An unexpected and largely untranslatable hit among French cinemagoers this
year has been Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis, the tale of an unfortunate
postoffice worker from Provence sent as punishment by his employers into
exile in the north of the country.
The Ch’tis of the title are the locals (it comes from Ch’timi, their dialect)
and the central conceit is part of national folklore: the area beyond Paris
is a no-go area full of unemployed, hard-drinking rednecks with
incomprehensible accents.
Needless to say, our hero eventually warms to his new home, providing the kind
of feelgood ending that has made the film the biggest home-grown hit in
French cinema history and prompted Will Smith to plan his own version, set
in small-town America.
Along the way, however, there is plenty of time for the the usual clichés of
driving rain, abandoned coal mines and strange food - including a local
cheese so smelly, it has to be neutralised by dunking in coffee.
Such preconceptions also inform the property-buying habits of the French, says
Patricia Hawkes, who has been selling chateaux and other top-end homes
across the country for more than 30 years.
“I have plenty of attractive properties in the north, but nobody from outside
the area would ever think of buying one,” she says. “It seems French people
will live only in or south of the place they were born. It’s as if gravity
is pulling them downwards.”
Yet, while the French turn up their noses at Nord-Pas de Calais and Picardie,
they hold charms for British buyers (and the Dutch and Belgians, too).
Rather than heading straight down the autoroute to the Dordogne or the Côte
d’Azur, an enterprising few are pausing to take a look around after emerging
from the tunnel or off the ferry.
The weather may be much the same as on the other side of the Channel, but the
food and wine are better, and property prices much lower than in southern
England or the south of France.
Barring the odd blockade by angry French trawlermen, journey times from London
and the southeast can be faster than to Devon or Cornwall. Calais is less
than an hour by Eurostar from St Pancras.
For Andrew Prentis, 49, a vet from Clapham, southwest London, and his wife,
Nilu, it was the proximity to Britain that attracted them to Hardelot-Plage,
a relaxed resort of American-style villas and manicured lawns 10 miles south
of Boulogne.
Four years ago, after several holidays spent looking for property from
Carcassonne to the Alps, they stopped off on the way home to stay with
friends who had bought in the town. They were seduced by its charms and,
within weeks, had paid £200,000 for a modern three-bed house with a decent
garden.
“We looked at a number of areas, but were put off by the distance and realised
we would only go there two or three times a year,” Prentis says. “But when
Nilu is here with the children in summer, I can get up at a normal time,
have breakfast, get the 9.30 train from Calais and be in the office by 10
o’clock - English time.”
Nor is ease of access all that Hardelot - which was largely the creation of
Sir John Whitley, an enterprising Yorkshireman who took a fancy to the area
at the start of the last century - has going for it. The town has great
riding, with prices substantially lower than in Britain, as well as two
championship golf courses, forests to run and walk in, and 12 miles of sandy
beach with sailing, wind- and kitesurfing and sand-yachting. “It’s not quite
how you imagine a typical French home, sitting around drinking wine with the
crickets chirping,” Prentis says. “But it’s a pleasant place that’s peaceful
and calm, with lots of outdoor activities. And it is a realistic weekend
destination.”
Whitley’s model for Hardelot was Le Touquet-Paris-Plage, a stylish resort 15
miles further down the coast (described, not entirely improbably, by one
guidebook as “a kind of French Hollywood on the Channel coast”). Carved out
of wild sand dunes and forests in the 1870s, it became a fashionable resort
in the first part of the 20th century for Britons as well as Parisians, who
stayed in the grandiose villas hidden away in the woods or at the grand
Westminster hotel. Noël Coward and PG Wodehouse were frequent visitors.
After several decades in the doldrums, Le Touquet is flourishing again.
Property is not cheap: you could easily pay £1m for a villa with land and
sea views. The local Agence Bergounioux has more modest houses for far less
than that, as well as flats for £200,000 and 30-square-metre studios with
separate kitchens for about £100,000. Prices elsewhere on the coast are
substantially lower, although some resorts, such as Berck-Plage or
Fort-Mahon-Plage, have been spoilt by the soulless tower blocks along the
seafront.
