French-Australian family is offering Canberrans an 'escape to la maison'

A restored, three to four-bedroom home in a French village was for sale for $249,000.

A quick look online and to find anything for that price in the ACT or nearby, you're looking at a one-bedroom flat in Queanbeyan or Symonston

But this French dream is not a scam.

It's simply the desire of a French-Australian family in Canberra for locals to get first dibs on the much-loved home they are selling back in France.

Curtin couple Felicity and Paul de Fombelle - he is French born, she is Australian - say the time is just right to sell his family home, a 138-year-old farmhouse in the French countryside.

"We know there are lots of Francophiles in Canberra and love the idea of a local couple or family buying our home," Felicity said.

"It is a typical French village with a boulangerie (bakery), auberge (country inn), school, town hall, supermarket and pharmacy.

"The nearest big town is Limoges which is 36km away and has ridiculously cheap flights to the UK and other parts of France.

"Last year, my 11-year-old, Thibault, and I popped over to London for four days and the train fares from Stansted Airport to Paddington Station were dearer than our airfares."

Felicity and Paul now live in Curtin with their three boys Arnaud, 15, Eric, 13, and Thibault, 11. Their fourth child, Etienne, five, died suddenly four years ago.

Felicity met Paul when he was studying for a PhD in politics in her hometown of Melbourne.

"I stopped and asked Felicity for directions when she was jogging and we got talking and then had coffee and 18 months later, we were married," Paul said.

In 2008, they settled in Canberra where they are both public servants.

The boys are in the French stream at Telopea Park School although Eric is now in boarding school in France and Arnaud has just returned from a year of doing the same.

Earlier this year, Paul's mother moved out of the family home in a village of about 400 people in the centre of France, to live in a retirement home.

Felicity said they had lots of happy memories of staying at the home when the boys were younger and could attend the local school for seven or eight weeks before returning to Canberra and slotting easily back into primary school.

Now the boys are older, it's time for the family to let go of the stone home with powder-blue wooden shutters.

"It was built in 1885 but the street was built much earlier, so parts of the house are probably older than that," Paul said.

Felicity says it has "a new roof, is double glazed throughout and has a new heating system".

And Felicity and Paul are willing to go the extra mile to ensure the new buyers fit in with the village.

"Paul has done French tutoring for many years and is happy to throw in tutoring lessons for the lucky buyer or buyers," she said.

"Our neighbours in the village are really lovely hospitable people but it always goes down well if outsiders make an effort to speak the lingo.

"Having said that, they love the fact we live in Australia.

"Remembering this is deep French countryside, Australia is very much an exotic destination and a dream for these mostly farming families. "

The de Fombelle family is now well settled in Canberra and feel very much part of the community.