EXT. FRENCH CAFE - DAY
Alex and Clare face camera. A noisy scooter goes past.
CLARE: When we bought the land, it had planning permission for a three-bedroom family home.
ALEX: Perigordian-style.
CLARE: Perigordian-style family home. With a turret.
ALEX: And under-house parking for two 2CVs. Do you want a top-up?
CLARE: No thanks.
ALEX: Don't mind me.
CLARE: The notaire - that's the lawyer - said, to keep the planning permission, we had to carry on building the house. [SHORT PAUSE] If we stopped for 12 months, we'd lose the permission. [SHORT PAUSE] But we were never going to build the house - we didn't have the money for one thing - and we thought, if you can build a house, you can build something else.
ALEX: Or put up a tent.
CLARE: And we had all this support. When we met the mayor in February, he said he loved the idea. Everyone loved the idea. It's a great idea! Planning permission went in, in early July. We were only expecting it to take a couple of months - three months tops.
ALEX: Why 2CVs?
CLARE: So we moved over in August, which is a holiday in France. Planning was closed for another two weeks in September, for some kind of meeting. The 12-month deadline for the previous planning permission expired in September.
ALEX: It's a small car.
CLARE: And we didn't find out until December that the land is in a non-constructible zone - and the mayor wasn't supporting it any more.
ALEX: It's a family home. What if you had - I dunno - a Saab estate? Or one of those four-by-f...
CLARE: Turns out the land was always non-constructible. But the previous mayor overrode the lack of constructibility and - ta-da - suddenly it's not a problem any more. Mayors have that much power.
ALEX: Suppose you'd have to have the house re-designed with one big garage and apply for planning permission all over again.
CLARE: Which is why we're waiting for the new mayor to be elected in March.
ALEX: Or park it in town and buy a 2CV as a kind of... What? Have I got a red-wine moustache?
5 comments:
saab estate :-P
Ooh, you notice everything.
Oh yes . . . . and I remember everything too, so watch out!
:-)
Just goes to show how intently I read your blog . . . .
Oh and hey - March is only next month!
this webpage needs you. x.
http://www.wright-house.com/steven-wright/steven-wright-jokes.html
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