We are planning a move to france within the next three years and are about organised on visas etc, and we are moving to the next stage of deciding on where we want to move.
I spent a lot of my childhood in the Dordogne and Gers, so we will be starting with these regions due to familiarity.
We are self employed, so no work issues and so plan to do a series of visits for 2-3 weeks at a time in the next two years, to narrow down where we want to be. We would then hope to spend a few months at a time in the final area we like to get a good idea of life in the region, before moving permanently.
We have a fairly big dog so hope to hire a gite/cottage instead of staying in a hotel. We live in the far north of england, so the drive down is a little daunting, so any tips on this would be great.
We are starting with the dordogne/gers as I know I like these areas (or at least did 10 years ago). We have produced a huge 30 page document on all regions in France, and narrowed it down to 10 departments (photo of map attached), that could possibly fit our criterea. Its so hard to actaully decide where you want to be without being there.
Does anyone have any tips firstly on successful âscoutingâ trips, eg, how to make sure we see the ârealâ france, and on areas to consider. The criteria is:
Fairly cheap (under 400k euro) property with land for a horse and outbuildings
Rural (we currently live very rurally and want to stay this way). We are happy with 1 hour to a big town etc, both speak fluent french so dont need to be near expats or english speaking services.
Fairly nice weather (doesnt have to be hot, but just not gray 8 months of the yearâŠ)
We want to be able to grow veg, have chickens etc, we are a bit stereotypical here!
Any advice would be hugely appreciated!
( we have already had professional advice on visas and the actual practicalities of moving so this part is sorted - but of course you can never have too much advice!)
My twoâpenneth is to consider location. Folks have been washed away this year in seemingly tranquil villages with small streams/rivers that have been turned into fatal raging torrents and everything ruined. You need to consider the climate carefully and where any property you are interested in is built (flood plain, area for hunters, risk of fire etc). We have seen enough over the whole of France this year to start to worry about what might come. I would say being rural is fine if you are one or more living in the property but donât take on more than you can physically handle, you will become a slave to it otherwise with no other life and consider distances if you need a hospital or doctor urgently - some areas are medical deserts currently. You can never do enough homework where a move like this is concerned, we had to footslog everything as it was pre-internet/PC and learned by trial and error as have many others on SF. Good luck.
Does your self-employment need physical contact with French customers? As Creuse and Correze are pretty empty and fairly poor. Absolutely great for a holiday home, but not to live there in my opinion.
Equally so you have or are you going to have kids? If so then somewhere with a decent sized community of people your own sort of age so your kid isnât the only one on the school bus and never has friends round to play.
Bear in mind things are getting hotter. Weâre in Lot et Garonne and have been here 17 years. First half of our time here we had no air con in our gite - not really needed. In recent years weâve had upper 30s temperatures surprisingly early - our guests melting in June - and have installed air con in the bedrooms upstairs.
Bordeaux can be surprisingly wet - keep an eye on real time storm websites and you will see they come in off the Bay of Biscay straight over Bordeaux and then swing north east.
You probably know you will pay more for the same property in Dordogne than in Gers.
Gers always feels a bit remote to us - further from airports, TGV, motorways. You may like that, but will there be times when you need to get back to the UK?
One key aspect when living here fulltime is good access to doctors / dentists / hospitals / vets. You may never be ill (hopefully) but if you are, do you really want an hourâs journey to a decent hospital?
Also, it can be frustrating to have to go miles because you need some DIY something that youâve forgotten. A medium-sized local town can be useful for stuff like that and your own place can still feel like itâs way out in the countryside.
A complete ânoâ for us was a servitude across a property - right of access by neighbours, utility companies etc - you cannot assume things will always be amicable.
I was seeing 4-5 properties a day over a week, arranged with local estate agents. I zig zagged down through Dordogne into Lot et Garonne staying in different hotels each night and spent the week learning what I didnât want (terrace too small, servitude, too remote, etc etc) I found our house on the Friday, before I flew home. OH then came out had a look and agreed.
If you tie yourself to just one gite you will spend a lot of time travelling backwards and forwards. Does the dog have to come? Do you both have to come? My week on my own was VERY productive - no distractions. I was looking for our future home, not spending my time as if I was here on holiday (different mindset). Just a thought.
I lived in the Creuse for 20 years and loved (almost) every minute of it. Gone are the days, sadly IMO, of really cold, snowy winters, but you still get all 4 seasons , especially on the Millevaches.
Thats something very serious to consider. Id love to live near a river, I wonder if there are flood maps etc to look at.
I can imagine pre internet it was very difficult!
Currently we are 1 hour 20 from an A and E, which has proved a little difficult at times, maybe it might be good to make it a little closer!
Thank you so much for this- its incredibly helpful! Ive never been to Lot et Garonne but from our research it looks a lovely area.
Yes my main concern with Gers is getting back to the UK in an emergancy - but i suppose you cant let that put you off if everything else is perfect.
We currently seem to go to b and q every weekend (doing our house up to sell!) So ill have to make sure we are in close proximity to somewhere similar as im sure we will find plenty of DIY to do.
