Hello everyone,
We’ve lived in the Cantal (which we love) now since 2009 but as we get older we feel it would be better to live closer to the channel for ease of access to the UK, both for us & our relatives to visit. Any advice on the pros & cons of living in Normandy (possibly Swiss Normandy in particular) would be appreciated.
Thank you in advance for any replies.
Alan
We spent two weeks there in summer a few years ago. It rained and the bikes got rusty.
It was pretty, hilly and friendly, but the locals conceded the weather point (I think it’s to do with the mountains). The climate is all that would put me off, and you might like it.
We lived in the Suisse Normande for many years and now live nearer to Caen. The weather is much like south-east England, though generally a little warmer. The Suisse Normande is wonderful for views, walking and canoeing, but you need to chose carefully if you are not going to be too far from the shops and services. Around Thury Harcourt is lovely and relatively quick up to Caen. The people have always been very welcoming and you do feel the strong links between Normandy and the UK. The history is always around you. We love it.
We did exactly the same as you are thinking last year. We had lived and worked in the Creuse for 20 years, approaching pension age and decided to move north for the same reasons. We combined quite a few trips to UK with stays in and around Manche (50) looking at properties. We settled close to Sourdeval/Vire and will have been here a year tomorrow. This part of Normandy isn’t flat like further east, but it does seem to rain quite a lot in the winter. The climate is milder than the Limousin though. I’d suggest having a few visits to different areas/ different times of the year.
Many thanks for the replies, the weather does seem to be a major factor, but coming from the Cantal we have always liked the hills & countryside.
Every time Dad’s employers moved him… he would go ahead and stay in a hotel…
(coming home at weekends) and more often than not he was househunting in winter to find us a new family home.
If a place appeals even in rain and storms of winter, it’ll suit us just fine… 
just a thought…
Suisse Normande apart, for completeness, we live in what was Haute Normandie, now Seine Maritime. Like other parts of Normandy it is green for a reason.That said, I was just checking how much it does rain, and the stats are interesting. We get 820mm of rain per year, and the same climate website suggested the national average was 828mm, so perhaps not as extreme a level of rain as I’d thought…
One thing that drove our decision making on location was not to be reliant on one means of ‘escape’ back to the UK.We didn’t want to find, à la Ryanair, that the one route we relied on was suddenly cancelled. We are 1hr45 from the tunnel and 25 minutes from DFDS Dieppe to Newhaven (a subsidised ferry route). I’m not suggesting that some of the other routes from Normandy to the UK are likely to be withdrawn, but having entirely different routes gives us a measure of reassurance, on a ‘what if’ worst case scenario.
We are a stones throw from an 8000 hectare forest, and there are, like other parts of Normandy, seriously steep slopes available, (as judged by me as a cyclist!). I suspect the glorious local cheeses, Calvados and cider are available all over Normandy, wherever you end up.
Good luck with your research!
Another vote for Normandy @apee . We bought our current house over 30 years ago as a maison secondaire and it became our permanent home around 8 years ago. It’s a beautiful place to live but the winters are very grey and can be depressing for that reason. Not generally excessively cold though.
We originally picked where we are (Manche) because it’s just over an hour’s drive from 3 channel ports (all served by Brittany ferries). Nowadays that doesn’t matter to us particularly but, like @mark , you should find that an advantange. In mid-south Manche it’s not particularly hilly, rather more undulating, but the area around where Mark is is particularly beautiful and a lot hillier. The trade-off is that we areonly half an hour from some beautiful beaches…
I recommend coming up for an exploring trip or two. Normans are particularly friendly people and are seen as such by French people from other regions.
Spring, summer and autumn are gorgeous so if you can cope with winter grey, you’ll love it!
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Thats true, but it drizzles rather than heavy rain a lot of the time.
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sounds like the Devon of my school days… it seemed to rain/drizzle each and every day … sometimes a lot, sometimes just a little… but… every day… during termtime
Summer hols were ok though… thank goodness.
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It’s beautiful, if cold, today. Rain has stopped for now, sun is shining, birds are tweeting, spring flowers are arriving, so all good 
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I can only speak of my own experience. I came up with my French wife (who came from Berck sur Mer in the Pas de Calais.) She said she loved my house (in the Lot) but it was ‘too far from the sea!’ So we moved to the Calvados - near Isigny sur Mer on the the border with la Manche. Yes, of course it was windier and it rained a lot more. The towns (except Bayeux) were unattractive because they had all been destroyed during the war and the buildings hurriedly replaced with concrete to give the inhabitants a home.
But what was worse than all that, was the fact that the people were so unfriendly. There was a canal near the sea where many people went to walk their dogs - including us. When we crossed with someone else walking their dog on the path, we said ‘Bonjour.’ But 8 times out of 10 they didn’t reply! Everywhere we went we found the same thing. Despite the 100 years War, that would never happen in the South - or anwhere else in France that I know. We had plenty of friends, Parisians, Dutch, French from other parts of France - but no one from Normandy. After my wife died in 2017, I sold up and moved back to the SW.
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Enjoyed my five years in Calvados but the dampness played hell on my chest.
good grief… in my area of Dordogne, it’s considered extremely rude (or insulting) not to echo the greeting…
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And unheard of in the Aveyron!
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Quite. It’s nice standing at the top of our steps first thing in the morning, bonjouring with the locals walking past going to the shop.
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Quits normal to say bonjour to everyone in my little part of Normandy . Sometimes they even reply 
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In fact, it’s one of the first things about France which made a favourable impression on us…
Day-trip to France (Calais)… we drove off and away… found a tiny cafe out in the middle of nowhere… and were astounded as each new customer came round shaking hands and saying bonjour to everyone… including us (the only foreigners).
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Our first French house was in the Suisse Normande. We bought it in 1992 and it didnt stop raining that first summer. Like all our French houses it was a complete renovation project. It was a maison secondaire until we sold in 2005 but we did experience every season there during working renovation holidays. We had some good summer weather but also had some very cold winters and not very warm autumns and springs. Weather was generally reminiscent of Somerset but with harsher winters. The tempest of Christmas 1999 almost destroyed Normandy!
We enjoyed our time in the Suisse Normande as I am aure others do but much prefer our current location in a similar landscape here in the Dordogne.
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Had a maison secondaire in Commune Sourdeval since 1993 and moved here after my OH of 32 years died. Can do door to door (here to Rugby, Warwickshire) via the Tunnel in 8 hours. Easy drive “this side” as quiet motorway all the way. My French language skills are minimal but cannot remember when a “Bonjour” has not been returned. Mont St Michel, Bayeux, Caen, Thury Harcourt, Falaise (birthplace of Guillame le Conquerant), Normandie landing beaches, Fourgeres et al all within an hour’s drive. Moved recently, all of 15km, so still in lower Manche.
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