The Goldilocks Decision

Having made the momentous decision that 2012 was going to be the year in which we would to turn our dreams into reality, the next big question was to decide in which of France’s many and varied regions we wanted to make our new home?

I guess like so many who have made the move before us we were inevitably attracted to the French regions where we had previously enjoyed our holidays. For us this included Normandy, Provence, Limousin, Aquitaine, Burgundy and Ile de France (Paris to be precise).

Each of these areas had left their impact on us: cruising along the gentle River Saone on a family boating holiday; sipping red wine on a summer’s evening in the gite garden whilst watching the mellow Limousin cattle munching grass; gazing at Isabelle’s long, tanned limbs as she lay by the pool (did I mention that before?); watching our daughter run naked through the fountains of the Parc Citroen (not a drunken student prank this one, she was only 7 at the time to be fair!); having our car broken into and our passports stolen whilst we visited a war cemetery near Caen (I'm afraid that memory put Normandy out of the running - unfair I know but the emotions of that day still linger).

We had also been subscribing to magazines like Living France and French Property News for several years and we had read countless articles describing life in every area of France. The problem of course is that everywhere sounded wonderful; no one was going to write about their chosen home in anything but glowing terms.

So we started with the Goldilocks decision making process.

Provence in the South – way too hot for us.

Brittany and Normandy in the North – an Atlantic climate too much like the UK.

The ‘middle bit’ around Limoges – just right.

Paris – great for a visit but much too busy and clogged up for us, not to mention way too expensive. The Creuse and Correze departments of the Limousin offered some of the cheapest property in France but their remoteness perhaps didn’t offer us the best opportunity to implement our business ideas (more of which in a later post!). The departments to the south and west of Limoges (Dordogne, Haute Vienne and Charente) – just right.

Of course, these three departments cover a huge area so we started to narrow it down using transport links as a guide – we marked on a map all the airports within two hours of the region which offered flights to the UK and we took note of where the TGV stopped off as it raced south. What started to emerge as a target area for us was the Parc Naturel Regional Perigord Limousin with Limoges Airport close by and the airports of Bergerac, Poitiers and even Bordeaux within striking distance. The excellent TGV service allowed Paris to be reached in less than three hours from Angouleme to the west.

The Parc Naturel Regional Perigord Limousin covers a large area but as we read more about the region it became clear that the section of countryside known as the Perigord Vert would suit us very nicely.

Lush, green countryside dotted with little hamlets and bustling market towns. Lots of beautiful deciduous woodland interspersed with meadows grazed by gentle herds of cattle. And above all, we knew from previous trips that it offered us the peace and tranquility that we so desperately sought.

The Perigord Vert is primarily encapsulated within the Dordogne department. Whilst it has unfortunately developed something of a ‘Dordogneshire’ reputation because of the number of English people living in the area, we knew that this rural area was still quintessentially French and conservative in its outlook and we had only ever encountered extremely welcoming and hospitable natives. Beside which, we were not looking to get drawn in to the “Expat Community” who still get their groceries delivered by Asda, play cricket at the weekend and go in search of fish and chips on a Friday night - we wanted to move to France because we saw a more fulfilling was to live life and we wanted to make friendships with the French, to learn from them and to immerse ourselves in the local culture.

With property prices well below the French national average we realized we might achieve our dream to live mortgage free in a tranquil cottage on the edge of a village with space around us to breathe and an acre or two of land for the dogs to roam free on. We also knew we would have to find a way to make a living and it appeared that this was an area that would suit what we had in mind as a business (not telling you more yet, you’re going to have to wait!).

On my wall at home in the UK, I pinned a map of the area we had now decided to focus on (see below) and started to absorb the detail of the towns, the topography, the main routes and the places of interest. I started to turn the dream into a clearer vision of where we were going to make our new life – then I started to plan in detail how we were going to make this happen. I’ll tell you about that next time though!