Let me tell you what I suggest you should do to pick the area where you are going to search for your new French house
I spend a lot of time on Facebook groups and forum to help people interested in French real estate. Often, a new member asks for advice about how to “pick the spot he will want to call home in France.” Immediately, he’s bombarded with dozens of suggestions about all sort of areas, towns or villages. Everybody wants to share their own experiences. But I believe that it’s not helping the new member. At all. Why? Because it’s premature. To choose the right area for you, you need to start by asking yourselves the right questions. That’s what I call the first step.
YOUR CRITERIA
In my experience (and I have been doing this for 15 years) you should start with deciding what type of lifestyle you will want in France. Most of the time, that lifestyle is a function of your situation (if you’re still working, you’re retired, or if you have children) or your hobbies and social life. What are you looking for in France, really? How different is going to be from your current home country? The answer (or answers rather) to this question should lead you to your list of criteria, very important the criteria! You have the must-have criteria, the nice-to-haves and the absolutely-nots. Amenities, types of areas, transportations, everything that makes your daily life. Treat this as a brainstorming exercise! Make a list, talk it through with your spouse or partner and don’t forget your children as they are probably moving with you. That’s a fundamental first part of the exercise. This list will actually be instrumental in selecting the “right location” for you.
ENVIRONMENT
And then discuss whether you want to live in a large city, an average size city (in French terms), a small town, or a rural village; and decide if you want to leave near the sea or near the mountains.
DESK EXPLORATION
Once you have your lists, “test” the different areas or regions or cities that you had in mind when your started your search process. How does each one fit your criteria? This should help you zoom in a 3 or 4 French départements – out of 90 in continental France. Why département? Because most of the time they are large enough that you can have a variety of urban contexts and also landscapes in a single department. Administrative regions are too large: 5 in Brittany, 12 in Nouvelle Aquitaine or 13 in Occitanie. Focusing on départements is much productive because it forces you to learn about them in the first place! As well as access considerations, motorways, airports, train stations. And weather patterns too.
Then head on to Google Maps, and define your exploration zones, in each département. Then do a quick search of the cities, larger villages (or small towns): in general in France a large village is around 1,500 inhabitants, and a small town starts around 6/8,000. Wikipedia will help. Try and locate the pertinent tourism offices’ websites and let your mouse do the searching. Look up pictures online to “illustrate” the villages and towns and countryside.
BUDGET
An important “sub criteria” is your budget. Hear me out. For example, in Normandy or Brittany, the coastal zone is much more expensive than further in land. The same 150 m² “longère” (typical converted farmhouse) in move-in conditions in Brittany can cost 200,000€ in central Brittany and 650,000€ with a sea view. So if you can’t spend more than say 350,000€ I guess it’s not really worth your time to explore famous coastal towns like Deauville or Honfleur.
FIRST VISIT
Once you have pre-selected some “areas”, your next step is to prepare an exploratory visit – or two or three, depending on your context. Using your criteria, you should prioritize and organise your “tour”. During which your objective should be to visit as many places as possible – to get the feel, to sit down at café’s terrace and ask yourselves “Would we live here?” And you have to do it the most efficiently because your time budget is also limited. Obviously it’s not the same if you’re staying a week or 4.
That’s when you get on to the “incoming travel agent” stuff: the planning. In my experience you will need half a day to explore properly each village/town. Plan accordingly. That takes into account the drive times between areas (and you getting lost possibly!). Or else you can just “drive through” – that’s less efficient but is a function of the time you have. And sometimes even if you have the time, you wont feel like stopping at all! Then book accommodations. I suggest hotels, because you’re not really on holiday here; you don’t really have the time to look up the nearest restaurant or bar – you need to focus on getting a feel for the area. You want to be able to check in, get back in the car, eat in the hotel’s restaurant, and do it again – no time wasted.
Obviously if you already know some areas in France and you have already where you are going to “zoom in,” you’ve had already done a good part of the job. But you should still follow my method.
IMPORTANT THINGS:
Take notes:
Fill in a journal at the end of day, or even when you stop in bar! Really! Because if you don’t do that, very quickly all the villages will blend into one in your mind. Document for future reference!
Don’t forget the “couple thing:”
If you’re moving as couples, you both have to agree about the chosen area (and keep that in mind later when you choose a house). I have seen many situations where one partner didn’t really agree with the village (or the house) but waited until the last minute to let his opinion known.
Finally, you don’t need an estate agent at this stage. Because agents will (naturally) try and show you properties (micro level) whereas you currently are looking to choose a community (macro level).
Or, possibly, you could find an agent who would listen to you (on the phone), help you fine-tune your tour with relevant advice – and also show you 2 or 3 or 4 properties you really like online. This would help you gauge the delta between listing are reality – and help you determine what you can get for your money.
OTHER PEOPLE’S OPINIONS
Once you have done this, you should absolutely go onto online forums and Facebook groups and ask people what they think of the villages that have made a good impression on you. To me, that’s the right order: do your homework first, then ask other people’s advice.
And don’t forget expats communities (online or offline). In my experience – having witnessed it over the years – “expat groups” are usually very helpful to better learn an area, and later to start the integration process. Some people don’t help and will meet people easily – but not all. Where I live (Uzès near the Pont du Gard in the south of France) the “expat” community is solid and useful to most.
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