John West's Selection of French property for Sale

About my area

My area with Leggett Immobilier covers West Charente and most of Charente Maritime. From the superb City Jewel of Angouleme in the South down along the Charente Valley through Jarnac, the birthplace of former president Francois Mitterrand and up past Cognac and the rolling vineyards of the Grand Cru with their unique villages where most of the houses sit nestled behind gated and walled courtyards.( supposedly built like that to prevent the Customs Men from standing on their horses backs to try and see how many barrels of Brandy and Pineau they were distilling!)
One of the joys of my region is the wonderful reception you always get from the locals, even when you are poking around looking for a “little gem”. As an example, only the other day I passed a beautiful run-down Logis, and seeing the post-box looked fairly new I left a note and my business card asking the owner to contact me if they were interested in selling the property. The next day, instead of the expected phone call I received a visit at my home from a lovely little old man who announced that he “looked after” the property for the elderly lady owner, who lived in the Midi. He politely handed me my note back, with the telephone number of the owner, and his own, suggesting I rang the owner to arrange to take on the sale of the property, and he would gladly show me around whenever I wanted. With welcomes like that why would I want to work anywhere else?

About me

I originally trained as an Architect at Oxford School of Architecture in the late seventies. After working in both public and private practices and Housing Associations I joined the Material Components Industry in the late 1980’s working first as a Design Consultant and then as Company Architect for several Blue Chip PLC’s. These job moves led me all over the UK, and I counted up the other day that I have bought, renovated and sold over a dozen houses in the last twenty five years. In early 2000, a new century and a new marriage found me seeking new challenges and it was in this spirit that my wife Ann and I arrived to live permanently in France in early 2002. We chose our first home in a delightful village on the outskirts of Angouleme, and have since moved four times!(But now the last ... as I have promised the wife!)In addition to working as an Independent Agent with Leggett Immobilier I have managed Charente Gems sarl, our specialist renovation and property Management Company, based near Angouleme, for the past four years.