This site is about living in France, buying property in France or coming to France for a visit or vacation - for a home, holiday or for investment - from one day, to a lifetime.

We moved to France with our young family in 1991, you can see more about Carole, our children and me on the About Us page - we came to the village of Nizas, hence the name of this website.

You can read about many of our experiences, dreams and discoveries in the newsletter archives and in our blog - do sign up for our newsletter , we give honest information and opinions, not just through "rose tinted specs" and we do not twitter on about how clever we were to buy a ruin from the locals for a few cents.

Through our working association with Coast and Country , a British real-estate agent licenced in France, we can offer a great selection of properties throughout the South of France, from the Spanish border in the South West, to the Italian border in the East. We also work closely with all leading estate agents from Languedoc Roussillon through to Provence and the French Riviera.

We rented out our own apartments in our home in Nizas, then our friends and neighbours added their properties and we built up a very successful rentals website All Rentals France . This grew into the most successful website for French rental property, we are relaunching this in 2008 as the start of a new community for owners and renters - anyone can join, there are no fees, charges or commissions.

By popular demand we have brought back our recipe pages of traditional local dishes

A valuable service is our expertise in Fractional Ownership, (shared ownership).

Fractional ownership, or shared ownership, opportunities in France have been hard to find. But now with French property prices still rising in all the popular regions of France, fractional ownership comes into its own and we are developing a new site Harmony Ownership to be the site for fractional ownership in France.

Fractional ownership is a well proven and secure way for you to own shares in a company which owns the freehold, you decide how the property is managed and if you decide to sell your shares you benefit fully from any capital gain.

Buying a house or an apartment in France is safe and simple. Home ownership is secure with no restrictions or legal problems for non-French residents. Shared Ownership is a way you can buy into a freehold, share control of the management of your property and benefit from both the income and the capital gains.

The property is owned by the company and the company is wholly owned by the shareholders. If you have a sixth share in a fractional ownership property then you are the owner of one of the six shares issued by the French fractional ownership company. Here is a report from an independent advisor.

A leaseback plan should be considered as an investment, not a way to get a subsidised property in France. With the government supported tax advantages a leaseback is safe, gives good returns and we can recommend the best offers - it will not give the same capital gains as shared ownership and you have little control over the management of your property or even access to the property after the initial lease.

For a fuller explanation, read what an international lawyer has to say about these companies.

Help us to get it right and to list the types of properties that you want by clicking HERE and filling in our fractional ownership enquiry and search form.

Nizas is a magical village in the South of France, this website started as a personal weblog before blogs were invented. All the original Nizas.com pages are still here.

Do Contact Us about anything you would like to know about life or living in France.