There are some gems, however, especially the little fishing village of Le
Crotoy, a yachties’ favourite on the Baie de Somme. It is known to
generations of French schoolchildren as the place where the perfidious
English captured Joan of Arc in 1430. Less controversially, Jules Verne
wrote 20,000 Leagues under the Sea here. It has the shabby-chic feel of
Whitstable, in Kent, or Aldeburgh, Suffolk.
“It’s like England was a decade or so ago,” says Pippa Darbyshire, 57, an
artist who moved from Felixstowe, in Suffolk, to Noyelles-sur-Mer, a few
miles from Le Crotoy, eight years ago, drawn by the beauty of the bay. For
£40,000 - “the price of a beach hut in Aldeburgh” - she and her husband,
Peter Cooke, 56, bought a largely derelict cafe with two floors of
accommodation above in the middle of the town. Her original aim was merely
to paint, “but one day the mayor came round and asked us when we were going
to open the cafe”. They felt they had to oblige - but customers can view her
work in a nearby gallery.
Tiny, traditional two-bed fishermen’s cottages in Le Crotoy can be bought for
£130,000 - but a large, luxury new-build flat with views will cost much as
£400,000. Agents Alix Immobilier and Lamy Immobilier (00 33 3 22 19 08 01, www.lamyimmobilier.com
) both have a wide selection of property in the town and beyond.
Prices drop substantially inland: for £150,000-£200,000 it is possible to pick
up a restored fermette (small farmhouse) set in 1,000 square metres
or more. Those with larger budgets might consider a chateau - of which this
part of France boasts a considerable number. Hawkes has two on her books:
the Manoir de la Besvre, a splendid turreted affair in Witternesse, 40 miles
southeast of Calais, for £1.07m, and Château de Bagatelle on the outskirts
of Abbeville, 45 miles south of Boulogne, which was built by a Dutch
industrialist in the 18th century and has been lovingly restored over the
past few years by its current owner. It is on sale for £1.98m (see panel).
“I took a couple of Americans to see Bagatelle last week,” Hawkes says.
“Everyone is always saying that Abbeville is flat and ravaged by war, and
that there is nothing there, but when I drove into the town, they were
entranced. There are flowers everywhere, it’s all beautifully designed and
laid out, and it was full of people sitting outside at pavement cafes.”
In other words, as the hero of Bienvenue chez les Ch’tis discovered, the north
is the kind of place that makes visitors - French and British alike - cast
aside their prejudices.
The Prentis’s house can be rented via www.houseinhardelot.com
Channel hopping
A one-bedroom farmhouse with a store room, garage and 600-square-metre garden
in a village near Montreuil-sur-Mer, just 10 minutes from the sea. For sale
for £96,600, through Latitudes; 020 8951 5155, www.latitudes.co.uk
A renovated one-bedroom fisherman’s cottage in Le Crotoy, near the
centre of town and the beach. It has a terrace, garage and small garden. For
sale for £152,100 through Alix Immobilier; 00 333 22 27 87 09, www.alix-immobilier.com
A four-bed, architect-designed villa in Le Touquet, a few minutes from the
sea. It has a garage for three cars and a southwest-facing garden. For sale
for £1m with Agence Bergounioux; 00 33 3 21 05 81 00, www.bergounioux.com
Château de Bagatelle, a mid-18th century property on the outskirts of
Abbeville, 45 miles south of Boulogne. It is for sale for £1.98m, through
Philip Hawkes; 00 33 1 42 68 11 11, www.philiphawkes.com
A good article that will draw the attention of Brits about something we have known and enjoyed for some time now... the charm of P-d-C! Anyone interested in knowing more about visiting or living in this departement can check out our site: www.paysansgrigny.com
Tina Hamilton, Grigny, France