Touraine

or......near kaysersberg. (or similar in Alsace)

Go on, be bold.

Tweedpipe

I'd say it's rather dicey recommending and naming a place, especially one which is a already a very popular tourist location - with many a (loud?) American accent heard. It's also a prime second-home spot for many Brits, so with additional positive endorsements it could ultimately become an English-speaking enclave. Shudder the thought!

Now, I could name a few lesser-known, delightful places in the SW, that would adequately meet the needs of JWL, and where the quality of life is sheer heaven - but I don't intend doing so here....

Chatter Static

Im the only English in the Village........

There are no others I'm the only one.

Novocastrian

I always thought that was true for us as well, but I met another Brit this summer who had just retired to Normandy after a career spent in Lorraine.

There's also a maison secondaire owned by a German couple.

Chatter Static

To be honest if you put all the brits around here in the Titanic it would sink again, Im really not convinced there is a village in France without "Les Anglais" which reminds me I came across this French Anti British poster from the second world war which shows a very different side to the nation we call home.

C'est l'Anglais qui nous a fait ca! - Digital Poster Collection

Anti Allied Section

France WWII Propaganda Posters - Digital Poster Collection

Touraine

Not SW France pleaeeeeeeese. It's been assimulated The same as Britany.

There are plenty of villages/places to hide away near Amboise. The point about Amboise (or any other Amboise type place in France) is that it is only 30 mins from Tours and your property will hold it's value and should be easy to sell. Secondly, when your doctor sends you to see a consultant in Tours, it is only a 20 minute journey by train. In the wonderful Dordogne, it will be a 3 hour round trip by car to Bordeaux. Secondly, Amboise is quite rich so less social problems and you have supermarkets that sell stuff.

The majority of 'second home' owners I believe in Amboise are Parisians. I like Parisians.

You will not escape the Brits/Americans anywhere in France but I have been in and around the Val du Loire for the last ten years and only met one British living in the region.......and there are certainly no chip vans and the local markets do not sell salard cream. I think expats here are a better class of expats

cyrian

Thank you

Tweedpipe

Touraine, I like your posts. But honestly, if you could add a soupçon of humility to your manner and an occasional 'imho' between your lines, your posts would be near perfect. (imho)

Touraine

I am not very good with forum protocol to be fair. Just take my posts with a pinch of salt. I mean no harm. But I am always right.

P.S. I don't know what a soupçon is.

dmu

You forgot to put a in! After so long in France, you must know what it means?

InVinoVeritas

It's a bit like soupe de poisson but with an even bigger pinch of salt.

Im_and_Er

I like it and sums up why I bought the house I did.

I enjoy visiting friends in their stone houses with acres of land in the middle of nowhere but would I buy one, not on your life !

JWL

Not to be confused with your teaspoon...

JWL

How 'rural' do you have to be before you lose connection to the Internet (at a reasonable speed)? Can't live without that.

JWL

Go on, I bet you fancy a nice bag of greasy fish and chips some cold winter evenings hunched around your cheese and wine.

Always beware of ex-pats keen to go TOO native. You don't have to totally abandon your own cultural delights to become French. Enjoy the best of both, why not?

P.S. I don't mind other British (note I refuse to use the dreadful term imposed on us by our transatlantic cousins, 'Brits'!!) around me as long as they're not whingeing pom types.

Also, re your Amboise promotion, I actually have a mate who runs a mobile fish and chip shop who's looking to expand into Europe. Amboise sounds ideal. Can he pm you..?