments, each with its own seductive charm. Settling on a place to buy a house abroad is much like picking a neighborhood in your hometown -- you must consider how well a place suits the way you want to live and, for resale, location, location, location. Before I started thinking about the sort of house I wanted to own, I had to narrow the search to the region where I wanted to live.

If you don't already know France, take a tour. Spend a month or more. Think about whether you prefer the mountains or sea, the sun or seasons, cities, villages or countryside and then plot a course and take it.

I lived in France for a number of years, so I spent some time just remembering the regions I liked best. Normandy, so lovely and green, with the world's best tarte tartine and Calvados, proximity to England and Paris and a cozy quaintness that immediately makes me feel at home. Brittany, windswept and salted by the sea, colored by Celtic mystery and music. The Jura with its soaring mountains for winter sports and summer hikes, the volcanic moodiness and solitude of Auvergne, the floral charm of Alsace and friendly, yummy Strasbourg... how in the world to choose?

There were a few priorities. Sunshine. Music. Vines and olives. The way the wind smells after blowing across miles and miles of fennel and wild thyme. Wine. Friendly people. On a more practical front, proximity to the high-speed TGV, France's train a grande vitesse. After flying for hours from The States, I wanted either a short drive from Paris or a short train ride from Charles de Gaulle. (The TGV now conveniently runs from a station under the airport, where there is also, happily, a hotel. If I'm too tired to go on, I just pick up my bags and hit the sack.)

Finally, I wanted to be near my friends in Avignon, a stop on the TGV run between Paris and Marseilles. I've had friends there for 30 years, and others who come each summer. No region can offer anything more appealing than friendships that span decades.

So after a few weeks looking at houses throughout the Languedoc Rousillon -- very very popular with the British because of direct flights between Montpelier and Stansted -- I came home to Provence. This is where I'd focus my search. Nice neighborhood.

Virtual France

Shopping for a second home is like shopping for anything else these days -- cars, computers, men -- the first stop is your laptop. When I started looking for a home abroad, I began my search a little closer to my full-time home in Texas. I researched real estate in Mexico, Costa Rica, Belize, Honduras, Panama (which has been terribly clever in its policies and marketing to American retirees) and further south. It quickly became clear that the more affluent members of the Baby Boom generation have driven the cost of real estate in the Western Hemisphere sky high. The most desirable cities in Mexico are quickly becoming like Palo Alto -- teeming with rich immigrants who drive the cost of housing higher than locals can afford. So one night, while researching pricey homes in a Managua suburbs, the question hit me: "Are homes in France as pricey as these?" They weren't. French real estate, for a variety of reasons, is a relative bargain.

Roughly 95 percent of all French residential real estate is online. Some of the real estate sites have not quite mastered slick, American-style marketing -- there are pictures of mops leaning against dining tables, of the disembodied hand or foot in a shot of the kitchen -- but many of the real estate (immobilier) Web sites are quite good. And there are a great many sites, like FrenchEntree.com that provide general guidance.

Although I read French, most of the Websites are fully or partially in English. And a few are really lovely. You can spend an evening wandering virtually through the Dordogne, exploring villages and peeking inside bedrooms and gardens. Then the next night you can tour the Gard, visiting homes in villages or in the country. There's a lot to see -- and you can do it all in your pajamas with a nice glass of Chateauneuf du Pape.

How to Buy a House in Provence

Even now, with the check cleared and the keys in hand, I'm not entirely sure what motivated me to buy a house in France.

Certainly, the happy memory of the decade I spent living in Paris and Avignon had something to do with it. Certainly, the stories my father told me when I was growing up about his landing on Normandy Beach on D-Day, the beauty of Normandy, the charm of the French had something to do with it. Certainly, the anger and fear I feel over the direction my own country is headed played into my decision to buy a home outside the United States. But really, I guess, despite all the research, self-analysis and real estate data collection, it was more about a simple feeling of love that has always drawn me there.

Lawrence Durrell summed it up in something I first read 30 years ago. He wrote: "I believe you could exterminate the French at a blow and resettle the country with Tartars and, within two generations discover, to your astonishment, that the national characteristics were back at norm – the restless, metaphysical curiosity, the tenderness for good living, and the passionate individualism…. This is the invisible constant... "

So now, from my laptop in Texas, I'll recount how I went about finding the perfect cottage in the perfect French village and it will give me great pleasure to recall all of this until I can return to my village again.