Hi sorry to be asking for advice on my first posting - I’ve been reading through the forums for the past couple of months and finding really useful information, made lots of notes.
My dreams are about to come true, we have a buyer for our house in the UK (fingers crossed it’s early days) the plan is to rent in France before we buy. I’ve been doing my homework, but am finding it a little daunting now that its starting to become real (I’ve been dreaming for years about this move). Our French isn’t too good at the moment but we are learning slowly.
I could really do with some advice with regards to finding a place to rent (while we house hunt) for 3/6 months from approx September - we are looking around Rodez/Albi and a little west of these towns. It’s just the two of us, early retirees, our only needs are car parking (garage/barn/carport) and broadband access. Does anyone know of anywhere to rent or maybe even house sit. We’d really appreciate any advice.
Also any inside info on towns/villages in the Aveyron would be helpful.
Thanks, Sherrie
Thanks for that info, seems like its back to plan A as I don’t like wet and grey (have enough of that here in Sussex and it‘s summer!) as you say nowhere is perfect and until we win the lottery we can’t live on
côte d'azur, so the dry and cold winter is the next best thing, we will just have to wrap up warm.
Will definitely take everyone’s advise about spending time exploring the area in different seasons - it will be like an extended holiday (in my dreams) - can’t wait to get there.
the Gers is milder but wetter in the winter but equally hot in summer and because of the increased humidity there it feels hotter - stickier! - I prefer colder and drier winters but that's a personal thing! It's usaully a give and take thing with the climate, difficult to have your cake and eat it unless you winter on the côte d'azur and summer in Brittany ;-)
Thanks for all the very useful information having only been to these beautiful places during the summer I didn’t realise they would be so quiet during the winter and so cold - I think we need to reconsider where we are going to rent, as you say it is important to experience the winters in these places, I have been checking the weather and from what I can see the Gers might well be the place to try for our first winter - we are looking for mild winters and not too hot summers are we looking in the right place? Good suggestion I will join the Midi-Pyrenees group.
Villefranche is one of my favourites too, very quiet, some would say dead, in the winter. especially the centre ville. Gaillac - good choice, Johnny knows it far better than me, I can't really comment. St Antonin is getting well out of my area and don't know it although others here do and can comment. Villeneuve is lovely in summer, very dead in winter but not as cold as Villefranche in winter - river and frost hollow, and for the same reasons it's not as stifflingly hot in summer. Naucelle, where my OH was born and went to school, is a nice little place well located between Rodez and Albi, more shops than Villeneuve, not as much as Villefranche obvioulsy but it has pretty much everything including an English doctor according to my mother in law! a degree or two colder than the other two but not as bad as the higher parts of the ségala. Less of a tourist trap than Villefranche/Villeneuve too. I'd suggest renting for a year before buying, seeing the different places in the winter is far more important than the summer - the difference is huge! 3 years ago we got down to -15 in the winter and the following summer hit 40° (55° difference !)
Thanks Johnny for letting me know about your place in Albi old town, it sounds lovely and would be perfect for us if we didn’t need a largish size garage. I was thinking more village or hamlet, we don’t need to live close to any particular town but my favourite places are Villefranche de Rouergue - Andrew is it really as nice to live there as it seems from a tourist point of view? Other places we like are: Gaillac, St Antonin Noble Val, Villeneuve, Naucelle (is there anything we should know about these places before we start house hunting?) and I am sure there are lots more lovely places to find once we move down, and thanks for the Leboncoin link that was very useful.
Yes, back from father's day on the boat/beach and a post on the Aveyron jumped right out at me!
Hyper centre d'Albi, you're making me a very jealous man!!! We'll be in Arthès so we can get up to Carmaux within 15 minutes. My OH suggested I do a loft conversion or similar in the centre of Albi but I think we'll have enough on our plates for a while with the new venture, there again...!
We're moving down to Carmaux from Decazeville, having sold our house here, and renting just outside Albi, I've lived in the Aveyron for a good few years now, OH and kids are aveyronnais. Worked in most of the Aveyron too, Rodez, Villefranche de Rouergue, Decazeville etc. so if you want any specific info just ask. OHs family are from teh Ségala area between Rodez and Albi too. As for rental properties, there are plenty but it depends what you're looking for - we've just rented a decent 130m² 5 year old 3 bed detached place in the country for 800€ a month, if you go really rural and away from Albi and Rodez then you can get the same for as little as 500€ a month. you can try the agencies if you want but you'll end up paying a month's rent as commission. Best place by miles is leboncoin which will give you a very good idea of what's available. Broadband access is pretty good everywhere, but you ahve to ask once you get really rural to be sure, and parking in this part of France is no hassle at all!
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