Hello,
my wife and I are planning to retire and move to the Charente area in a few months time. During the past 30 years or so we’ve lived and worked in numerous places around the world - most notably a 5 year stint in Brussels.
We’ve seen a house that we really like in Roumazières-Loubert. I wondered whether anyone in the group has lived there or close by and has any comments / advice about settling in that particular town.
I enjoy carpentry and had the idea of using my hobby / interest on a small scale basis to make garden furniture. Any thoughts as to whether this would be feasible?
One of my other interests is music - particularly blues and rock. We know that there are quite a few bars in the area that have live music events. I used to play the guitar and will be taking it up again. Does anyone know of a guitar tutor in the area?
We’re planning to (eventually) get an Irish Wolfhound and possibly a Great Dane as well, so would be really interested to hear from any members who have either of these two breeds.
Roumazières is ok but I wouldn’t want to live there. It’s on the main road and always seems to have loads of traffic. The town will be bypassed one day, within twenty years I was told. Chasseneuil to the west is ok a is La Rochefoucauld but go about 25 east and look at Saint Junien as it’ has everything including a great hospital, hypermarkets and loads of clubs and activities. Plus the bypas means traffic is a lot lighter.
‘pm’ me if you want any info.
Roumazières is quite close to us in Suaux (proche de Chasseneuil to the west of Roumaz) and we go there quite frequently for shopping. There are a number of areas in the ‘hinterland’ of Roumaz which are quite pleasant but as Peter says, the traffic along the N141 is sometimes horrendous with heavy lorries visiting the tile factory and little chance of them having an alternative route even when the long awaited bypass comes.
Where in Roumaz are you are considering? Do you have a property in mind currently?
I’ve lived in the centre of town since 2005 and I haven’t smelled anything Graham. It was an issue however until the parent company undertook extensive repairs and modificationq in about 2000.
Peter, thanks for the information - we did nt know about the future bypass. We stayed in Rochechouart for a couple of weeks a months nor so ago and popped into St. Junien a couple of times - not for us I’m afraid. One of the reasons for looking at Roumazieres-Loubert is that its close to the Charente Lakes and more or less in the middle of the area bounded by St. Claud, Ruffec, Civray, Charroux, Confolens, Etagnac, Rochechouart and Chabanais.
Hi Graham,
we looked a couple of times at a property close to the train station. We’ve noticed the heavy traffic along the N141, however I expect most our travelling to be North-South so hopefully it won’t be much of an issue.
I sometimes drive through there when heading home on a route that takes me through Chabanais as my GPS gives that route as the preferred way. It’s not mine. The N41 is the busiest road that I travel on and there will be more lorries in the short distance between Chabanais and where I turn off near Neuil than I will have seen on the rest of the 350km round trip to the eastern Dordogne that I regularly make. I presume the house you’ve seen is well away from the main road.