This is a good thread if you have not seen it already
I spent five months looking for a place to live in the Limousin. We visited a lot of places! We stayed in @Mark gite for part of that time, which is beautiful. It is close to Felletin which I really liked too.
It can rain more than other areas of France, but I think there have been bad droughts too in recent summers. To be honest the rain didn’t bother me, and where we were in the Creuse it didn’t seem to rain that much.
We also stayed in the Correze for a time. Again very beautiful. Maybe more rain there during that time.
Anyway it is more isolated than many other areas of France except if you are near a bigger town. Villages losing the only remaining shop or baker can happen anywhere in the countryside but it will hit harder if there is little else around.
I certainly don’t regret the time I spent there. The countryside is stunning and the people very friendly.
We moved to Saone et Loire in the end. Also a rural area but it does feel more connected and I am not sure that the property prices are that different if you take into account the amount of work required.
Quite a number of people seem concerned about it being isolated. To us that’s a huge plus! We don’t want to be anywhere near noisy towns or shopping centres or hypermarchés. A little place with some land and trees at the end of a dirt track… that’s our idea of heaven
Thé Limousin area is vast and the climate on the west side where I lived is totally different to the east.
The climate close to the Charente /Hte Vienne borders is mild compared to somewhere like Aubusson or Ussel getting towards Clermont Ferrand.
Mind you Andrew, the climate differences between say, Lisle sur Tarn and Lacaune in the Tarn are like chalk and cheese too !
Exactly, Peter, and it’s very hard giving any advise as what suits one person very nicely may be hell for somebody else : the summer heat here in the Tarn would kill off many living in Brittany but I couldn’t cope with the wet windy winters up there! Horses for courses
Experience shows that you will probably need a generator/emergency means of electricity; 4-wheel drive vehicle; decent phone/internet connection… and good health.
Ha ha… sadly, not all folk think like that… many do stay in their own little patch… mixing very rarely indeed.
(Many not mixing even rarely… they generally come out of hiding when they have a problem…)
I met a German for the first time this year, who has lived in our commune for years and years… nice chap… had a query…
solved his query… and he’s gone back to his property which is very isolated and which he loves very much…
Trouble is Andrew that even a department like Charente (16) is chalk and cheese from east to west. The climate in say, Cognac is very different to that in Confolens. So to recommend the 16 as a place to move to is tricky as things can change quickly depending on where you are.
I always thought the big advertising board for a large, English-speaking estate agent whose name begins with an L that you see upon arriving at Limoges airport was an indicator that there were quite a few Brits looking to pick up a cheap bolthole in Limousin.
Talking of which, does anyone else enjoy watching their YouTube videos of properties they’re selling? I usually find estate agents in France to be awful, but the videos by these guys are very professionally done. Just wish I could afford some of the houses they have on their books.
I’ve heard so many stories about that company over the years, we even used to be in competition with them in the early days. The stories are a mix of good to terrible, probably like most agencies but I used them once a couple of years back and they were brilliant. Keep up the good work.
The property market is exactly that, a market. As such, prices fall when there are more sellers than buyers and vice versa. So far so simple, but the question is why there are more sellers.
This is France and the market is driven mostly by French people, although there are a few exceptions to that “rule” but limousin is not one of them. As a much more rural society than UK there is still a strong population gravitational pull to cities and places where opportunities are perceived to be greater.
That doesn’t seem to be you, and it may well be that you would effectively be overpaying if you move to a more popular region, as there will be a premium for something you don’t really value. The only other consideration is your “investment,” but who knows what the future holds and most of us buy a home not an investment.
Maybe. I’ve heard the reports and I don’t doubt there are some who are doing that, but I doubt it is a long term trend, although of course that depends what the “New normal” eventually looks like.
