onlyonebrenda

I understand that the Riberac area has a substantial community of English speaking expats who actually came from Africa about thirty years ago, I believe from the Kenya/ Uganda area as it used to be known. For various reasons they haven't integrated with the locals but are apparently substantial enough in number for English to be heard as often as French in the local market.
I have to say that I have never been to Riberac and that all of this is hearsay, although some of it is official hearsay.
The Périgord Noir (South Dordogne) is very beautiful and has substantial ex-pat communities and enormous numbers of tourists. If you intend to stay all year round be wary of buying in a small vllage where you might be the only people staying during the winter.
Acceptance by locals in France appears to vary from place to place. Here the locals are very friendly but I gather that isn't always the case everywhere. And as one person put it the pecking order is Périgordians, English and then Parisians at the bottom of the pile!
England and France are experiencing economic problems at present. The effect locally has been a down turn on property prices with no-one wanting to buy the larger remoter properties, a sharp upwards trend in shop prices following the steep increase in petrol prices and a tourist season that has been 'calme' which will lead to some people having a very hard winter. People aren't even making jam and chutney this year as, unlike last year's bounty, there is no cheap fruit around. Apples are not in good condition, the peaches and plums were killed off in an unexpected cold snap etc. A friend has had more bookings for her gite this year but only because of extensivce advertising otherwise the gite market is overcrowded.
I love it here. The summer is one mad long celebration but in winter everything quietens down. The weather here isn't particularly bad just dull, cold and wet but 'hibernation' would be a suitable term to describe life, or maybe just recovery time after the hectic summer. Cuisine even at the most modest eating place is excellent as long as you like duck or goose and is very reasonably priced. Vegetarianism hasn't really caught on here. It tends to be viewed as a mortal insult to the locals trying to make a living from their fine Limousin cattle or the ducks or geese. Paté de foie anyone? The wild life is wonderful but kept in check by the chasse who may hunt up to two or three times a week. (Sanglier - wild boar - breed faster than they can be kept in check by the hunters.)
Finally I would add that given the choice I'd far rather be here than in England at present.
Good luck. I hope you find what you want and welcome to the forum. There's a good crowd on here.

Andrea50

Hiya

We lived in north Tarn-et-Garonne for just over 2 years, which was lovely and we chose it in the end over Dordogne because of the cost of property being rather cheaper there. But we looked again extensively at Dordogne and north west Lot, north Lot-et-Garonne when we sold the house in TeG.

If you are driving from Bordeaux, it might be a good idea to consider the following route, just a suggestion, as we did this and it was wonderful.

Come out of Bordeaux on the D936, go through Camarsac and onto Branne. This is a nice place on the Dordogne river. You could take a detour up on the D122 to St Emilion (you may have heard of this cos of the wonderful wine!) and then carry on along the Dordogne to St Foy la Grande. We found the actual countryside either side nothing particularly special here, but it is nice. If it is Brits you are after, suggest you detour down the D708 to Duras - big Brit enclave there, then take the D668 to Eymet, another bit Brit place. There are immobiliers (estate agents) in both Duras and Eymet, both English speaking.

Suggest you then go up to Bergerac and then follow the river closely and you will see lots of little villages to Lalinde. Lalinde very nice, I got bitten badly by mosquitoes in this area!

Now here you have a choice - go north or south. If you go down the D660 you will encounter Beaumont-du-Perigord - beautiful, and on down to Monpazier, again lovely town. Also Villefranche du Perigord. The area you are now in is becoming the Bouriane (one of my personal favourites) and is the area north of the river Lot.

Don't dismiss Lot - parts are beautiful, particularly along the river. You can drive from Fumel to Cahors and go through lovely villages, Puy l'Eveque, Prayssac (fantastic Friday market, loads of Brits), and don't miss Luzech. If you choose to do this bit, you can then take the fast road RN20 back up to Souillac or you can detour to Gourdon, which is wonderful (great Saturday market) and wonderful restaurants. If you do this bit, check out Cazals another great market down, with a very beautiful swimming lake.

From Gourdon, straight up to Sarlat la Caneda, another personal favourite, shopping is great, area is great, about 10 immobiliers there too if you want a gander at the prices etc. Sarlat to Domme is then a short hop, and you are back on the Dordogne. Follow Dordogne River to Souillac and then keep on it through St Sozy (lovely place) and Creysse. Suggest a detour to Martel (nice place) you can carry on through Vayrac to Bretenoux then turn up the main road to Beaulieu sur Dordogne - again, wonderful place. This is technically Southern Correze (Limousin) but very nice.

