The search resumes.

We are in the south of France looking for a home to buy/retire to/invest in, and we crisscrossed the countryside while looking for a suitable place.

Even within a few hours of completing what was a sort of race against exhaustion, it became difficult to remember what was what.

This is what we saw, in the order we saw it, with the homes identified by the village:

–Puimisson. We met our energetic agent at the town square here, and we walked one block to a corner home that had negative curb appeal. The front door looked like a collection of splinters somehow adhering to each other, battered from a century of rain, perhaps. As we approached, I certainly thought, “Why are we looking at this mess?”

Nothing really improved as she pushed open the front door and we entered the landing. To our right, taking up the whole of the ground floor was a garage, with some materials in it. Apparently, the lower floor once was a commercial enterprise of some sort. (With the family living in upper floors.) It was cold and dark, though it had a double door opening onto the street. Yes, a car could fit in there, if you decided to go that direction.

A long straight staircase to the living level. Usually there are spiral staircases  — and there were, on the next two levels. We generally don’t like those. One false move and you’re tumbling. Actually, stairs often are an issue in the older homes in France. Most of the building are vertical, and if they don’t have a spiral staircase they often have a jumped-up ladder serving as “stairs”. Often with no hand rail.

But I digress.

Second floor, the house begins. A big room, with the start of a kitchen overhaul. Behind the kitchen, double doors open on a wide terrace overlooking the street. You certainly could eat out there, or sit, and watch the city go past — not that it would take long, with barely 1,000 people living there. I note a playground across the street.

Also, on this floor. An enormous bathroom, with bidet as well as the usual stuff. A shower without walls. Never like those. Also, a back door leading downstairs to a little bit of yard (with another crumbling door to the outside world), and the “courtyard” is strewn with trash (including, literally, a kitchen sink), as well as a weird pile of petrified something perhaps organic — that our agent identified as “cat shit.” Ack.

Third floor. A big wide-open space. Well-lit thanks to a south-facing window. A bedroom presumably. Maybe two, if a partition is put up. An odd space in the back, over the bathroom of the floor below … and the floor disappears about 20 feet. If you were to step off this, you would tumble down to the first floor (next to the tiny yard). This is where you would put in the second bathroom, if you had the time/energy/money.Right now there isn’t even a floor, just dirt.

Fourth floor. Presumably the master bedroom, big and square and empty, for now. Possibly a living room, because the view out the window is amazing and it would be nice to share that. The doors have been sanded down, and in the roof we can see where someone seems to have completed in the installation of new, saw-cut beams while keeping the old, round “out of the forest” beams. A small terrace facing south, and a smallish window facing east — and offering an amazing view of miles of rolling countryside.

Insta-verdict: Very rough. Lots of work. Lots of climbing in what is a four-story building. But some serious possibilities.

Someone else must have thought so, too, as they put in most of the hard stuff, then clearly ran out of money (or inclination).

–Autignac. Another old place, in the narrow part of town. Right behind the town bakery, which is good. House across the street is about 15 feet off.  Long kitchen. Not much living room between the kitchen and big stone fireplace. Hmmm. The window on the street level looks at nothing but the building across the narrow way.

Second story, up a massively tight spiral. I mean, seriously tight. I know several folks who would have trouble getting up it. Two curiously sized bedrooms. One long and narrow with a window at the end, so some light … the other square with a huge “how come” walk-in closet. The closet is half the size of the bedroom. Between the two rooms, two bathrooms. A toilet and sink in one, a shower and sink in the other.

Third story, basically an attic. Ceiling less than eight feet high. Closer to seven. A bedroom area, with a low door leading to the unfinished part of the attic, which apparently has been used only for hanging laundry. No ventilation in this big, low space. But something could be done with it. A terrace that is one of the nicer features of the place, but it has an overlooking terrace across the street.

Insta verdict: Probably not in the running.

–Laurens.  A bigger town than the past two. A town known for its multinational population, mostly from all over western Europe. The home: A curious place near the LA-style (only smaller) flood control channel.

