Hi Stella yes that sounds great. My email is natsharley@hotmail.com
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Hi Stella,
yes, we have run a b&b for five years and have now just started our sixth season. It is our sole source of income, and we are just about living off it.
We are a little further east than the area you mentioned. We are in the Valley de la Dordogne, in the Rocamadour, Peche Merle, Collonge-la-Rouge, Gouffres de Padirac, etc etc catchment area.
Our b&b is ābout de coteā at Sousceyrac-en-Quercy, so google us and with your āA-levelā french, you will surely get an impression of our activity.
It is good news that you are looking to have sold your house at the end of the summer: thatāll give you some time this summer to get āup to speedā.
I would recommend jumping in at the deep end for a week or two, and working somewhere to ālearn some of the ropesā. We receive quite a few young French singles and couples who use the WWOOFing site to find a place to work and learn, with the long term dream of opening a Ferme Auberge or Chambre dāhotes, I would strongly recommend that site, and if you can find a Ferme/Chambres dāhotes, in your target area, youāll not regret the week or two invested.
Remember that Gites and Chambres dāhotes are completely different business models, and completely different approaches, so you do need to be clear in your mind which would be best in your case, and buy a property adapted to that function.
Finally, if that is central to your move, look to buy an extisting gite or chambre dāhote.
If I can be of any further help, please donāt hesitate, I am happy to help others avoid pitfalls which we may or may not have experienced.
Regards
Richard
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[Mailtrack](https://mailtrack.io?utm_source=gmail&utm_medium=signature&utm_campaign=signaturevirality4&)Cheers Richard, I will look you up! 
We thought gite for the high months and b&b use in low months, with two/ three properties . Does that mean you can only do one or other? Only want to make enough to live on and cover costs, without eating into our savings. We are going to A Place in the Sun exhibition in two weeks to look into financial things like bank accounts and what we can put in place now.
I like the idea of getting some work experience. It will also help with the French! I shall look into what opportunities there are.
Thanks for being so helpfu!
Lol - A Place in The Sun exhibition made me chuckle! Itās been raining here in the deep South since last October! 
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Hi Alex,
Thanks for that info. I will indeed look it up. Iām not sure of area, but that could all change again once we are there if something just grabs us!
Any properties for sale that may not be easily found we are more than happy to look at.
Kind regards.
Why Vendee to Bergerac? There are many other areas of France where you can get a far bigger ābang for your buckā and still have plenty of English speakers living nearby.
Living on gites and B&B income depends on what the economic model will be after the UK leaves the EU. Even now it is not as viable as it was before the Pound collapsed against the Euro.
A level french is not a problem. I only had an O-level (canāt remember what grade), it very much depends on integrating and spreading your contacts into the French community.
Grahame.
I donāt understand your comment about exchange rates. If someone is living in France and earning a living here their income will be in euros. Exchange rates donāt come into it.
As somebody who has rented gites I know that most of the lets come from people in the UK. They judge the prices in Ā£ sterling and that came to us in Euros.
When the exchange rate was 1.35 or more ā¬ to the Ā£ prior to the referendum that was one thing now that it is 1.10/1.15 ā¬ to the Ā£ that is very much less.
If people judge the prices in ā¬ then a 1,000 ā¬ a week rental is Ā£100 or so more expensive when valued in Ā£ than it was prior to the referendum.
That is how the exchange rate works
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I presumed that people starting a business in France would look for the big market not a minority share.
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Starting a business anywhere relies on being able to capitalise on the market that finds your product most attractive.
During the several years that we ran gites our customers were from the UK and occasionally the US.
Generally speaking most potential customers from the other EU27 countries expected far less in terms of āmod consā and therefore were prepared to pay far less than potential customers from the UK.
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So youāre implying that the premium that you enjoyed by focusing on English speaking guests has been eroded by the exchange rate?
Please stop picking needless fights. No one appreciates it. Thank you.
Itās not a needless fight. Graeme posted something that made no sense to me. Iām trying to understand what he meant.
Hi Grahame,
Itās an area weāve been to several times and seems to fit our weather and landscape requirements. Do you have any other suggestions?
We shall be taking every opportunity to get involved with the local town we shall live in. We donāt expect to remain outsiders, or wish to be alone. We hope to have lots of nationalities stay with us and will not be marketing exclusively to Brits.
Regards the exchange rate, I donāt see a problem. The price will be advertised in euros. So it remains with the individual to decide if the price is to their liking/ if they benefit from a good rate. It may or may not affect bookings, but isnāt that always the case ?
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If the financial viability of the move means running a B&B or gites then location is key IMO - within an hourās drive of the beach, near to a motorway, near to an airport and close to towns of interest. Think about how much you need to earn per year to survive and make sure you put two years worth aside as a safety net, for a couple I would say 50k. Be flexible over your own requirements, insisting that a property has to have an least an acre to grow veg massively cuts down the choice and believe me initially you wonāt have the time to potter in your allotment until the business is well established. Do not buy a wreck!
The easiest but perhaps most expensive option is to buy an existing set-up, there are hundreds of gite complexes for sale at the moment.
Sound adviceā¦ 
Just another thought for the would-be Buyerā¦ figure out the real reason why the existing business is up for saleā¦ too many will sayā¦ age/health etcā¦
Any buyer would do well to analyse the existing set-up against the check-list in your post. 
Thanks Timothy and Stella, will definitely keep that in mind, when looking at areas. How much of a pull is the Dordogne compared to other areas: Charente, Vienne, Deux Sevres? We donāt envisage being further inland than that. We could instead invest in uk property, but that would mean agents fees. We also like the idea of being able to look after our property and meet people too.
There are wonderful ātouristā areasā¦ just take your pickā¦ In your shoes, I would look at what ātouristā bits appeal to me, personallyā¦ then I could be quite naturally enthusiastic about āsellingā the idea to would be clientsā¦ 
On the other suggestionā¦ I wonder if living in France and leaving Investment Property in UK will also incur extra taxation and Social Charges for you here in Franceā¦
I think once weāve got the money in the bank, we can drive around looking at properties 
. We will have the option to either stick with our original plan or consider other investment options.
Iāve also being looking to see if thereās a property for sale section on this forum, but havenāt noticed it yet.
Our own property gets photos done tomorrow, and should be on market by end of week 
Look under
https://www.survivefrance.com/c/for-sale-or-wanted/property-sales
also search using the magnifying glassā¦ properties wanted or whatever catch phraseā¦