Waiting to sell (LtoR): Sophie and Rupert Scott with children Charlie, Ediir and Lulu outside their Cote d'Azur home.

If you have seen this summer’s blockbuster Inception then the haunting refrain of French cabaret singer Edith Piaf’s 1960 hit Non, Je Ne Regrette Rien will be familiar – it features several times in the film and was a ‘prime source’ of inspiration for the film’s composer, Hans Zimmer.

But an English family living on France’s Cote d’Azur are hoping this higher profile for Piaf – who died in 1960 – will help them sell their luxurious home. The property, which has four-bedrooms, three guest suites, a two-bedroom cottage, swimming pool and tennis courts, is the former and final home of the gifted but tragic singer.

Although this traditional, stone-built ‘bastide’ may have once echoed to the distinctive timbre of Piaf’s voice and despite owners Rupert and Sophie Scott reducing its price by €250,000 – Les Parretts has yet to find a buyer.

Piaf – real name Edith Gassion – owned the property for several decades until her death in 1963 from liver cancer. But for the Scotts it has been a shorter Vie en Rose in the hills overlooking Nice.

The couple, who’ve lived in the South of France for six years and have three children, are hoping to move back to Britain before the oldest starts at Millfield School in September.

During their tenure the family have been busy. As well as upgrading and redesigning the garden Rupert and Sophie have revamped the roof, eradicated damp throughout and re-arranged the oldest, central part of the property to include a farmhouse-style kitchen, sitting room and study.

But despite all this, their stunningly beautiful home remains unsold and the Scotts recently reduced their asking price to €8.5 million to reflect a local market that, local agents say, is quiet at the moment.

If you are interested in buying the property then contact agent  Savills or telephone 020 7016 3740.

I was reading the other day that the LA house that Marilyn Monroe died in is up for sale. Monroe-mania ensures that pretty much anything the actress touched sells for exorbitant amounts, so really it’s no surprise this $3.6 million Spanish-style home is attracting a lot of attention.

If the walls could talk, I wonder what they would say. But is this chance to buy a piece of Hollywood history just a little bit  morbid?

For Monroe fans looking for a home with happier memories, there are two other properties that might better fit the bill:

1. Marilyn’s former holiday home in Palm Springs is also up for sale. Another Med-inspired property, it looks made for entertaining (thanks to the huge patio area) and relaxing (thanks to the pool), it’s on the market for $1.4  million and comes with five bedrooms, five bathrooms and mountain views.

2. This New York apartment building was Marilyn’s home with Arthur Miller between 1955 and 1956, and it’s said they were even married in this very apartment. With neo-classical detail and cityscape views, the building was designed by Emery Roth in 1938. The apartment in question is a two-bed, two-bath, on the market for £1,872,900.

In the UK we all know how much our homes are worth and a large industry has grown up that tracks national, regional, local and even street-by-street prices.

But overseas the picture is very different. Except Australia, New Zealand, Cyprus and the US, which have up-to-date land registry systems like ours – and Spain, which has recently modernised and put its online – British owners of property overseas often have little idea which way prices are swinging.

French property for sale: Apartments within the Les Jardins d’Eos developing in the village of Veyrier du Lac near Annecy in France by developer MGM (0207 4940706). Prices start at €380,000 for a one-bedroom apartment.

France relies entirely on estate agents to provide this information, Greece has only recently emerged from the stone age house price wise, and in Portugal and Italy the systems are, at best, obscure.

But our latest figures for holiday homes overseas, produced by our sister site FindaProperty.com and featured in this weekend’s Sunday Times, give a snapshot of which way asking prices are rising or falling across the globe.

These figures give an interesting insight into how the global recession has affected property prices in sunnier climes. The biggest dips have been witnessed in Florida, which despite enjoying a brighter 12 months following an easing in the US recession, has nevertheless seen its property prices dip by 29% since 2008.

At No.2 is Cyprus, where prices have dropped by 27% since 2008 and continue to fall as the island’s banks and property market struggle to cope with a dramatic reduction in demand for both its mortgages and homes.

And at No.3 in the price drop league is France, where prices are now 22% lower than they were two years ago, followed by Bulgaria at 20% and Italy at 16%. Spain, whose downturn in asking prices began a year or more earlier than all the other markets has witnessed asking prices drop by a more modest 15% since 2008.

But it’s not all drops. Some countries where British buyers like to own homes have not witnessed such dramatic reductions and in some markets prices are up, not down.

Portugal has seen asking prices recover recently (+1.5% compared to 2008) and Turkey - which is outside the Eurozone and its faltering currency – has seen holiday home prices increase by 7%, the FindaProperty figures show.

In Canada, which is more of an emigration rather than holiday home hotspot, prices have risen by 10% and both New Zealand and Australia have endured only modest losses during the worst of the global downturn.

Vote in our poll on the state of the international property market:

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