May in France. What a month to be alive — especially if you’re on a contrat de salarié. The bank holidays just keep coming, and this year, much like last, they have all fallen neatly on weekdays, making France’s already formidable long-weekend culture absolutely unstoppable. Ascension, Victoire 1945, Fête du Travail… the calendar reads like a greatest hits album of reasons not to answer your emails.
May is essentially a polite collective shrug from the entire country. Nothing gets done. Nobody is available. And if you’re waiting on a signature? Bonne chance.
No rest for me, though. While France collectively decamped to its second homes and campsites, I have been very much at my desk — or rather, on location.
Moving Out in the Meublé — The Art of the Préavis
This week I helped some clients move out of their furnished rental in the Saint-Michel neighbourhood of Bordeaux — one of the city’s most characterful quartiers, and an absolute maze of narrow streets, excellent wine bars, and very limited parking. But I digress.
Tenants on a bail de location meublée are required to give just one month’s notice — one of the genuine advantages of a meublé contract over an unfurnished one (where it’s three months). This notice must be given in writing, either by lettre recommandée avec accusé de réception or via a huissier de justice.
Here’s where it gets interesting — and a little May-shaped in its complexity.
The notice period starts from the day the landlord signs for the registered letter, not the day it’s sent, and not the day they actually read it. So if your landlord has, entirely hypothetically, taken advantage of the bank holidays and gone off-grid somewhere in the Périgord, you may find yourself waiting rather longer than anticipated for that signature. Frustrating, particularly if you have somewhere to be.
The alternative is to use a huissier de justice, a court officer, who delivers the notice in person. The period starts the day of delivery, full stop. No waiting, no uncertainty. Efficient, reliable, and very French in its formality. The slight downside? Sending a huissier to your landlord does carry a certain je ne sais quoi of legal menace that can set the wrong tone — particularly in France, where relationships matter and the preferred approach is always to begin with a phone call and a degree of mutual goodwill.
Which brings me to my standing advice: call or email your landlord first. Let them know you’re leaving, give them time to find a new tenant, and send the formal letter as a follow-up. It keeps things civilised and it tends to make the deposit return considerably smoother.
One more thing worth knowing: French law requires that you allow the landlord or their agent to show the property to prospective new tenants during your notice period, for up to two hours per day on working days. Inconvenient, perhaps. But very French.
Which Brings Me to a Rather Exceptional Apartment…
Now, my clients’ loss is someone else’s considerable gain. Because the apartment they are vacating — is, frankly, a gem .
A stunning 133m² Haussmannian apartment in the heart of Bordeaux, close to Place Camille Pelletan, on the first floor of a former hôtel particulier in stone. This is Bordeaux at its most elegant: five floor-to-ceiling windows, original parquet, ornate mouldings, period fireplaces, and ceiling heights that make you feel like you’re living inside a Delacroix painting. Entirely renovated — new electrics, double glazing, secure entrance, brand new fully-equipped kitchen — while keeping every scrap of its original character intact.
The layout: a grand entrance hall of 22m², a bright 27m² living and dining room, two generous bedrooms (18 and 26m²), a large kitchen (27m²), bathroom, separate WC, and a redesigned cellar for storage. Electric bike charging on site. A parking space available separately at €100/month in a private secure car park five minutes away.
Rent: €1,840/month + €50 charges = €1,890 total. Furnished, move-in ready, and everything within walking distance — the tram, shops, and the Grosse Cloche all within five minutes on foot.
If this sounds like your kind of Bordeaux life, do get in touch and quickly. It’s available from the 23rd of May and apartments like this do not hang around. Particularly not in May, when everyone is suddenly feeling very inspired about moving.
I will confess that, in the end, I did embrace the May spirit. My in-laws were visiting from Cambridge, and my husband and I seized the opportunity to escape for one night — no phones, no screens, and definitely no property portals.
Les Cabanes de Salagnac had been on my list for quite some time, and I am delighted to report that it did not disappoint. Set among the trees, these comfortable, modern forest cabins are the perfect place to relax, unwind, and reconnect with nature.
We spent the evening enjoying a simple but lovely meal, accompanied by a beautiful bottle of 2015 Joseph Phelps Californian wine, very kindly given to us by a fabulous client. France is, quite rightly, proud and protective of its wine, which can make it surprisingly difficult to find a good bottle from elsewhere. When I mentioned this to a client recently, I was thoroughly spoilt: a few weeks later, this wonderful bottle arrived in the post.
It was very different from a French wine — richer, bolder, and unmistakably Californian — but absolutely delicious, and all the more special for the thought behind it.
À la semaine prochaine,
Eleanor