What's it like living in the Creuse?

Cheers James,

If the answer was ‘no’ I would need to prepare to justify to the person I flagged.

Thanks for the clarification.

Martin

I like living in the Creuse, (getting a bit crowded now though with all the brits moving from Charente😃) . We have it all, a river, 4 seasons, clean air, clear skies, no pollution, no litter, hills, forests and valleys, and no neighbours for 1km in any direction ( apart from gite guests). I don’t just like it, I love it!

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Mark, exactly the reason why I love Creuse as well.

Lovely mixture of landscape, which can change alot, a few kilometres in any direction.

Agreed re lack of peeps which makes it even more special and so so quiet.

France is such a vast country and has many lovely depts. Lucky to be here and wish I could have a couple hundred of spare year’s to try other depts to live :slight_smile:

Martin

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We will be there soon!!!

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Did I mention the tranquility?

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What a strange thread.

What is the difference between rural Charente and rural Creuse ?

Rural is rural . Rural folk are the same regardless of department. So I guess it is just the countryside ???

MarK, my OH is aveyronnaise but we’ve lived in the Tarn for the last 4 or so years and according to her the people are “totally different”, they’re tarnais for a start, not aveyronnais, and she was born only 20km away…!!! :open_mouth:

I’m not so sure.

We have family and family houses all over France and the rural problems/debates are the same. The same problems and debates you find on British expat forums.

Is changing department going to change anything for the OP ? Methinks not. You either do rural France or you don’t.

The only thing that will change is the countryside.

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I started this thread to ask what is was like living in the Creuse. We intend on moving to Creuse as we haven’t settled in Charente. But this thread is NOT about the Charente!! I have made a very good friend through posting my original thread many, many months ago. For what it’s worth, I would say that France is a very varied country and even though most of it is very rural, there is a great deal of difference between regions and even departments. People come to France to live for widely differing reasons. We don’t want to be in a bustling busy area with lots of people and would like to find a house tucked away in the landscape without close neighbours. The new person who joined the conversation yesterday is currently living in a very remote, wild and sparsely populated part of Northern Scotland (2 persons per square kilometre!!).

To me that sounds like heaven (population density wise) but many others would be horrified by such a proposition. It’s horses for courses of course. Where we live currently there are 58 people per square kilometre and to me that is fairly busy. I have lived in very remote places in the UK and that is what I am comfortable with. If I can find something similar in France then that will be lovely. We would not be the first people to move to France and then move again. When we first came to France, we thought we would enjoy the area we chose, and want to live there for the rest of our days. It hasn’t turned out that way and we look forward to our next adventure. You have to live somewhere to truly experience a place and we are excited by the prospect of moving on!

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Paul… sounds like the Creuse could be just what you are looking for… probably a good idea to drive around there, a bit… and look at some properties to see how it feels for you and your family.

Moving somewhere (anywhere) new… is indeed an adventure…so go for it… what have you got to lose ??

Hi Stella. We have been checking it out for the last 10 months or so and have been over around 15 times. We really love it! Just have to find the right property with large land now!!

Have you checked the Notaires in the Creuse… they often have property for sale… that doesn’t go through Agents…

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Hi Stella

Yes we have contacted notaires; all the mairies in the areas we are looking; all the local French immobiliers, all the web search immos (Leggett, Green acres). Have also been scanning Leboncoin, Trovit, Para vendu etc. It’s a tough search as we would like an isolated property with more than 1.5 hectares of nice attached land. Most houses seem to be in hamlets.

have you tried chatting in the local Bars… French barmen are also a good source of info…

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@ OP

Why have you chosen la Creuse for your next adventure ? There are more remote departments/areas in France. !!! I can think of many.

It seems to me you are spring boarding from one expat oriantated area to another. France is a big country as you have said, maybe less mainstream/less popular areas with expats might be your thing.

Just a thought.

Hi Mark

We happen to absolutely love the Creuse and I wouldn’t say it is an expat (or “British immigrant” as I prefer to call us!) hotspot, particularly in the south of the department. Also we don’t have a massive budget and Creuse offers good value for money. Finally a lot of the more remote areas are much further south and therefore drier and hotter. We do not like the generally very hot and dry climate in Charente in the heat of the summer, so heading into the massif central and gaining altitude seems a good plan!

As Limousin is the least populated region of France and Creuse the second least densely populated department in France (after Lozere) I would be interested to see your list of remote areas that are affordable?

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Hello Paul.
I can see that you have enquired with Leggett as part of your search, did you receive details from Diane who is their agent in Creuse - they have a property in St George la Pouge (where we have our gite) which require total renovation and has 3 acres of land - recently reduced to €70,000.
Hope that halps, June

Hello June

I am aware of the property you have mentioned. I believe it was up for €77,000 on Leggett’s site. We ruled this one out because the agent said it was close to a D road (we are looking for total seclusion down a track) and also the configuration of the house does not work for us. It has a barn on the back of the house in a T shaped configuration, so it would be impossible to open the house up with extra windows on the rear. It has been on the market for so long, I guess it must be very overpriced. Look’s more like a €20,000-30,000 place to me. We haven’t found Leggett to be particularly helpful to be honest and have only viewed one Leggett property out of the 35 or so we have viewed. Thank you for thinking of us. Kind regards Paul and Jackie.

Afternoon Mark we are looking at moving to the Creuse area and I’ve noticed you live there. Do you happen to farm as that’s what we are looking at doing?

Thanks Aaron

No, I’m not a farmer - we have gites, but I do know a few.