Clo49

My husband and myself have already visited most parts of France, except for the Rhone and the North-East areas. Two years ago, we visited a lot of houses in the Charente and last year in the Dordogne areas. No house visits in the Gironde as yet.

Our main problem is that we need to find a bungalow (we are retired) and a large garden as we have 5 dogs. Besides, we don't want to live in an isolated place nor in a big city. All the houses that we visited did not suit us : too far from town, too large gardens (I should say "fields" or even "forests") too many repairs.
We don't have an important budget, which certainly explains the nearly battered houses that we were shown sometimes.

Besides, we will attend the Toulouse airport as my daughter lives near Heathrow. I prefer driving or taking a train from my location to this airport rather than spend one full day on a train.

Do some of you live in a town suburb, not a big city, just a town with doctors, banks and post-office with an easy walking distance? When I visit LBC or Leggett, the ads always mention towns and you visit hamlets. If you can name a few nice middle-sized towns in these three departments, I could have a closer look at LBC and Leggett.
I can find many towns on a map, but I can't tell if they are nice or not.

Thanks for your answers

EuroTrash

I live in a small town but not in those areas.
I avoided living rural for the reasons you mention and it was the right decision for me. It's as peaceful as you could wish for, but I have nice neighbours and services within a few minutes walk. In fact the car doesn't move out of the garage from one week to the next.
The trouble is with Leggetts is that they specialise in selling for Brits to Brits, and to most Brits the French dream means quaint and rural, so that's mostly what Leggetts have to sell.
Visit a few towns, and if you like them, look in the local estate agents' windows.

cyrian

We also visited most areas in France before deciding on a suitable location to buy a property.
We first chose an area that interested us and then we searched online several estates agents sites to get a better idea of what was available and at what price.
We used Google to get information about towns and street view to pre-view interesting properties.
You already live South East of Paris and should be familiar with pages jaunes which will give you a list of suitable estate agents and their websites.
Good luck with your search

Clo49

EuroTrash, I'm Norman born and I've dropped the Norman and the Briton areas because I get rhumatisms when I stay there too long. When I was young I also had many headaches that immediately stopped when I left Normandy. Actually, I hope my three chosen areas won't be too damp!

I know about Leggetts but I still visit their site because I can compare their prices with the local ones. I've also visited local estate agents in Thiviers, Nontron, Lanouaille and Cognac but I didn't enjoy the houses that were mainly split-levels as many in the Charente and Dordogne areas. I've also noticed that British people like it to live in the "deep" country. Just the same as me when I visit the beautiful Devon : I could stay hours watching the landscape!

Thanks for your message, Cyrian. I've visited plenty of sites already and I've also pre-viewed many places and visited many Mairies' sites to get further info. Once I even fell upon the right house on street view. Unfortunately it was too expensive for us and the owner didn't want to lower its price : it's been on the market for nearly 5 years now and is still on sale.

Tweedpipe

Have you explored the Gers?
If we had to leave our small part of heaven (also in the SW) there's probably only one other department we would consider. The Gers. The climate is pleasant, not too windy (very important imho), and relatively close to Toulouse Blagnac airport.
I can't advise on one particular town or village as that has to be an individual/ personal choice. However Auch - the main town, has never really appealed to me. Not sure why - again a personal feeling.
I note that this evening on France 3 tv at 20:50, the Gers is featured in the travel series 'Des Racines et des Ailes'. You may wish to check the program out tonight to get a feeling. I'll certainly be watching it.
Related travel link.

Clo49

Thanks for the tip and the link, Tweedpipe. In fact, we've never explored this area, don't ask me why. I'll watch the documentary tonight.

petitefrancaise

The Gers is beautiful. To the south you have the Pyrenees and Spain, west and east the atlantic and the med.

The rolling hills and ancient villages are just lovely. They have thriving communities and stuff going on all year round. The climate can be really cold in winter though.....

My friend lives in Simorre and I think this place is heaven. About an hour to Blagnac airport and Toulouse but so quiet and lovely.

Clo49

You're right, Petitefrancaise, the Gers looks quite beautiful and I'm fond of its rolling hills. I watched "des Racines et des Ailes" two days ago and it gave me a good general idea of what it looks like. Blagnac is not far either, which is a very good point too.
We never thought of enquiring about the Gers because we first chose to remain above a western line in order to avoid too hot a climate. We've already visited the Mediterranean Coast from Spain to Nice and it was awfully hot overthere! My Scottish and English dogs didn't really appreciate, they prefer a cold winter and hate rain.
Tweedpipe, I didn't like Auch either : too many stairs!
Except for Condom (the name is so ridiculous), I find it funny to live in Valence or Montreal.
I think we'll have a closer look in the spring. I've already skimmed a few estate agents sites : the prices are low but there aren't many houses for sale. I must have a closer look, I think.
I even reckon it would be better to rent a house for a few months before looking for a property to buy but .... where?

russellgww

You may want to look at the lovely twin bastide town of St Clar. I was very tempted myself a few years back but decided the Gers may be too quiet for me in Winter and opted for Charente Maritime instead.

petitefrancaise

St Clar is lovely.... we used to go to the lake there often, even though it was over an hour's drive for us.

Scots in Treignac

I spent about 10 days near Condom. Nice area but it was a bit too hot for me. There was a nice Thunderstorm with fantastic thunder and lightening.House prices are cheaper and there are quite a few bungalows just north of the Dodogne in Correze. Last summer a1970's 2-3 bed bungalow(empty for 10 years) in my town/village of Treignac went for £49K.Brive is a modest large town or small city and Uzerche is a good sized town both on the A20 with good rail links to Toulouse and Paris (3 - 4 Hrs) . There's also Megabus from Tou;ouse to Brive or Limoges. Airports at Brive and Limoges but door to door (Kingston on Thames) my son says it's quite pleasant by Euro star.As for me I prefer Megabus all the way. I once paid a pound to get to London. Usually it's £30 to Inverness.

Clo49

Hello there,
Many thanks again to all of you for your very good tips. We've finally decided to visit houses, mainly single-storey houses in Plaisance, Fleurance, Nogaro and Aignan. We found nothing for us in St Clar. We now know that there's a big lake there and that the bastide is worth visiting, thanks Petitefrançaise and Russelgww.
We dropped LBC (too few photos) and Leggett and opted for conventional estate agents such as local agencies (not many, but good ones if we refer to our phone contacts). Besides, we chose Seloger on the net, many photos there.
As regards our visits to England, we really prefer to drive from our future location to Toulouse and directly land at Heathrow, as our daughter lives near this area. We're a bit fed up with the train, even the Eurostar. Too bad the Megabus doesn't apply to the Gers area though.
We won't be able to rent a house in the Gers so we must find the right house in the coming months. Our first visits should take place next month. Keep you advised ...

Scots in Treignac

Megabus starts at Barcelona calling at Toulouse, Brive, Limoges ,Paris, and London connecting to many parts of the Uk on the same ticket .
Try the other bus companies operating in France Eurolines Izzibus ID lines
Look at this thread Coach Travel within France- At Last! ( 1 2)

EuroTrash

I think IDbus has reinvented itself as OUIbus - it's SNCF's coach business.

dmu

OUIBUS, le voyage en bus pas cher en France et en Europe

Thwarted dream! Nothing from Béziers, let alone any personally interesting destinations from Montpellier except for Paris, but I'd rather pay Carte Sénior reduced price for a TGV, and save time....