I agree, we had a month househunting in March 5.5 years ago - everything was pretty grim, it was cold and only the last week did spring seem to arrive. Was great seeing everything in the wet / grey 
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It was minus 10 when we first saw our house!
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Hello everyone,
Iâm in the very early stages of looking for a house to buy in or on the outskirts of a village in Brittany. I live in the US so cannot plan a visit at the moment so am trying to research as much as I can online. I read the comments to this topic with great interest, and now Iâd like to ask if any of you would be willing to share the names of the villages or towns you decided to buy in. Thank you in advance!
Lynn
Under the T&Cs, you need to amend your registration to show your first name and last name.
@cat
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Hi Lynn and welcome to SF but as has been mentioned, please amend your details to show your full real name - cheers. 
Sorry, it took me a while to figure out how! I think I have now, or hope so. Thanks!
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Welcome, Lynn.
Iâm no help because Iâm interested in Pays-de-la-Loire. But there is a great deal you can do to research online, from Google Street View to the INSEE site; the website of the Mairie (which will probably tell you what the communeâs facilities are); Wikipedia entries âŠ
Lynn, I envy you. On cold winter Sundays I often look at notaire/immobilier websites, even though Iâm just an armchair home buyer. With me it never goes any further than a search through some of their websites in the areas we really like.
Stevieâs answer is very helpful. I would add that not long ago on Survive France somebody mentioned etalab for recent property sales. A really lovely manor house way out of my price range is for sale, and I keep checking etalab to see if it has been sold and for how much.
As a traveler, I often use the French yellow pages, and I think this website would come in handy to give you some idea of the vitality of any town youâre looking at.
Once youâve asked it to search for a boulangerie, cinema, fromagerie, or whatever, it will return results. I use the number of boulangeries to gauge how busy the town is. You can then ask to see them on a map of the town. Other things like La Poste, parks, gardens will also show up on the map.
Sign up with the local tourist office to get their weekly or monthly update of whatâs going on.
Any chance you could pop over to France next weekend? Well, now that I see you are in the US, you canât. Same with us, and we are really missing France.
The heritage weekend (Journees du Patrimoine) is 9/19 and 9/20. Itâs always one of the highlights of a trip for us. Itâs an opportunity to get a close look at places usually closed to the public. Weâve been visiting the same area on this weekend since 2007 and even in 2019 we were still finding new places to visit.
I hope youâll share with us as you go through your search. Some of us armchair shoppers would love to look over your shoulder.
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Even villages and towns that donât have many second homes doesnât mean that they have anything going on in theme thatâs especially with the towns and villages In the commuter belt around the big cityâs people just sleep in them and the live and work in the city
Iâve heard a number of the heritage weekends have been cancelled this year, for reasons which wonât surprise us 
Round us they are making a big effort to have things open - even if it means reducing numbers and requiring reservations. But then things here are very small. Iâve done a few in Paris in previous years, and that is more complicated. The queue for the ĂlysĂ©e was huge, several hours I recall but the prime minister of the day (Villepin) went up and down the queue shaking peopleâs hand. How things change. This year the reservations are already fullâŠbut they will be putting up a virtual tour on their website that weekend.
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Yes, I heard on Fr Info this morning that a number of places are doing virtual tours - ânumĂ©riqueâ
Thanks so much, everyone, especially Stevie and Carolyn, for taking the time to reply and offer such useful ideas and pointers. (Iâd not considered the Pays-de-la-Loire area but got swept up in google searches there yesterdayâgorgeous!) Having input from others is so useful and helps a transition not feel overwhelmingly daunting but instead fun and a little less daunting! I look forward to reading more of what you and others on this site are saying about how youâre survivingâand thriving!âin France. Hope you all stay well. Lynn
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I suppose you could use ânumĂ©riqueâ in this context, as the information has been digitised. But it feels more comfortable French to me to say âune visite virtuelleâ.
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Iâd have said so, too, but ânumĂ©riqueâ is the term they were using on the radio