How did you decide where to live in France

We have just got back from second viewings, working on the if I like it in the cold and rain I will love it in the sun theory of house buying.
One that is in my top 2 is in Beaulieu sur Sonnette, and I wondered where you ended up ? And did you ever find a Pilates class?

Hi Jane.

How exciting that you may have found your new home, I hope it all goes smoothly for you. How is your health and when do you hope to move? We stayed in B s S in April for a week and the weather was amazing all week. We stayed at a place called Le Cosset and met a nice Brit called Paul Mattock and will soon meet his wife Wendy.

We bought on 15th October about 2 kms from B s S, near Ventouse in an area called La Vigne de la Loge. The whole area is welcoming and we’ve met some lovely people. On 4th November we were invited to the Marie’s annual lunch. Amazing affair 6 courses of quality food with so many wines, went on for over 5 hours and they had a lovely choir up from Angouleme, who even sung three songs in English for the 8 ExPats attending. All this for 18 euros or free if over 60.

Alas I’ve had to come back to the UK for 5 weeks but my daughter and their two dogs are settling in well to their property next to mine. My son in law is great at DIY and is currently working on my place - I can’t wait to get back on 12th December to enjoy my first Christmas in my new home.

Only downside for us is that we get no mobile signal at our place (we’re in a slight valley) we had no issues at B s S and just assumed it would be good where we’ve settled.

The property we bought was in a disgusting state and it took over 10 days to throughly clean it and get basic items working as they should but that said, despite a lot of work to be done inside our properties we love it. My daughter has found a craft group to join but I haven’t yet investigated a Pilates class. I’ll ask her to ask around for me and hopefully sort something out on my return.

Please stay in touch and I look forward to possibly welcoming you to our area

Kindest regards

Elle x

Because i got a job in Monaco and its only 20 mins walk or so to the office

My wife and I first started looking at Provence and quickly realised that we could nt afford the properties that we liked.

Next we moved further west and looked at in a coastal strip covering Beziers, Narbonne, Perpignan and Ceret. The plan at that time was to buy a villa and one or two gites. After some research, we learnt that having a gite or two is (a) hard work and (b) not the pot of gold that many estate agents promise. Other significant factors were the travel time from the UK and potential flooding.

Luckily I worked with a guy whose in-laws owned property in Ruffec and suggested that we consider the surrounding areas. We then focused on the area bounded by Ruffec, Charroux, Confolens, Chabanais, Rochechouart, Massignac and St.Claud. Reasons were:

  • the weather, proximity to Limoges, Angouleme & Potiers;
  • easy travel to/from Le Havre;
  • lower property prices than further South;
  • the Charente Lakes.

By then, we’d given up on gites or running a B&B and decided to buy a family home and later on a second home to rent out long-term. Following a visit in September 2017, we also tightened up our criteria to locations with a population above 1,000 inhabitants, preferably two of everything (bars, hotels, bakery, doctor etc). We made a second visit to the region in February / March 2018 as we wanted to experience the winter weather. We decided upon a townhouse in Roumazierers-Loubert and moved in September 2018. In spite of finding that the house needs more work than originally estimated we haven’t regretted a moment. The locals have been friendly and welcoming and we are slowly settling in.

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My partner David and I are jumping right in! We were sat around a pool in mainland Greece on holiday and were discussing life ambitions and it turned out that we both had a long held ambition to live in a foreign country and run a small holding. We already are very keen gardeners and allotmenters, so it was the natural next step for us. I’d always wanted to live in France but David had Spain in mind. But once I showed him what we could get in France for our money he was hooked. Well things moved on quickly from there. A week after we got back our perfect property popped up in our inbox, we contacted the agent there and then 5 days later we were in France viewing it and placed an accepted offer there and then. We complete on 22nd January unless SAFER step in and buy it from under us which it is not anticipated will happen. So hopefully on 22nd of Jan 19 we will own our own part of France.

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Great story Ellen. How are you getting on? You must have loads of settling in tales.

Hi John. I’ll start by saying France is wonderful and where we are is so friendly, my daughter has joined an Art group already. We have two communities close to us full of lovely helpful people - French and ExPats who have made us so welcome. When I say us, I use the word loosely as unfortunately the sale of my UK property fell through 10 days before we left for France. Therefore I only spent 3 wonderful weeks in my new home once the purchase was done. The most amazing sight was to see so many Cranes on their migration South - we are directly on their flight path.
I went back for 3 weeks over Xmas which was lovely, on Xmas Day we sat in the garden for 3 hours in the sun - we all agreed the most relaxing Xmas Day ever. 15c in the shade and 26c in the sun - yes the Charente in December ( not like it every year)
I return home Mid March but this time I’m driving over, so looking forward to seeing the renovations my daughter and her talented husband have done. The renovation to my house can’t get underway until I have the funds.
Alas my UK property has still not sold. I have two parties very interested but neither have sold their own places. Dreaded Brexit has not helped the market and since my buyer fell through I’ve dropped my price by 11%. Fingers crossed for a solid buyer soon so that I don’t have to be in the UK so much.
If you’ve made the move to France yet where did you end up?
Regards
Elle

In the Haute-Savoie (French Alps) we have mountains for the lovely walks but also the skiing and other winter sports. We also have beautiful lakes, Annecy and Lake Léman. We are not far from Geneva airport which is very practical and we are are also close to Italy. You can probably yfind a place in your price range if you are in the countryside and not in a main town. It is really beautiful here. Hope this helps.

