Thank you.
Isn’t that why the English don’t eat frogs legs ?
Because they drink “du the tard”?
Excuse the lack of accent(s)
This was a joke told to me by a French electrician
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Never heard of Graulhet… but we love Grollet… 
… hic…
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I’m in Montignac-Lascaux. old pretty town 3000 y/round residents, friendly, welcoming. Yes tourists in summer, school hols, tho not quite as many this year, évidemment…20 mins to Sarlat…lovely town, market too. I live in town but my back gate’s in the country practically. And if you want the country life, lots of smaller villages all around or even just in the country, Make a circle Montignac, Sarlat, Souillac and travel on the small roads in between to get just a small taste of what I love about France!
Forgot to mention…off season is great, and if you live in a tourist attracting area as I often have, you just deal. If that’s a real irritant, there are country options too!
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Think carefully about retirement in France, you do know, that you don’t get a day off. Such is life.
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Stayed in Sarlat for a couple of nights last year and found it pleasant enough, but certainly wasn’t blown away by it. Although there were lots of restos, the menus lacked variety -all confit de canard and aligot I think if this was my principal nearest town, it might become a bit boring.
If you go a bit further south - Cahors etc, you’ll probably get an awful lot more for your money (that’s why it’s called the Lot Valley!) Figeac on the neighbouring Cele is also worth a recommendation - it’s popular with summer tourists, but has an even better atmosphere the rest of the year.
Some people have already mentioned Rodez (my nearest city) and I’d also recommend it as a nearest city - it’s not dependent on tourism, but has a decent cultural scene. The surrounding countryside has much to recommend -it - the landscape stays green throughout the summer and has a lot of character Lovely mediaeval*sandstone and limestone villages and propeties at low prices eg. Marcillac. People might be surprised to learn that the often overlooked Aveyron has more plus beaux villages than any other departement.
Lastly, although this area’s also handy for Rodez airport, wherever you’re thinking of living, don’t put too much emphasis on the local airport’s future connectivity!
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Yes Ronald, it reopened early June with a three course meal at 12.90€
Interesting place is Graulhet. You can see it used to be quite a prosperous place employing thousands in the leather trade but now the factories are closed down and the economy struggling.Some decent restaurants there though and you can see the council is trying to regenerate the place.
I have a pal who lives in deep country north of Fumel. It’s 20 mins drive to the retail park, inc Eric the Cleric, over the bridge on the south side of the Lot. I have based my own search on his 20 mins drive to ‘all the facilities’.
Fumel town itself is a rather sad, dog-eared place but there’s a station > Bordeaux which now has TGV service to Paris and well connected airport. Bergerac is his airport for UK tho’ he’s gutted that FlyBe to S’oton has gone down.
You may have a particular enthusiasm which will influence your choice of locale. Music? Fishing? Rugby? Art galls?
I’ve spent this morning creating a Google map layer with the list of my faves by distance from Omaha beach. Within that trip are the beautiful/interesting towns of Bayeux and Caen, amongst others.
Try Brantome. It’s also beautiful but less popular and quieter. Wherever you go it can be cold in winter so remember that. I have lived between Carcassonne and Beziers, but in winter nothing happens because the French hibernate and the English just retire to the bars.
I am now in Provence and love it. I leave in July and August as it’s just too hot, too many tourists and traffic. The rest of the year life is wonderfully laid back. There’s only traffic if you go to the popular places like St. Tropez (not worth the trouble), Cannes, Juan Les Pins and Antibes, etc. but it never freezes in winter so when I come back no chance of frozen pipes!
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No dissing my home town, thank you ! No I do agree to an extent, it can be hell in summer - but it is my beautiful home and I love it. You must go off season, see the citadel and particularly the view from it, the cimetière marin and the musee de l’Annonciade which is lovely (and I expect 99% of visitors don’t even notice it is there, on the port next to the ancienne capitainerie).
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When we were kids, our parents took us camping at Port Grimaud, just over the bay from St trop. Even quite young, the beaches were interesting 
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Empty??
It depends what your interests are…day off?
It deserves to survive. It provided us with many good meals both midi et soir. It looks like they are having to cut costs as we used to get starter, mains, cheese, dessert and wine.
Normal full as opposed to not being able to move or park because of tourists.
Very similar to Mazamet in that respect
Yes, I don’t mind Mazamet though a bit chilly in winter.
Hi Alan, I live further west in the ‘Perigord blanc’. We initially rented a gite for a month one March and decided on this area as it was so central to all areas of the Dordogne. We eventually bought just 7km from where the gite was! I drove 2000km to cover all corners of the Dordogne before we decided where we wanted to be. I dont’ regret our decision at all, in 45 minutes we are able to get to all the main tourist sites in the Dordogne. We a very close to both Bergerac and Perigueux (a secret gem IMO), both which have everything you could need, yes tourists in the summer but also lively all year round. An hour to Bordeaux (easy drive but lots of trains from a local station as well). Airport wise we are 20 minutes from Bergerac, just over an hour (unless peak hour on the rocade!) from Bordeaux, 45ish from Brive, Limoges under 2 hours (1 45 maybe). Our list included a village with school / PO / bar / epicerie / boulangerie etc and we found that - big enough to have those things, small enough to fit in easily and only 20 minutes to bigger towns. We even have a village pool and a wonderful ruined chateau that is getting done back up as well as lovely architecture.
We did discuss the Sarlat area but we could have afforded 1/2 of what we could get here and the thought of trying to run kids to sports etc with the extra millon tourists milling around turned us off! Even all the villages along the Dordogne have to deal wiht that tourist traffic on what is a thin road!
I see a lot of people from Great Britain are moving to France. Are taxes not high for you? Does anyone know what are the taxes for Americans? I do not hear (at least on this forum) any posts from Americans.
Olga… if you’d like to check the link… you will see that Americans do exist on this forum… 
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