We do have to bring the dog- we had to cut our last trip short as he had eaten the sofa of the person he was staying with- we both work from home full time so he really struggles to be left! We could extend the visit- or I was thinking about doing 3/4 days in different places maybe- not sure how tiring this woipd be with the long drive down! When we get to the stage of viewing houses I think we will have to fly over and find someone to stay at ours to dog sit.
Thank you!
I used Google Earth a lot for casually viewing locations (aerial and street view).
The advice above about rivers and flooding is sound, but donât necessarily be put off by being close to a river - weâve lived on the banks of the Lot for twelve years and have never been flooded (though the lower lying other end of the village has). However, the river is controlled by a series of barrages that regulate the flow.
Lastly, areas like the Lot and Cele valleys, western Aveyron, southern Cantal and Lot, are generally cheaper than the Dordogne and less wet, but remain green in summer. 'cos not as hot as further south.
And it does get very hot down here in coastal 66. Even today I am still in teeshirts and flipflops sitting here typing this at 7pm and it gets dark earlier down here too than further north. Saying that, every ache and pain I had from living all those years in far west Brittany have disappeared, so the heat does have some advantages. 40°C plus is the norm from June to end of August down here and you canât have real grass, only astroturf stuff plus we have had no real rain since Mar 22 apart from a downpour last weekend for about an hour which didnât hardly wet the ground.
Seeing as there are lots of pennethâs flying around. Iâve been living in the Cher for 18 years, itâs beautiful here, rolling countryside and some fantastic vinyards.
I wonât leave where I am, but next time around Iâd probably vote for the Creuse. The main road that runs through it, N145 is a great road, from there, left and right is dotted with beautiful villages.
If your GPS says 25 mins to go 10Km, itâs because it does! I love nothing more than getting my motorbike out and doing the twisty turnies.
Dordogne/Bordeaux regions again are beautiful, but in my opinion the Creuse wins. There are a lot of Brits in there, but they are hidden away; you can still find bars that use French as the prominent communicative language (joking-ish).
Lots of big hills, lots of trees, lots of rivers and one of the least expensive places to live.
4 seasons, sometimes snow (joking-ish) low termite risk.
Itâs all now newish dual carriageway, the old N145 still exists between Gouzon and Montlucon, and it was a very dangerous road, lots of people killed every year mainly by trying to overtake trucks.
Every commune should have a âdocument dâinformation communal des risques majeursâ (DICRIM) which goes should go into detail about possible local, risks natural or industrial including flooding. If a commune you are looking at has a website, it should be on there. Itâs not a definitive document but it should give you an idea and can uncover some unexpected issues.
If you need to work from home you may also need to take into account internet access and phone reception. Quite a few rural locations in France are internet and mobile deserts. A good place to start with internet access is https://maconnexioninternet.arcep.fr/ which will tell you down to individual houses what is available and from who. For mobile coverage you can use https://monreseaumobile.arcep.fr/
We have one here and the contacts with their phone numbers that have been delegated for each little coin. The barrage at Vinça has regular alarm drills and we are told in the pages and pages of local info about possible risks to property and life, we have two hours before the water gets down to this commune. I also got a lot of important risk information in all my grand tome from the Notaire when I bought the house in 2022 giving most of the same info and details of natural risks like subsidence, flooding, radon etc. We also come under the national tsunami alert for the Med region which is also mentioned.
A photographer friend of mine who moved to the Gers pre-Brexit has now moved up to Normandie - they liked the Gers in many ways but found the summers too hot, and also wanted to be nearer the UK now that their daughter is attending university there.
So climate and distance are definitely two of the many factors to consider.
I myself am dithering between Charente / Sud-Vienne, which is an area I know and like and where I have friends not far away, or Mayenne where my sisterâs (ex!) partner used to have a house, and which is of course a hop skip and a jump from the Channel ports.
The West now gets these huge Atlantic storms which go up the west coast and into the English Channel.
The lower half of the storm splits away and goes along the Spanish coast and into the Med and north Italy.
We have noticed how the weather has changed since we moved here in 2009.
We used to get really cold weather from Russia in the winter, but now it all comes from the west, but here in Burgundy we are protected from the worst of it.
There is often a belt of bad weather that travels from the south west of France up to the north east and we are just on the south of it.
We have found that our max drive time per day is 6 hours, if we want to sleep each night and not be exhausted next day. Means we can get up at normal times and go to bed at normal times. Used to get 8am tunnel crossing but that required a very early start and not much sleep, if any, before it was time to head to tunnel. Now aim for midday crossings.
Our home is in north of Lot et G so itâs motorway type roads all the way from Calais to Angouleme, then gets slower to Bergerac. Takes 10 hours steady driving from Calais to just south of Bergerac.
Before we bought we stayed in long term off-season rental in gite. I think it was this company we used to find a gite but then emailed the owners direct for a quote.
We have friends in france who travel to Durham area for xmas. They have found the St Malo route to be the best combination of driving time/cost/convenience for them, including dog. Overnight on the ship. Have to book well in advance to get dog cabin.
Last thing, try to make your house hunting fun. There will probably be a lot of driving. Pick a gite thats most convenient. Given the siz of the regions you are looking at, you might have to stay in more than one location.
