Escaping - to work in the sun

Cote d'Azur Agency:Right about now, Ethel Kelly and her family - husband and three small children - are turning the key in the door of their Kilkenny home for the last time and are heading to a flight to the Riviera.

Ethel plans to start a new life in Valbonne, a cobbled village behind Cannes, working with Hilary Larkin, enjoying the sun in Biot, the hillside village between Nice and Cannes where she lives.

Larkin, who worked for the Bank of Ireland for more than 20 years, moved to Nice over five years ago and set up Cote d'Azur Property Connections, an estate agency which specialises in holding buyers' hands through the whole business of buying in France. She helps buyers find not just properties but also notaires, translators and letting agents, as well as people who'll refurbish and fit out their property.

Ethel met Hilary when she asked her to help rent out the villa she and her husband bought in Valbonne two years ago, initially as a holiday home. One thing led to another and Ethel, who has a background in the travel industry, asked if she could work with the agency as its Irish agent. It had been a dream of hers to live in France since she was 18, and not long afterwards, she and her husband decided to move to Valbonne full-time. She plans to commute between Ireland and France as the firm's Irish rep.

The agency specialises in selling the kind of property (apart from sale and leaseback units) that most Irish people are looking for, says Ethel. On their books they have what she describes as "beautiful, typically French apartments and villas", many from the 18th and 19th centuries, with high ceilings and period details. Irish buyers are usually looking for apartments costing between €100,000 and €300,000 that they will use themselves, but will also rent out. (There's a plentiful supply of such properties on the Cote d'Azur, says Ethel, costing a little less in Cannes than in Nice: a two-bed in Cannes would cost €250,000 to €300,000, in Nice, €300,000 to €350,000.)

But the agency, which acts as a property finder, has homes ranging from €100,000 to as high as €6 million. If buyers give them some notice, they're confident they can find them the home they want.

[  www.cotedazurpropertyconnections.com ]