yes for us it’s a balance - we want somewhere we can really enjoy with some privacy - but we need to balance it with our ability to manage / live in it in later years - either for physical reasons or just wanting a simpler life. We also need to consider if we want to move back having somewhere which we know won’t take years to sell. It’s al a balancing act.
What make you pick Deux Sevres?. We’re looking based on a balanced climate mix and came up with following to reduce extreme heat/cold risks…
Core areas:
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NE Charente-Maritime
Saint-Jean-d’Angély → Aulnay → Néré → Loulay
Best balance of mild winters, manageable summers, good towns and access to services. -
Inland Vendée
Fontenay-le-Comte → Vouvant → Mervent
Slightly cooler summers, still fairly mild winters; sheltered hamlet-edge properties work well.
Secondary :
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NW Charente (near CM border only) – only if a standout, well-sited property appears.
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Southern Deux-Sèvres or SW Vienne – considered mainly as backups.
Ruled out: central/eastern Charente, northern Deux-Sèvres, northern/eastern Vienne, coastal/marsh CM, inland Brittany.
Yes, I’m with the Nationwide and they’re great. My only regret is not opening more savings accounts with them before I left. Because although they let you keep any existing accounts, you can’t open new ones once you’ve left the UK.
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Despite some warnings above about the size of a property it’s useful to have an outbuilding or two that can be used as clean/dirty workshops while you’re renovating.
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We had loads when we arrived and I got thoroughly fed up of moving money from one to another to catch marginally better interest rates. So about 10 years ago we closed most of them and now just each have our personal bank account, plus one joint account. Everything else is in NS&I.
Ok we loose a tiny amount on interest each year, but we gain in stress free French tax returns!
Personal choice of course.
Deux Sevres picked us, really. We had visited western France a few times looking at properties. Ruled out the south, too near mountains and storms, north of the Loire was heading back to British climate, coast was too expensive.
We were shown this house, near an airport and I said let’s buy it, we can’t look forever and we can look further afield when we are living here, then sell and move on if we want to. 
I had no idea how long it takes to sell here, not like UK where houses can sell in weeks. Anyhow, we made friends, both Rosbifs and Froggies and enjoyed our lives here. That was 2004 -2008, then the financial crisis happened and our local café and resto/bar closed and some friends left. After more than a year with a socially dead village, we went back to live in the UK We kept the French house and spent 6 months (winter/summer) in each country. Then stupid brexit happened, the 6 month thing would no longer be possible as far as we knew (we didn’t know what the future rules would be, nobody did, especially the dimwits who voted for brexit ) and we did not want to live among these people, so we moved back to France.
There you go, Stephen, now you’re sorry you asked 
Using you moho for scouting is a sound idea. As for storing stuff, there are chains of shipping container storage companies dotted all over FR now.
Here’s one, frinstance, in Caen. Resotainer. Has a depot in Poitiers. Many others and yet more companies.
I had storage in a container for 3 years+. It was in perfect condition and insulated. Everything was bone dry all that time - and no critters!
Beware the storage companies like Big Yellow Box, based in buildings. They insist on insurance of your stuff, based on value. Reg’l ins cos will not insure long term … 3-4 months max, based on repairs to a disaster at home. They will not roll your contents over to storage ad inf. The storage co will demand you take their policy. The rates are eyewatering and jacked up with indecent frequency.
Big Yellow Box are a client of mine. 
They’ve got to find the money somehow to pay my exorbitant rates for photographing their annual sales conference…
But I wouldn’t use them for storage.
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I’m looking to move - ironically from Calvados to somewhere in the area from whence @survive15 is currently evading the chill by being in ES - lucky fellow.
Valencia, where I lived for 5 years ! 
I have just changed m.o. as far as searching goes and it has instantly produced a cracker. I am daily inundated with email listing from bien’ici and french-property.com. It takes ages to weed out the chaff. Despite putting in search criteria all sorts of irrelevant gaffs are shown. The tendancy I have had is to check ‘just in case’ a gem is hiding under stained render and walls of ivy.
What I have done is change my initial target to a town. I pick a town - any town between Tours and Angouleme that seems appealing and has a Lidl/Aldi because it will inevitably have everything else - and tour around it on street level mapping to get an idea of what’s on offer there. If the town looks like a candidate I use the ‘what’s nearby’ link to get a list of estate agents.
