Snapping Up Chalets

Jean-Luc Vignolles longed to give his two daughters the idyllic childhood he himself had enjoyed. Indeed, all but a handful of his sweetest childhood memories, he says, are from long, hot summer holidays spent with his grandparents in their chalet in the Alpes-Maritimes.

Like many children throughout France, young Jean-Luc was packed into the family car at the beginning of les grandes vacances every year and taken to his grandparents’ home where he spent his two-month school vacation. There, while his mother and father remained hard at work in Nice, Jean-Luc was left alone to seek out all the pleasures the mountains had to offer, including trout fishing in the icy streams, making camps in the overgrown meadows and watching shooting stars in the clear night sky. Winter holidays were just as memorable: making footprints in the fresh snow, tobogganing on plastic trays and huddling around the chalet’s open log fire.

Now, after a three-year daily search on the internet for a chalet to buy, Vignolles’s two children Margo and Romane are set to enjoy their own mountain paradise. While time has altered much in the mountain community in which Vignolles grew up, the tranquility and sense of living close to nature remains untouched. And it’s for those qualities that hundreds of time-strapped French buyers-and a growing number of foreigners-are lining up in droves to snap up cozy mountain retreats-not necessarily luxurious chalets in ski resorts, but  peaceful havens where they can enjoy pure air and the outdoor life both summer and winter.

Due to their popularity, and draconian laws that restrict building in many of France’s mountainous regions, chalets are becoming increasingly hard to find. Permission to construct new buildings is rarely given, and any modifications to existing properties must adhere to strict planning stipulations.

Vignolles, who lives with his wife Sandra and their two girls in the village of La Gaude, near Nice, on the Côte d’Azur, says: “We had honestly been looking for about three years before we found our chalet on the internet last summer. It’s like finding gold dust, it really is. And we are from the area, we know most of the people who live there and they were all keeping an ear to the ground. So we feel blessed to have found it.”

The chalet needed quite a bit of work done, he says, which he tried to do himself. “It’s by no means grand,” he says, “but it’s perfect for us. We’ve just spent four weeks there this summer, and the girls have been finding pleasure in all the things I used to do when I was their age.”

Their three bedroom chalet, which cost €144,000 ($212,000), is about 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the small town of Belvédère, a little more than an hour’s drive from Nice and its international airport. His grandfather’s chalet, now owned by his uncle, is in fact only a few miles away, in Belvédère itself. Both chalets-and indeed most of the houses in the area-are typical A-frame timber barn-like buildings that have been converted for residential use. And while the Vignolles chalet is far from luxurious, he admits his daughters enjoy far more comfort than he did in his youth.

“When we stayed with my grandparents in the summer, they used to put their cattle and goats out to graze in the meadows. The cattle used to live in the barn underneath us, and we slept above. If we went up in the winter, it was just for a day’s playing in the snow.

“There are still lots of these buildings around,” he adds, “which are all now derelict. I am sure for every building there are a dozen people interested in buying it, but they still belong to the elderly people in the villages who don’t realize their value. And even if they did, they probably wouldn’t be interested in cashing in.”

Many of the converted properties are set in communal gardens, for which all the chalet-owners are responsible. But the term “communal gardens” must be applied loosely, Jean-Luc laughs. “Our chalet is set in what is best described as a meadow. There are about four other properties within the same ‘garden’, but we have never seen anyone else there. They are all second homes and by the looks of it, they are not used very often. It means we are normally totally alone, and the kids can run wild in the meadow without disturbing anyone else. It’s not the type of garden you could really do anything with. It’s too wild. I am thinking of getting a cow however, to keep down the grass and give us some milk.”

Many traditional chalets, like Jean-Luc’s, do not have direct access, which heightens the sense of waking up in the middle of nowhere. It also means that the sound of cars is virtually nonexistent. And while many might assume that the lack of access might bring prices down, the opposite is in fact true. Chalets enjoying complete privacy in rural areas now command a premium because of their very isolation.

A spokesman for Actif Immo Solvimo, a real estate agent in Le Cannet, explains: “There are only a limited number of original barns left to restore, and that is why the price tags are so high. A lot of people are now after the genuine article, and they don’t mind paying to get their own piece of the mountains. These are people who are looking for isolation, for one hundred percent peace and quiet, and not a base from which to hit the mountains skiing.”

He says the agency currently has a virtually derelict barn on their books in the Valdeblore area of the Alpes-Maritimes for €56,000 ($82,000). The barn, which will convert into about 35 square meters (377 sq ft) of living space, is set in more than 2,200 square meters (half an acre) of land. However, none of the land can be built on.

In contrast, a four bedroom chalet in the middle of the Parc Mercantour, a national park near the Italian border about an hour’s drive north of Nice, is currently on the market for €220,000 ($323,000), and a similar chalet near St-Martin-Vésubie-just south of the park and slightly nearer the ski slopes-is priced at €260,000 ($382,000).

The chalet story is the same throughout the alpine region. A fully renovated five-bedroom chalet is being sold in Dingy St Clair, in the Haute-Savoie region, for €1,294,000 ($1,903,000); a more modest one-bedroom chalet in St Jean d’Aulps, in the same département, is currently on the market for €225,000 ($330,000).

Near Digne-les-Bains, in the Alpes-de-Hautes-Provence region, old barns and dilapidated chalets are being snapped up before agents have time to market them. Recently real estate agency Terres et Habitat de Provence had two derelict barns for sale on two hectares (almost 5 acres) of land for €88,000 ($127,000) but the immediate interest was so great that the property was sold before it made it onto the company’s website. Says agent Jean-Claude Trabuc, “These types of properties are in huge demand. I think it’s because prices are still manageable, and interesting to people who want a second home somewhere peaceful. People, especially those living in big cities with stressful lifestyles, are looking for a return to nature, and for a property that is genuinely old.”

Similarly, in the Rhone-Alpes region, near the town of Moûtiers, the number of inquiries about chalets off the beaten track-no matter in what kind of state they might be-far outstrips the number of properties available. A chalet d’alpage (literally a chalet in mountain pastures), so isolated that access  in winter months would be limited, was recently sold by the Immobilier Plus Savoie agency for €68,000 ($98,000) despite its uninhabitable state. “We are frequently asked for properties such as this one,” says a spokesperson for the agency. “People seem to love the idea of hiding away in the mountains. They aren’t looking for ski chalets, but a place to escape, to enjoy the countryside and relax.”

 

Originally published in the October 2008 issue of France Today.