Bottom floor is a garage, which is not part of the pertinent property. However, a garden across the street, with lemon tree, loquat tree, some covered area, where you could sit out and watch the sun go down, because across the channel is miles of open country. (But, too, if we’re not going to be in the place for more than five weeks a year, who would keep up the plants?)

First floor (as opposed to ground floor)  is what is for sale. Someone still lives in it, a single guy, it would seem, and it is hard to envision the place without the guy’s stuff, including a huge “Che” flag in the bathroom and a Che lunchbox on a shelf. Ironic? Mattress on the floor in the back bedroom, which has no windows. A second bedroom — with window. Main room is nice, and kitchen is along one of the walls, including a strange “range” sort of thing, a wide, flat metal space — like a giant griddle. You can cook on it by putting wood on a grate on top of it, thus barbecuing inside. Interesting, but odd. Kitchen sink in its own room. A WC, and a bathroom with walled shower and a bidet that presumably could be replaced by a toilet.

Second floor: Not included in this purchase, though it could be had for an extra 60,000 euros. Recently separated from the rest of the building, and a renter is in there until 2014. Permission has been given to build a terrace (not yet constructed) on the top of the building, and the buyer of the main floor would not have access.

Insta-verdict: The “middle is yours, and so is the garden, but not the garage and not the upper floor” is too weird, and the guy’s stuff in there was off-putting. Would have to love the sunsets and the town — and probably would want to try to buy the rest of it, and we don’t have that kind of scratch.Plus, I think we would want to turn it back into one apartment.

–Les Aires. Up in the hills, to the north, near the city of Bedarieux. Very much a “second house” place, small, with maybe 300 permanent residents and no businesses.

Home is located about 20 feet from a grand old church, where a minister says mass once a month (I saw the schedule on the door), and a fountain burbles next door, which made pleasant running-water noise audible inside the home.

Lower floor:  Tight. Small, galley kitchen and sitting area. This is where you would live when not in a bedroom, and it’s tight. In part, because a staircase outside (which leads to a door going to someone else’s home) belongs to the house. Which is crazy. In theory, you could go sit on your steps, or put plants up there, but mostly you think about liability issues with an unused outside stair.

Second floor: Nice bedroom. Full-range bath, although the tub is tiny; maybe four feet long. Modern make but 18th century dimensions.

Third floor: Smallish bedroom. Washer room, water heater, sink. Separate WC. Which means two, which is good. An even smaller bedroom with a tiny window, and a loft sleeping area up a steep ladder. And the best aspect of the place: A south-facing terrace with views of the church and fountain and hills.

Insta-verdict: Town is a bit too remote, and the idea of hardly anyone living there except during the high season … Love the church and the fountain and the terrace, but living space on lower floor is tight.

–Puisserguier. Further south, away from the hills, more into the plain. A bustling town. Home is on a side street of narrow buildings. (All centreville areas in old towns have homes butted up one against another, and they are taller than they are wide.)

A shared courtyard, fairly expansive, a bit of green in a stony street. Nice, but held in common with a second tenant. Home set back from street, with tidy and spacious garage on lower floor.

Second floor. Up a stone staircase to a nice terrace overlooking the yard. This is where you enter the house proper. Another very tight fit of living area — kitchen, dining table crammed into a corner, fireplace, a sort of no-man’s land between fireplace and kitchen where somehow a couch and chairs would go.

Third floor: Very nice bedroom. Plush bathroom. Very well done and modern.

Fourth floor: Same as third. Both in terms of bedroom and bathroom. Not as much light in this room.

Insta-verdict: Great bedrooms, outstanding baths. Nice, regular staircases. A more modern feel than anything we have seen on the day. Shared yard is a problem, as is orientation: it appears to be north-facing, and tall buildings on each side will severely limit sun in there. Living area awfully small.

At first, we were going to push on to two more places, further in the south, but we decided that was enough for the day, and enough to  think about. We ruled out two other places completely, knowing they would not be for us. Nothing was perfect, some was far from perfect, but we have to balance our budget against all of that.

Ultimately, it’s not that it’s hard to find a place in our price range with two bedrooms, two baths, outside space and a view — just one place with all of those things in the right spot.