Interesting - I knew UK wine was on the up but didn’t know the French were moving in there.
Part of the controversy here is that they have not always been transparent - use of shell companies, nominee companies - all the usual shenanigans - maybe trying to avoid driving up land prices here / collapsing them further south.
Generally, somewhere like Normandy has lower temperatures and more rain. We like being outside rather than living inside like moles behind closed curtains and shutters.
Northern France is very much affected. We have had temperatures higher than the UK record (40+) several times this year, and no rain for weeks now. Our grass is yellow-brown too!
But obviously it tends to be less extreme further north than it is further south.
Well done for digging deeper into the decision!
When we were looking to buy a place 15 years back I refused to go to the South because of the heat! So glad now as even here in the moutains it is getting hotter.
It was our second home for many years before we moved. Which we thoroughly enjoyed, and enjoy now as our permanent home. Were we were doing it again now we would pay a lot more attention to the environmental aspects and go for a passive house and if possible with a rainwater harvesting system.
Part of that would also be to get something smaller. My mindset has shifted so the important part of “home” is all the experiences related to it rather than the fabric of it. No I woukdn’t want an ugly sealed box, but now woukd compromise more. Having a second home is a luxury, so now I woukd try to do it with the lightest possible environmental footprint.
our terrace makes for comfortable outside living experience - late afternoon position facing due east …
There’s a lot of climatic variations in the Midi, even within departements. I like the ‘idea’ of Provence, but wouldn’t want the reality of living there, On the other hand, I love being in the Aveyron on account of it remaining green even in August. We’re shielded by the Pyrenees and the Massif Central, but are sufficiently far from the Med to escape the coastal deprtements’ many winds, storms and flash floods.
When looking at individual properties consider the site, particularly if it’s not on rock as ground cracking is becoming more common, microclimate, orientation in relation to the sun -and how much shade is offered by natural features. I’d also suggest that traditionally built properties are better suited to changing conditions than recent ones because the former have thicker walls, smaller windows and usually higher ceilings.
In other words, there’s so much variation with departements that it’s harder to generalise, whereas studying the immediate attibutes of individual properties is likely to be as useful.
very much like the Charente is then, but in a different region of France and for the same reasons. France really is a massive country with so much diversity across its territory.
It’s already happened!
Langham Wine Estate wins Sparkling Wine Producer of the Year at the IWSC - Langham Wines
But not cheap! I’ll stick with crément de loire brut.
Thank god for that 
I think we have to beware of terrifying ourselves into an early grave or into total immobility.
We function best when we follow our hearts but use our heads to make the heart-thing a reality to the best of our ability.
Perhaps if I describe our experience this may give you some ideas.
We are in Lot-et-Garonne and have seen temperatures up to 40 and a drought that has lasted weeks. We chose this area 15 years ago because we did not want to be somewhere hot like Provence - huh!
OH and I have both lived in hot countries in the 70s (Brazil, Sierra Leone) so find all of this quite manageable.
This summer, days have started early, late evenings into the dark are wonderful (for example I remember being entranced with being on the beach in Rio at 3 in the morning in nothing but a backless evening dress.) People in many parts of the world already live like this and love it.
Winter, spring and autumn can be wonderful - mild days, bright clear weather - and they can be rubbish - wet and cold - though now I will very much welcome the wet.
We have no air conditioning but we do have an old house with a huge double-height terrace on the south side, thick walls, shutters, large rooms with high ceilings and we manage the flow of cooler air through the house through the day - in future new houses will be built with this in mind. Maybe partly underground.
I agree with @JaneJones about thinking through what impact we are having and how to manage our lives better. For example we are discussing digging a small reservoir on our land this winter. Until now it’s been a vague idea for the future. It has become more pressing. Buying a land with a well is a good idea, but there comes a point where groundwater extraction is less than ideal - hence the benefit of rainwater harvesting as Jane says. Winter rains can be torrential and need managing to the best of our ability.
We are surrounded by countryside and yet close to town - 10 minutes drive - at the time we bought we did not realise how important and useful that would be. A small electric car is entirely appropriate for our day to day needs. Our lives are local - friendships, social clubs, good restaurants. Maybe the days are gone when we expect to travel hours for some new experience and I can let all that go without regret. Here is beautiful and peaceful. We have little or no pollution (except for occasional Sahara sand). We have woodland and streams and rivers and a canal - all help cool the land and give us pleasure. We do not have woodland so close that there is a risk.
Sorry for going on at length, but as I said above, we can be terrified into immobility, which quite frankly is not healthy. I am profoundly grateful we found this place and we followed our hearts and let our heads make it happen.
I presume you are German (if so congratulations on your English) even if not you seem to have been living there long enough to have contracted the national “debating everything to death” syndrome. There are always hundreds of reasons not to do something. Just buy the house and enjoy it. 
The best musical ever in my estimation. Hilarious, rowdy and well acted. Just shut your ears when Clint Eastwood starts singing 
New enormous tranche of evidence just published:
Now, with even greater computer power and insight, comes the most comprehensive compilation of global attribution studies, analysing more than 500 recent extreme weather events,…
The implications are sobering and must galvanise action. Not only does the new database show that climate breakdown is already ruining economies and costing tens of thousands of lives every year, but that the continuing refusal of governments to act decisively will inevitably prove ecologically disastrous.
‘Without immediate action. a future of spiralling human disasters is all but certain.’
I prefer the original, Crémant de Limoux. Or maybe a Blanquette. Brut of course 
I bought some Clairette de Die the other day and it was lovely.
I watched an interesting Hardtalk the other day with Stephen Sackur and the son of the former governor of Nazi controlled Poland. It was his opinion that if there were a few years of difficult economic and financial circumstances then he thought there might be a resurgence of the far right. “I don’t trust the Germans” he said.
There is a resurgence of the far right - but nothing to do with Germans.
It’s across the developed world - especially the US and UK!
I thought that one of the presidential candidates in France was a little bit off the centre. She got a “respectable” percentage of the votes. Take those rose-coloured specs off Geof.
Thank you everyone for your thoughts (although the thread seems to have gone off on at least two unexpected tangents…!) especially @SuePJ @JaneJones and @Porridge .
Maybe I didn’t state this very well, but it’s not (just) the weather that is giving me pause, but rather the broader issue of the changing climate, of which the weather is a symptom. Of course we can limit our stays to the more manageable times of the year, but I do wonder what we would do if there is ever scarcer (and more expensive) water, forest fires come ever closer, we can’t afford the fuel to heat the house if need be, and find the materials and contractors one would need to keep the house in good nick so as to a) leave behind a reasonable asset to family or b) be able to sell it when it’s served its purpose. (You see I am an avid reader of those types of threads, too!)
I think I have in fact answered my own question/s, @Porridge. Maybe we need to put the plan on the back burner for a bit until some of this Covid/war uncertainty has subsided, and then look at other more northerly areas of France that we are not in love with yet.
War over, covid gone and all is well with the world until the next global upset arrives.
Follow your dream, tomorrow never comes and you are a long time dead.
