Slinky, under the 10 year decennial guarantee you have the (doubtful) pleasure of inviting the said artisan back to re-do the work until he's got it right. That's if you can bear it.
You only have to look at total france to see how dire customer service is.
Yes, you can get a 'devis', which has the same status as a quote in the UK, but getting an artisan to sign it and give a date when the work will be done is almost unknown in our experience, with the exceotion of an English plumber, who replaced a bath that cracked under guarantee. This was after waiting for over a year for the plumber to replace it, and after writing a registered letter asking him when he was going to replace it. The same letter asked him to redo his invoice showing how the equipment fitted met the requirements for a tax rebate.
Also watch out for decorating costs. Toile de verre, the equivalent of anaglypta costs up to ?100 a roll, albeit large ones. Paint is dear too, and the painters charge about ?40 an hour. I know the 50% rate of cotisations are partly to blame, but just before we left, we paid £12 an hour to a painter, and he was declaring his income, so it wasn't done as a foreigner.
If you can stand the upheaval, I'd rent first before buying. Completions take about 3 months anyway. In our dept, the Correze, there is only 1 person doing the searches, which accounts for some of the delay.
Have a good look on tf, there are loads of sections, but keep a sense of humour regarding all the Brits salivating over their next delivery of HP baked beans from Asda sent out via sterling and other delivery services. However, apart from a few, there are loads of helpful people who can give info on loads of things, including how to fill in tax returns.