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Idyllic location - stone property with pool and outbuilding
EUR 231,000
More info...
BARGAIN! renovated farmhouse with swimming pool and views of the mountains
EUR 299,600
More info...
Superb Charentaise house
EUR 625,400
More info...
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A swimming pool with your French property
Almost everyone who moves to France wants one, particularly those who live in the warm south of the country. A pool is an essential part of the dream, and it is vital to make the right choice of pool for you. So picture this... you are floating on an airbed, gazing up at a cloudless blue sky, with the sun beating down on your tanned, lithe body… your fingers drift to the floating tray by your side, and you lazily lift your chilled rosé to your lips…
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Rewind three months
You are sweating, standing in a muddy pit, deafened by the noise of the digger you have paid a king’s ransom to hire, desperately trying to even up the levels of the pit…
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Rewind 2 months
You are sitting, warming your fingers by a log fire, idly flicking through a swimming pool catalogue. The pictures are alluring, promising summer dreams come true. Laughing families play in azure waters, but then you notice the price. Unwilling to sell your children into slavery to fund the purchase, you pick up the next brochure. More azure waters, more happy smiling families. Price? Cheaper than you’d thought. The trouble is, it’s a prefabricated pool and the access to your property won’t accommodate the delivery wagon. Move on to the next brochure. Price, fine. Families still smiling and swimming (hang on a minute, aren’t they the same family in every picture? Maybe they just hop from pool to pool being photographed all summer long, and get paid for it? No wonder they’re smiling!) The catch? You put this one in the ground yourself. It looks straightforward, so you order one. (How hard can it be?)
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Fast forward six weeks
Delivery day… a tiny little girl arrives in a huge wagon, which she parks in the middle of the main road. Ignoring all the furious beeping horns and shaking fists, she proceeds to unload a forklift truck. As she begins the first of ten journeys down the track to your house, loaded to the limit, you begin to experience the first pangs of anxiety… perhaps this might not be as quick and simple as you thought. Your mind turns to the instruction booklet you received with your order. The whole process was explained in a series of cartoon pictures. Happy smiling couple, he with a spade, she with a bucket, seem to have the thing cracked in a couple of days. You gaze at the spot where the pool is to be. Reality begins to hit. A bucket and spade is going to take a long while to dig a pit eleven metres long, six metres wide and three metres deep… you sit on a log and begin to sob.
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Your options
There are many possible options of swimming pool (and of course price and degree of difficulty of installation depend somewhat on size and site) but the basic choices are as follows:
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The money no object option
If you can afford this you need read no more. Choose any pool you fancy, from any manufacturer, have it personally designed (read a summer edition of Maisons et Decors for inspiration) and installed while you pop off to Monaco for the weekend.
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The next best thing option
If you don’t quite have an unlimited budget but you are prepared to spend a little more to have the pool fitted for you, you could consider a pool such as Des Joyeaux or Crystal produce. The product is excellent, the work done for you, but you will find the overall price is considerably higher than the DIY options.
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The totally DIY option
If you are a very committed DIYer you may like the idea of creating a bespoke pool yourself. This is possible, and can be a really good choice if you know what you are doing. Talk to people who have done it, look around at different styles and types of pools, weigh up the relative merits of liners versus tiles, press gang all your able-bodied friends into helping and off you go. You will have the satisfaction of knowing that you have really achieved value for money, but it won’t be an easy ride.
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The kit pool option
This is the semi DIY option, and, in fact, the one which we chose. Now it’s in, and the blood sweat and tears forgotten, we are delighted with our choice, as the quality is superb and we were able to create a pool which suited our needs. It was not, however, the simple few days task that the brochure appeared to promise! A small digger is required (quite costly to hire, so consider buying and then reselling) and all in all the work took some two months to complete. The pool we bought was from a company called Waterair, who have representatives all over France.
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The prefabricated option
You will see these pools on display all over France. They come in many shapes and sizes, are delivered in one piece on the top of a wagon, and are simply lowered into a hole in your garden, Great…but remember you have to dig the hole first…and make it level, and find somewhere to bury the earth you have produced (we still have a mound of earth the size of Mount Canigou in our garden)! For an in ground pool, however, this is probably the cheapest and simplest choice. The drawbacks are that the shape is pre-set, and it is difficult to find one deep enough to accommodate a family who enjoy spring board diving. You also need to consider delivery, as this pool has to be brought to the site on a large wagon, and not all properties have suitable access.
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The above ground options
There are many different types of above ground pool available, and there will be one to suit all budgets and requirements. They range from very large pools which are big enough to swim lengths in, usually of an attractive timber construction through to the little snap set splash pools which have a blow up rim, and are ideal for the smaller garden or the young family.
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French swimming pool safety standards
Finally, there are a couple of important things to bear in mind and consider before installing a pool. The first is that as of January 2006, all swimming pools in France must have either an alarm, a barrier, a cover or a shelter. These safety regulations have been set up by the Association Française de Normalisation (Afnor), who are imposing a maximum fine of £31,000 (EUR 45,000) should one of these safety measures not have been installed. (Visit www.afnor.fr for further information.)
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French swimming pools and how they effect your tax
The second issue relates to tax, and this is that if you choose an in ground pool it will add an extra payment to your tax bill, as by adding the pool you have increased the value of your property. The pool must be declared on your tax form, and is then charged as part of your tax every year. It is not a one off payment. There is not a banding system in France, but the tax does work like council tax in the UK, ie: your home is valued and the taxes levied accordingly.
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A final word
So there you are… a run down of the basic choices that you will find when you start looking for your pool. Of course you could save yourself the dilemma and buy a house with a swimming pool already in installed. Now, if I could just find someone to install that lithe tanned body… !
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About the author
Joanna Simm moved to the Languedoc area of south-west France in October 2004 having found her property through French Property Links.
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