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Hi David, it seems s if you have got a lot worked out in your own mind, and there seems a presumption that you would prefer milder climes without severe extremes? Although you have a decent enough budget to work with it looks also as if a more coastal area is more to your liking than say a forested, lake or mountain region.

I have lived on modest budgets in France for over thirty years, and as a much older person now I don’t cope with the cold very well, or the heat for that matter, so for me the choice of region was relatively easy to make and South Centre France suits me very well i.e; the Southern part of Correze in the Dordogne Valley. It is NOT a coastal area but certainly full of the other elements I mentioned - forests, lakes and even the Massif Centrale is not that far away.

It is also one of the cheapest property regions in France (Limousin) and has good motorway access North South and even across France which is not too usual. It also has a disproportionate number of beautiful mediaeval villages, chateaux etc. It is a bit light on the highlife though, and shopping is also not that exciting, but Bordeaux at 2 hours drive (motorway) Limoges (1.5 hours), Toulouse about 2 and a bit hours, means it’s not cut off.

I am sure others can provide similar attractions but for us the moderate weather of the region is probably the most influencing - certainly after the Jura where we were before. South of France is pricey and also seems to get a lot of bad weather - heat, winds, fires, floods etc. If I was looking again I would be closer to the Atlantic Coast and South of Bordeaux with better access to Spain.

But this is the beauty of France, so many places to choose from.

@Norman_Clark. Where were you in the Jura? And why did you leave? That’s where we are and not many other British…

Hi Jane to answer your uestions our house was actually on the extreme Eastern edge of Burgundy in a place called Savigny-en-Revermont, but the Jura started 50 metres from our gate and our shopping etc was in Lons-Le-Saunier, as were just about all the restaurants, and cinemas, market etc.

The reason to leave was quite simply I couldn’t handle the Winters at all, and even the Summers were always windy through our valley, which limited meals outside to a very few genuinely ‘good’ days. Although it wasn’t a real issue and as you say there were very few English there, and those that were did not want to mix with other English - a reverse snobbery I have found in a few other places I have to say!

My wife is French so it didn’t hamper our social life in any way, but it was always with the French, and I suppose my own basically Australian outlook and even attitude helped in some odd way. The English/English (usually holiday home owners) were often so ‘up themselves’ I didn’t find not having contact with them any loss at all! Found the same thing a bit in Cahors when I lived there, but again only the holiday home crowd - and not all of them either I hasten to add.

Here the English also tend to keep to themselves mostly, but again I am quite prepared to accept that possibly ( even probably) my own abrasive attitude could have a lot to do with that!

I did forget to mention the "drawing a circle’ round a place you think looks promising, and see what it encompasses within a certain number of Kms - or driving hours. We did this on our search and kept widening the diameter until we found an area we could afford and then see what we could live with for the missing bits on the ‘wish list’.

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Yes I wouldn’t want to spend winters down on the plain. We are in the haut jura and although colder in winter it’s generally dry and bright - we regularly eat outdoors even in winter as our terrace is in a calm spot!

Our only English acquaintance is a nice woman who is a cashier at local supermarket…I’m sure there are others, but we’ve just never met them.

I had twinned my school with the local college and visited for 30+ years.

Where did you move to? We might be neighbors. We’re moving to the SE (near Montélimar), bc my hubby’s from there, but I could not have designed a better place for my taste. I also happen to be in love with my hubby’s fam. Lived in Florence in my mid/late 20’s and it’s not too far from there. Can’t wait! We’ll be there after voting in Nov. The U.S. is a mess if you haven’t heard LOL

That’s exactly where we are… 50 mins inland of Bayonne and 40 mins from the Spanish border. Fabulous views of the Pyrenees but not too high up so we get reasonable weather most of the year.

We bought a holiday place some 20 yrs ago, in Normandie, by the sea. It was only 35min drive from Cherbourg, after a 240 mile stint from Shropshire, that was enough travelling for us, what with the kids an all.
The weather is lovely, the summers warm(sometimes too warm) and the winters are welcome IMO, you need to have the cold as a balance. We intend to move permanently (or at least for months at a time)soonish but will stay in the area, so that family don’t have to worry about the journey.
The hot weather, just does not agree with us, I’m afraid, so that’s how we decided(well one of the main reasons anyway)
John

Not clear how feasible that will be from Jan, depending on how long you want to stay.

Don’t forget you are allowed 90 days out of the previous 180 on a rolling basis - if you do stay 90 days in the Schengen area you must exit and not return - to any  Schengen country - for a further 90 days.

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I think many holiday home owners will get caught out on this. It’s going to be interesting to see whether French border control will start stamping passports from January the 1st as in reality that is the only way to strictly police the 90 day rule.

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I doubt they will need to stamp the passport as it will be recorded electronically.

Not being retired yet it won’t affect us for a while as I can only manage about 40 days per year anyway but once free of the 9-5 I would certainly have liked to do June-Sept as a block which will become impossible.

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