We house sat on the Dordogne/Charente border and found the climate to be lovely, in the middle of winter. This was in the area between Angouleme and Riberac. We dont like the town of Riberac as much as the Villebois Lavalette/Verteillac area which is gently undulating and glorious views. We also house sat on the eastern side of the Parc Naturel Perigord/Limousin (St Yrieix la Perche - pretty town but…) just before Christmas and found it too cold and wet for our liking. Snow settled there for 4 days before leaving. West of the parc was at least 4 degrees warmer, and much more to our liking. We bought just north of the Dordogne border in the Charente Grande Champagne region of the Premier Cru Cognac, between Angouleme and Cognac the city. We are surrounded by vines, glorious view, less rain and no big storms that everyone else has been getting this past two weeks. Plenty of interesting places to visit, small towns with commerces (Closest to Barbezieux and Segonzac) and happy campers altogether. We are retired Kiwis, and I have arthritis too, which doesnt seem to find this climate an issue. Good luck with your search. Take a look at Jarnac and Jonzac for lovely places with more sunshine hours and warmer winters. Also on the Charente River!
Can’t disagree with any of that. You are in a great area Monica.
We were visiting friends in Jarnac only the other week… lovely town… love the river, that is a real plus.
Lol - never start a sentence with the words ‘No offence’!
We’re immigrants Melody not expats. You’ll become an immigrant - unless of course you’ll be on a work assignment. 
Many foreigners do make the leap into French country life… but there are those who cling to the comfort-zone with others who speak their language…and refuse to move on.
No matter how many Brits there are in an area… it is one’s personal choice which clubs/associations/leisure-pursuits etc one follows… I choose the French path… that is my choice, but I chat (sometimes) with Brits as and when we meet.
Do not rule out any area simply because you hear English floating on the airwaves… you can ignore it, believe me… 
Thanks folks. The area and the people are the deal breaker essentials for where we land - well the property itself will be darn important too 
noted a couple of properties in Cher and one in Indre which may benefit physical viewing.
From the advice received, we have begun looking at the Berry region, and the Charente borders as suggested, as well. Googling for what type of community and festivals are held in the area etc. We do love a regular market, so want to be reasonable able to access a good one or three. At the same time, we have never been comfortable as townies or city people, preferring a more tranquil place to lay our hats at the close of the day.
For the life of me, finding it a challenge to dismiss the Creuse/Correze area as suitable for my joints 
it’s going to be a very interesting adventure when viewings start to roll.
Thanks to all who are chipping in to the conversation. It really does help to get frank, on the ground info before planning where to fly to view first. 
Maybe you should rent somewhere for a couple of months "out of season " before you finally decide where to “lay your hat” .
took the words out of my mouth, Mark! Best rent over winter to see what things are really like 
There being lots of British people in an area you move to doesn’t for a second mean you will necessarily have anything to do with them. I am extremely sociable, live in the southern Dordogne which is apparently seething with British people, and only ever really see one couple who are British.
I’m in a similar position Vero. I know that there is a large British population around here but it doesn’t really impose on my life. I just get on with my own thing and that includes having friendships with various people in the area who I get on with, it’s got nothing to do with their nationality. Yesterday I went to see some friends who just happen to be British, tomorrow I’m going out for the day with two friends who are French. To me that’s normal life.
I lived near Brive for 8 years the Correze was a nice place to live, forget the climate, its hot/windy in the south and the far south west is wet
Try 64 Pyrenees Atlantique of the 4 French homes I have lived in this is the best
We have spent a couple of years researching, keeping weather records of towns we liked , spending a (cold wet) winter in the Aveyron and found a long range record that showed the Bouriane to appear to be a good place weatherwise. Beware that the area around Aurillac always seems to have a cold patch over it!
Eventually it was the house that is dictating our move - finding the house that fitted our personal criteria wasn’t easy as the adverts/ descriptions MUST be read with a critical eye and photos rarely show the bad parts - I actually found an estate agent who was honest enough to read and understand oour criteria list and admit there were issues for some properties I was interested in ( Water tower next to it, near a concrete factory, too much work needed, next to the main road etc) etc)
I had lunch with friends who are house hunting in a very specific area. The trouble is that they’ve decided where they want to live but are looking at everything from tired properties that need a lot of doing up to ready to move into houses with swimming pools. They don’t seem to have considered the basics like how many bedrooms they want or how much land they need and consequently they are going round in circles. I presume they have given the estate agents their budget and hope that they will recognise the correct property when they stumble into it. That could be several years away at this rate.
Have you ever think about Golf du Morbihan in Brittany ? Lovely microclimate there !
Thats where I’m going, when I win the lotto ! The Golfe really does have a special climate, we live 40mins away, but we have significantly different weather.
As Monsieur Robbins mentioned in his post, WD40 is brilliant for arthritis.
Hello Veronique -
I’m new to this site - my wife and I are coming over to Eymet for 3 weeks next year with the intention of getting a ‘feel’ for the area (south west dordogne) - We’re in South Cumbria UK where it is very wet and windy with cool summers and mild winters - we are looking for a drier warmer and sunnier climate - would you say that the south of dordogne fits that description?
If we like it in that area, we would be looking for an ‘over winter’ rental as that would (I hope) give us a clearer picture.
@woody1
Hello Pete, I am a 10-minute drive north of Eymet, 20 years ago we used to have fairly reliable well- differentiated seasons, it seems to me to have got milder in winter (more rain, less snow) and less pleasant in summer in that it is much hotter and drier and there are more big storms. Compared to Cumbria I would think the big difference would be that it is much warmer, drier and less windy.
In summer we are usually at about 30°C as a baseline, which I think for the UK would count as a heatwave. It gets up to 35° quite often now, which isn’t very nice if you aren’t used to it. In winter the extreme is usually about -4 or -5 but there are some freak years like 8 years ago when it went down to -17 after a couple of days of heavy snow and I couldn’t get out of my house for 9 days (a lovely little holiday, as there were no power cuts!).
If there is anything else you would like to know, or that you think I can help with, don’t hesitate to ask - I may well not have an answer myself but I probably know someone who does!
We have friends down near Eymet and they say they feel the climate has changed in the 20 odd years they have been there. If you move to SW France you have to be prepared for very hot weather. For the UK very hot is 26 upwards, I would say. But for this region of France we are looking at 35 plus.
Dear Veronique, thanks so much for your kind and helpful response.
Are you South or north of Eymet? It would be great if there is a possibility to meet up with you next year?
35 is hot for sure, but ironically it gets that hot sometimes in our back garden as we are south facing and in a microclimate 
.
Here we have an almost perpetual wind and somewhere between 40- 60 inches of rain a year:cloud_with_rain:
My wife and I are gardeners, in particular we are looking for a place with some land to grow our own food and plant a small orchard. I’ve heard that nouvelle Aquitaine has lots of vineyards and orchards.