Caution, living somewhere is much different than taking a lovely vacation there.
Ah yes Penny but really and truly what I am just pointing it out!
We can not build our future on fear; what the politicians say to fill us with doubt.
We only live once....probably....
Who knows if house prices will fall or rise?
Who knows if UK will fall or rise in the next few years?
Life is an eternal persuit of happiness.....
Found Boincoin from your recommendation thank you so much it’s brilliant, that’s why these sites are such a great resource, I would never have found it.
Thank you for sharing your experiences, sounds a bit worrying to have to put up 10000 euro.
Thank you too for the offer of help and further info - at some point I will very likely take you up on that offer!
Brian thanks for your input here to - so looks like a gite may not be a suitable option for us - because of the schooling :-/
Barbara - I’m picking up on that underlying fear!
Thanks all
Thank you Peter, yes I’ve exchanged a few messages with American Mom (that reminds me I need to let her know how I got on last visit to Bordeaux) her blog has some great info!
Hadn’t considered long term gite so a route I can look into, thank you!
Wow Roger, yes a Hymer gypsie I actually do fancy that 
thank you for the tip off re those facebook groups - I will join them!
Thanks you Simone I appreciate your advice.
Sounds like it could be tricky then. I too have parents in France so a guarantor may be an option!
I will approach some agents next week to establish a response then I’ll know if it’s an Avenue To pursue or not! Thank you too for pointing out the 3 year thing is from the landlords side - I really didn’t want to be tied to a place for 3 years if it’s unsuitable.
Thank you for your input too Mike
Thanks you I appreciate your advice.
If UK leaves the EU does this destroy the idea of moving to France?
I am voting to stay in.....but there seems to be an underlying fear.
John about sums it up. Libourne is not bad and he has said just about all there is to say. If you take Roger's gîte advice, unless you are lucky enough to find one that specifies long term rentals are possible then you have education problems. It is not usually definably a 'permanent' residence which means though you have to send children to school they are obliged to live somewhere permanent albeit you can move any time you wish even then. The gîte is by definition a short stay place intended for 'visitors'. Great for people with no children but difficult for those with. We started in a gîte with our two daughters and it was only the fact we had completed the purchase of our house and needed to wait until the vendors' new house was ready that we resolved the school bit. I don't think that will have changed since then.
Hello Penny
We were in a similar situation 8 years ago when we moved to France. Bordeaux is a very expensive place to rent a property, so we opted for Libourne which is a about 35 km from Bordeaux, but well connected by motorway, bus or train. I travel to Bordeaux most days and it is about 30 to 45 minutes depending on traffic. You are right about tenancy agreements but you can give 3 months notice at any time during the 3 years you sign up for. We also found agencies very difficult, they did not want to know. In the end we had to deposit 10000 euros in a blocked account for 3 years as a security, but we got it back. There is plenty of nice property available in the area and Leboncoin is a good place to start asis Seloger.com. You have to live here to enrol your children in school but when we moved here, we went to the school on Monday to enquire and they started on Tuesday. Don't worry about his level of French because after about 3 months my children were fluent and with the local accent. People do not believe they are British. If you want any help or info about how to integrate feel free to contact us. I wish we had that offer when we moved here.
I think gite rental may be a good place to start looking.
When we sold our house in UK in September 2014 we could not house hunt in France because, having broken my leg, I wanted to wait until I was discharged by my orthopaedic surgeon. Our solution was to live full time in our Hymer Motorhome in UK & then Eurotunnel in February 2015. We did look to rent initially & there are gite rental sites where you can specify a long-term rent, some of which, extend into & beyond the holiday periods.
I know from our own motorhome travels that 'statics' seem to be readily available-there are some good central sites in Bordeaux. Credit history is not a problem 'cos you pay in advance! Being Hymer gypsies meant that we needed an attestation from a site owner that we lived there-we paid 3 months in advance-so we could open a French bank account-the drill was birth, marriage certificates, driving licences, copies of our UK bank a/c's & even our P60's!
You may also wish to check out 'Anglo-French Info & on FaceBook 'Aquitaine Chit Chat' & 'Pre-Owned Items Aquitaine'. You could even buy our Hymer!!!
Happy Hunting,
Roger
I think you should have no challenges finding a place in rural France, cities might be different. There is an American lady in Bordeaux who has written about renting a place on her blog. Google: American Mom in Bordeaux
If you seek out expats for maybe renting something long term like a furnished Gite, no problem at all. Speaking from my experience of course. Not the norm.
I live near Bordeaux, which is exactly where the OP wants to move. It was maybe a bad choice of words on my side: of course it might be easier in the countryside/other parts of the country. But the areas surrounding Bordeaux can be incredibly competitive - especially for someone trying to get first started in the country. Anyway, just shared my experience since I only went through all this not even a year ago.
Must admit that I have never rented (always purchased) and so have no idea how difficult the process is, may even decide to rent a place when we decide to sell this property and purchase a place in the UK.
yes and no, Mike. Yes there are masses of houses to rent in parts of France where the demand is low (rural) but a huge shortage in towns and cities. And yes, it's a nightmare for those who aren't living and working here. I've rented several times, the last time the dossier we had to put together was incredible, we got the house but the landlord had a choice of three very good dossiers - so two others didn't get it...
Always found via leboncoin or contacts but many private rentals still need a hefty dossier for their own piece of mind and insurance (if they've taken out the landlord protection insurance - the case with our last place).
I am not sure which France you live in, but the France I live in has absolutely masses of houses for rent.
boncoin is a good place to look to get a feeling of prices to buy and to rent....even an off season holiday renter is an idea at the right price. The only drawback is that your son may have to change schools if you decide to rent/buy in a different commune. and if he doesn't have to you may limit yourself on where you want to live in the long term....good luck.
I can only give you some advise on the living situation: it is incredibly hard to find a place to rent in this country. We live in the Bordeaux area ourselves. My partner is french and we still had trouble finding an agency that would let us rent a place. Basically most agencies expect you to earn at least 3 times the rent. If you don't they will need at least one garant, someone who can pay for you in case you can't. This has to be someone in France of course. In our case they still wanted a garant even though i do earn more than 3 times the rent, simply based on the fact that my salary is not coming from a French company and I do not (well, did not) pay taxes there at the time. They didn't really care much about documents, payslips etc in English.
We were lucky enough to have my partner's mother as a garant. You could apparently also have your bank (probably has to be a French one too) as a garant. They explained to us that you will need to deposit the rent for the time of the lease with them. Which is, as you pointed out, 3 years in most cases. HOWEVER, we were lucky enough to find an agency who wasn't as strict on all these policies. So it is definitely not impossible. But it does make your search a lot more difficult.
As for the 3 year contract: this is true, however you as a tenant can move out at any time (if you give appropriate notice). Our neighbors haven't even lived in the apartment for a year yet and they managed with one month notice - again this probably depends a lot on the agency/landlord. But it will definitely be pointed out in the lease.
Your son will have to go to school! Unless you apply to home educate, and this is regulated by the ministry of education.
A good idea to try befor you buy, the average stay, I believe, is still about three years.think about your tax position as well, and the cost of living and the health provision.
We rented twice before we had our house built in the Haute Vienne. We found both through the local adverts and rented direct from the owners. They provided the necessary paperwork, but we were never asked about income, and we were retired and living on a small UK pension. Unless it's very different in Bordeaux, I can't see a problem.