If you stay on the road at Lalinde and don't turn south, you can go on to Le Buisson de Cadouin then up the D51 to Le Bugue (another personal fave) and don't miss Les Eyzies. This route takes you up the Vezere valley, very scenic.

Then get on the D47 and head for Perigeux - beautiful city, well worth spending a day here.

From Perigeux, you have choices - up the D939 to Brantome and onto Nontron, then down a very scenic road D107 to Thiviers (another member lives here, she can tell you about this area).

Or back towards Bordeaux along the river, going through Neuvic and Mussidan, or along the Dronne river (very nice) through Montagrier and Aubeterre.

Anyway, have a great time!

Andy

Andrea50

lol

I see Brenda was typing hers at the same time I was typing mine!

She is clearly the faster typist.

Bon Journee to all.

onlyonebrenda

Ah but I see you're well up on me on number of posts! What a helpful person you are.

Andrea50

Sweetie, all that shows is I am bored senseless and have lots of time on me hands!

It is the busy people who take the trouble to post (like yourself) who are "helpful". Although this site is great for keeping one sane ..... and the alternative sometimes is watching Killer Tomatoes Eat France on Zone Horror so well, no contest THERE then

onlyonebrenda

Well I thought the trip you suggested was really interesting and informative. I might even try it myself! As for the killer tomatoes, posting has to be better than trying yet again to explain to EDF that my tenant, who died in 2007 used the electricity in the flat attached to my place before then and that them waiting to invoice me for a year's electricity claiming that I used it between Mar and May 2008 really wasn't helpful or honest. Val gave me a good idea though, (thanks Val) to take photos of the meters as they are now. (To add insult to injury they have estimated a further bill based on the erroneous usage.) In their favour I have to say that everybody at EDF has been charming and helpful and approachable. It's just they haven't resolved the situation! I've ended up after numerous telephone calls and a visit to their agence in Périgueux having to go to the mairie to get an attestation saying that the flat was empty for the last year.
I haven't posted much during the summer, been too busy enjoying my friends and the sun, but I'll probably be more on line during winter hibernation. Now I'm off to varnish my traditional wooden staircase, having sanded it and given it the obligatory coats of woodworm treatment.
It's Périgord fair this week, an enormous event out Marsac way but I don't know if I'll have time to get there - ceertainly haven't got the money to spend until I sort out this electricity business.
How's the weather with you? All I hear about is the rain in England. Today is sunny but there's a definite autumnal chill in the air and it was only 7°C this morning.

Andrea50

Oh lord, EDF! Here in Devon we have them - they took over from SWEB, but at least I can swear and curse at them in English - poor you.

When we were about to buy that second house near Prayssac on the Lot, the one that fell through, my ex and I were allowed to go and start a bit of work on the garden/walnut orchard prior to completion as we all thought it was a done deal. Anyway, the house backed onto a road, along which there were several trees, some of which looked dead dodgy and I was worried that if a branch fell on a car we'd get done, so we decided to do something about it.

I climbed the tree and tied a rope around the top bit we were going to lop off, which was definitely dead, then got down and held the rope in order to pull the stuff my way onto our land rather than letting it fall on the road. My ex was up the tree with the chain saw.

I got a bit distracted and heard this yell and the dratted whole top of the tree fell the wrong way - not on the road luckily, but right onto the EDF power lines crossing our garden to the Vineyard next door. There were sparks and everything.

We legged it fast back to our gite at Anglars, and went back a week later, only to learn all hell had broken loose, the vineyard owners thought it was "les vandales", and we never mentioned it again as, luckily, we didn't own the property at the time! We used our "je suis Anglaise, je ne sais pas" thingy to escape any embarrassing questions, but I still wonder if they knew!

Was sweating a bit though, as Annie (the vineyard owner) was part of the Mairie. We were just lucky, as god knows what the bill would have been.

Weather here is the usual - although not raining, nuageux et brumeuse. Was more than 7 this morning though - lawks, nearly forgot early autumn mornings and evenings "en France" can be a tad chilly! Still lovely though, I miss it so much.

Good day to all.

onlyonebrenda

Gosh the gossip lines in the village must have been working overtime - would have kept them going for at least two months. The moral of which is grown ups shouldn't climb trees Actually I've just been doing a bit of tree-cutting acrobatics. I have a small sycamore growing between next door's garage and the roof of my atelier. Both houses originally belonged and were built by the same man and any sense of sound building principles at that end is purely imaginary, so there I was climbing (too old for jumping) over the rail outside my first floor flat round the corner onto the roof of next door's garage in order to cut this wretched plant down yet again before it does any more damage. Oh the joys of home ownership in France. Don't expect British building standards, but then again, if I were in England would I be able to afford a house with an attached flat by the river in a pretty little medieval style village?
But remember folks, you get the unexpurgated versions on this website Have a good day Andrea or should that be 'Bonne journée'. If you're too bored you can come and help me with some of my renovation work!

