My wife and I are from California and we just purchased a house in Fontaine-Chalendray (17510). We made this decision after spending a great deal of time in France over the past 15 years. We spent three years searching for a house in several parts of France and finally decided on the Charente-Maritime last year. Thus far, we are enjoying our time in the area and making plans to renovate our house. I am looking forward to participating in the forums on this site and learning more about living as an expat in France. Thanks to you all for making this resource available.
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Hello Paul
Welcome to France and to this forum. I hope you enjoy both.
You will find us a friendly bunch and very happy to answer any questions.
Bonne chance!
Hi Paul… and welcome…
I reckon you have chosen a lovely spot to buy…and… there is some good wine around there, if I am not mistaken 
Are you intending to work on the house yourselves… or just oversee the work??.. either way, it can be great fun… many of us have been through this sort of thing and we are all happy to swap info/advice… 
Hi Paul, welcome to France and SFN from a fellow resident of the Charente Maritime.
I see you’ve been looking for somewhere for French lessons etc, in St Jean D’Angely there is a branch of AVF which is an organisation that helps newcomers settle in and I’m sure they’ll be able to help -
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Bonjour Paul and welcome to France and SFN.
I met an American couple in Munich last week who were looking for somewhere to live other than Trump’s USA.
They said that America was almost living in a civil war between those for and opposed to Trump.
They were favouring Canada, but said it really was too cold!
Yes, it is very much as the other couple described. We live in California, which is very resistant to Trump, but, frankly, resistance is becoming tiresome. Our biggest fear currently is that the fool may win again in 2020, although we certainly hope that will not be the case.
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Paul… will this be a holiday home… or a permanent move, eventually?? Just wondering…
A “holiday” home, although we are considering it to be more than that. We hope to be able to spend 6 months out of the year in France, due on residency restrictions that do not allow us to be in France for more than three months at a time.
Three months is a nice spell to be spending here… especially if you can arrange things so that you get a taste of winter as well as the summer…
You will be able to settle into a local routine, become well-known to neighbours etc.
An American family spend all Summer here in our area… they are such nice folk that we really do look forward to their arrival each year… and that includes their French neighbours just as much as us Brits.