Live in a Lock-keeper's Cottage ('Maison Eclusiere')

 
France has 7,500 kilometres (5,000 miles) of inland waterways, canals and navigable rivers. These waterways cross the country from North to South and from East to West, passing through cities, historic towns, pretty villages, peaceful hamlets and gorgeous French countryside. Every so often there is a lock, which enables boats to ascend or descend according to the local geography - the end result is thousands of locks and thousands of lock-keeper's cottages.

The lock-keepers attended to, and operated, the locks but nowadays most locks have been converted operate electrically, automatically to one degree or another. This means that there are literally hundreds of redundant cottages.

But what a wealth of buildings! The waterways started to be developed from the seventeenth century, with most activity during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century. Each cottage is often a small-scale architectural gem in its own right, very often in the most delightful quiet rural setting.

This wealth of buildings is a part of France's heritage and France is therefore unwilling to sell them outright. At the same time, France cannot afford to maintain them all (many of them have been unused for some years) nor can it let them degrade into ruins. The response to this dilemma has very recently started to emerge, with a significant administrative policy shift.

This new initiative means that it is possible for people outside the 'system' to acquire a cottage on a long-term basis and live there on a peppercorn rent. The cottage will need to be modernised, but that expenditure is credited against the rent with the result that in the early years very little rent is paid. Apart from renovation, the other requirement is that the building is used in some way that helps to encourage tourism and provide a degree of economic benefit to the local economy. In other words, the building is part of a modest small business.

What Small Business?

The cottages are relatively small and they are (in the main) located in the countryside beside canal locks, so no-one could expect them to become 'powerhouses' of profit and enterprise. When the very low effective rent is also taken into account, they are free of financial pressure. Anyone taking one could choose how intensive or how relaxed they were, taking the opportunity to enjoy the experience exactly according to their own desires.

Some Suggestions

• Gite (self-catering holiday lets)
  
• Bed and Breakfast
  
• Café or Tea Room
  
• Cycle touring - accommodation, maintenance and hire
  
• Convenience store - groceries and supplies
  
• Laundry, ironing and other related services
  
• Pottery - Arts and Crafts studio
  
• Painting courses and Writer's workshops
  
• Boat related
  

We can discuss with you the marketplace and basis for these suggestions, and help you develop your own.

How, How Much and Where?

It is important to realise that this is a new and relatively untried initiative and that there are not many guidelines as to how the system will eventually bed down and operate, and how extensively it will be applied. We have unique direct experience of two of the very first cottages to be made available.

The first group of cottages have recently been publicly released, located in the South-West of France, in the general area of the Canal Lateral a la Garonne, and the Lot and Baize rivers. A further collection, on the Canal du Midi, will be made available later in 2008.

The authorities have provided us with details of the cottages currently available and invited submissions from interested parties. They will make decisions based on the quality of the response - how attractive the small business proposition is (how it complements and encourages waterways tourism etc.) and according to the credentials of the interested party.

The rent of each cottage has been predetermined according to a spreadsheet formula - each cottage has an individual list of values per square metre for living areas, business areas, utility areas and external areas. So the submission is not an invitation to tender a price to buy (this is not an option) nor is it a rental tender.

The cost of renovation will need to be estimated; this is amortised over a period of time and set against the annual rent on a 90% basis - in other words only 10% of the annual rent is paid.

Example
     - Renovation Cost 18,000 euros (£12,000).
     - Rent 4,000 euros p.a (£2,600)
  First five years -
     - Rent 400 euros p.a (£260)
     - This reduced rent reimburses the total renovation cost

The Tenancy Agreement is a "Driots Réels" one. This means that it can be sold on (subject to approval from the authorities) to another, without charge or levy, at a later date.

> Next Steps - Our Services