CTMaggie

Hi Val

This is lekker!!! Thanks so much for your reply. Between you and I, this is the hardest decision that I have had to make. I love my home, my friends, family, the routine and so on but we have come to the realisation that we need to make the move. It would have been so much easier when we were younger. You are correct in assuming that we have UK passports. Yeah!!!!! We are some of the lucky ones. Other family members do not have that little maroon book and are very worried about their futures.

Originally we considered Normandy or Brittany but we have a few friends who are mentioning Dordogne. My husband is stuck on the UK though and this will be a difficult one to change. Initially, I talked about Italy,Spain, Portugal and now France. But France has been discussed many a time and I think that the language would be easier to learn as I learnt French in school in 19 voetsak. So I HOPE that my husband falls in love with France.

We currently have a business in T-shirts, caps, golf shirts and thought that we could also sell these items there but I think that France is probably also inundated with imported clothing as elsewhere in Europe.

Do you have any idea how expensive it is to live in France? Approx. rental prices? The exchange rate is appalling at the moment but what can you do??? I read an email on one site where 6 families from SA were looking for a Chateaux or gite setup where the 6 families could live & grow strawberries. They had Euros 300000 to spend between all of them. That is so hard. How could they ever survive? Someone told me that you need to make Euros 3000 a month for 2 adults to survive comfortably. This is approx ZAR37000 a month. So we would have to get something up and going very soon as we wouldnt want to dip into too much of our savings.

If I cannot dissuade my husband against the UK we will be faced with a hard start financially as most of our money would have o be invested in property. I am hoping that we manage to get a whole bunch of us coming over & settling in the same area. This would certainly make it easier.

Thanks once again for your help.
Tot siens
Maggie

themoose

CT, France is very diverse in its nature. It offers lots depending on what you want. I would say England (UK) doesn't have this. One city / town now merges with the next., Certainly there are differences but it is more one than France. The other beauty of France is the amount of space you have, the UK is very busy and although great to visit as a holiday or to see family and friends is tiring in which to live. Also if you want to go to any other country (Spain, Belgium or any where) you first have a water to cross, so the expense starts before you go out for that weekend trip.

It is a hard call, but France has a lot more flexibility in terms of what there is to suit different people than the UK. A hard place to be for you guys, but what ever you select i wish you luck.

val50

I really do feel for you, even more so in light of the recent developments with Zuma! We were lucky in that my OH was offered a job here in France, so didn't have the added stress of trying to find work when we got there. I know too how hard it is to leave behind things and those you love. All I can say is that we didn't realise until we moved to France, how unreal life in SA is.
As for the choice between UK or France - again, I can only give you personal experiences, but we had 2 sets of friends who also left after we did and moved back to UK. They came to visit us in France, and after a year or so, both lots of friends had moved to live in France, one close to Saumur, the other in Mayenne. They just couldn't cope with living in UK after all those years away. They also found it much cheaper to live in France, although like most places now days, prices are rising here. I still think though it is overall cheaper to live in France than UK, especially if you take into account rentals, taxation, fuel etc. My biggest concern for you as well would be the cost of accessing health care here in France. Legislation has changed so you would have to fund your contributions. Even if you move back to UK, you will not automatically be entitled to benefits. Would suggest you (and especially your OH if you can get him to) read through the forum on moving back to UK.
There are some interesting comments there.
As to trying to give you some idea of costs of living in France, it's unfortunately a bit like saying how long is a piece of string It really will depend on where you decide to live. Compared to what others have said on here, I think it is cheaper where we are in Normandy compared to some other areas. Tax d'habitation and tax foncierie will all depend on the size of house you choose, and whether you go for a urban or rural setting. You can get a small 2 bed appartment or house to rent near us for around 400 euro a month
If you do a search in google for immobilier in Dordogne, then search for location (rentals) on their website, it will give you a better idea of costs there.
Again, how much you need a month to live off depends on your cirumstances. Setting up a small business in France is not easy, it's been covered quite a bit on the forum so you should find lots of info if you do a search on here. Again, if you do a search on Google for setting up a small business in France, you will find lots of useful information.