This m.o. has produced a house I would, all things being equal, which they rarely are, buy tomorrow.
I often crack the FR agents’ trick of not posting the address - on many occasions not even the village: they use the ‘commune’. It’s easier in a town as there’s more pointers. An easy one was a window with a view of a small Intermarche. I found the house I lust after by cruising likely parts of the town on street maps.
If you do find the actual property on the map, don’t forget to ask Google maps for the same view taken in earlier years. ‘Going round the back’ of my wish-for house I see that a for ‘A Vendre’ sign was on the back wall in 04/2024
Still there now. Same company. Moved closer to the door, so still relevant.
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Yes as long as you are aware, if there are inheritors in the mix, that until that is settled a deceased’s account can be frozen for up to 10 years.
We fell into that trap, the only mistake that La Poste made when setting them up, and as a result some 5,000 euros of Fran’s account is beyond my reach. It could have been worse had not the law allowed the funeral directors to submit their bill of 4,000 euros directly to that account.
I am sure you know that of course @JaneJones , just reinforcing the point for others. 
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Absolutely - the first day after I unpacked at my rental I ordered a multi function machine on AMZ. I had the experience of Spain of the deluge of ‘docamenti’ you have to deal with, early doors.
Copy-fill in form-scan-email. Copy-fill in form-scan-email. Copy-fill in form-scan-email … 
Beware the infuriating habit of HP machines to refuse to connect by wifi. I recommend
I’ve had/got two. Good as gold.
Amazingly, I found that the renowned bureaucracy of Spain is exceeded by that of FR. Things take ages. I applied for my Carte Vitale in Nov '20. It arr’d May ‘21. My driving licence, already an EU [ES] took months to change. Mt CdS - applied in March, rec’d in Dec - tho’ there was the Brexit factor.
But, as a fellow SFista has commented “They take forever but it usually turns out all right in the end”. So far, it has.
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Thankyou that is REALLY helpful as we are budgeting for including storage for 12 months and that would make a big positive difference
A recommendation. I [x2] and others on SF have put registration of vehicles in the hands of Mark Rimmer, a Brit who does this for very reasonable cost. [€60] dukwman@gmail.com. He’s happy to go thru’ it with you on the phone +33 05 45 78 47 62. It is such a relief to hand this chore to someone else.
Once you have supplied him with the list of docs he requires, he takes over and, disappearing into the jungle that is ANTS, comes back with your registration.
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and one of the reasons I’m thinking of moving is similarly to be closer to the EU and further from the Bexiters. Thankfully we’re both EU citizens thanks to entitlement to Irish passports.
At least one agent posts the plan cadastral on the listing but they haven’t thought to mask the grid references around the edge of the page. That made things a lot easier when we were looking. 
I had one where the road names had been removed but the cadastral plan was writ large. It took a bit of finding, the area with those plot refs but in the end I found it. I then went on street view and was able to confirm that the adjacent property had its own access driveway, which was not clear on the details.
I also went back to the previous pass by the camera car. Out front of ‘my’ house there was a fine display of roses and an old chap watering them. Now, all roses - and the old chap - gone.
Like me and Coca Cola. They [via the ad agency] paid for many a trip to foreign parts, many marvellous meals [“Kid, we do not stay in fancy hotels but we eat good”] and indeed some ‘fancy hotels’ but I only drink the stuff when required as medicine. After a very heavy night it does a good job of settling the outraged digestion.
I was engaged to The High Maintenance Blonde for on/off 20 years. There was even The Ring. Close but no cigar. 
Pity because she had two Irish grandmothers and Greek grandfather. What a combo!
I had that deal. Was fine. I’m now on a 2€/m mobile deal with Bouygues. As a bundle with i/net it gets the latter on a good deal.
That’s the point really. With the current state of French succession law I don’t want “my” money going to people I dislike intensely should my partner die so am keeping it separate. ( If I die then not an issue as there’s no-one else. )
@stephen_d we spent nearly 20 years living near St Jean D’Angely until moving back in 2023, it’s the biggest and busiest of the towns you mentioned so has pretty much everything you’d need and with a station and motorway junction ideal for getting out of the department. You have a really good budget so ought to have plenty of options, my only advice would be to not buy something too big and don’t take on a renovation project.
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