If you could buy a small holiday home in france where would it be and why?

[user746016]

We are tentatively thinking about doing this but I don't know France particularly well and not really to even enough to start narrowing it down. Which region would you look at? It would initially be to spend the summer months and christmas but ultimately to spend part of the year there when we retire.

We obviously need to do lots of scoping trips but I'm struggling to get off the starting blocks. Im randomly looking at properties online..

I love Gers, good weather, beautiful area and within easy reach of Toulouse.

Areige, Lot and Limoges Périgord.

500k would get you something very nice, enjoy it!

We’ve had a small holiday home in the southern French alps (05200) for 20 years. It’s not a well know area for Brits but we love it. Family thought we were mad but all visit regularly.

Why there?
Your money will go further. The property but also general cost of living. A coffee is €1 to €1.50.
You can ski
300 days of sun a year
its at 800m so never gets too hot. We don’t have or need AC.
Not many Brits
You have to speak french
The views are to die for

What are your criteria, OP? You have a healthy budget and have already done more research than most of the naysayers who pop up on this kind of thread not hard. City or country? North or south? Lots of land? House or flat? For example.

I used to have a place in Samoens and it was lovely summer and winter.

Are you seriously calling troll on a property thread?

Many second generation immigrants speak their parents' language and/or are unfamiliar with at least one country which speaks that language. It's not particularly odd.

I've got a place in Morlaix. Brittany Ferries goes from Plymouth to Roscoff and Morlaix is a 35 minute drive from Roscoff. It's very easy to get to and fro from, lovely coast, friendly neighbours and lots of stuff to do.

This or Juan les Pins

I don't think I'd buy in France although I adore the place. Too much responsibility and terror that something might go wrong when not there. Add property taxes and taxe Fonciere, insurance, TV, internet, utilities, cleaning, maintenance and much more. So for me, I'd just rent somewhere for a month+ at a time and try out different regions/areas each time.

However, if ever I was really rich and wouldn't blink at the cost of a second home, my three places in France would be -

Brittany/Normandy
Aude Region
Perpigan area
Bayonne.

Four places obv!

Not even vaguely angry - just find it bizarre that you're troll hunting on this sort of thread.

I said we've been 7 or 8 times. These have been holidays together/as a family. I actually went twice as a fairly young child too but have only vague memories and I also went to Paris for the weekend with a former boyfriend 32 years ago. It's more times than I personally have been to any other single country. I said right from the outset of the thread that I don't know France particularly well. It was the whole point of the thread..

DH has been more than me since he has been skiing every year of his life since he was 2 (quite often in France) but has been skiing on those trips rather than exploring the area.

There are lots and lots of people who have studied languages to A Level and it's very easy nowadays to improve your language skills through things like duolingo. I actually said I'm "reasonably good". My understanding is far better than my written or spoken french.

DH's mum made a point of only speaking to them in French. It was her thing. It really isn't uncommon to raise bilingual children.

Whether I'm fibbing about having A level French though really isn't the point of the thread.

Normandy. Beautiful scenery,tranquil,fab local produce and near to UK fir quick trips. Houses also pretty cheap.

This and £200 000 would be plenty for a decent place Covray is nice! Near Poitiers airport etc

Civray

We had a place for several years until covid I. charentes. Loved it. I disagree with pp about I'll de Re, it's a pita in summer. Which is presumably when youd want to go. We were near D'Oleron and the bridge there was bad enough.

We would take the tunnel. Ddog wouldn't have wanted to be kenneled. Not sure if the rules are still the same. I know it's harder than it was to get them over and make sure wherever you choose is relatively near a vet if you still need the worming treatment in the way home.

Tbh your money would go pretty far in most areas so I wouldn’t sink all your budget into a property investment wise. Ignore me if you are a multi millionaire though and returns aren’t important!

We have a small chalet in the Alps and it's perfect. Ski and play on the snow in the winter. But summer is when it's at its best. We walk in the mountains, eat on the lakeside and then swim in the lake.

We own it but DH and his DB's families all use it and various of us have spent whole summers there. So it's not rented out but I imagine would get a good return on the ski season. The only downside is how long it takes to get there, as we usually drive.

DMIL has a house in the Var. if you have a very large budget and love the heat, it's absolutely stunning there.

If access by air is at all important be careful of buying somewhere near one of the smaller airports that are served by maybe just one or two airlines.

Route networks change, airlines can pull services and if that happens access can get difficult to close to impossible, especially for those wanting to just hop over to their cottage on a Friday night for a weekend break.

That certainly happened to a few Brits who bought in France during the LoCo driven departmental airport boom years in the nineties/early noughties.

For me it would depend on location accessibility and mode of travel to get there eg if I was going to drive somewhere not too far south

You can have mine for the summer if you want it! It’s too hot and there are loads of mosquitoes. We normally go home to cool, mizzly NI.
Seriously though, loads of upkeep ( the weather is wearing ), taxes, paying for a gardener because everything grows so fast. If you have a pool, it takes a lot of tending. And then if you have teenagers, they will want to holiday elsewhere.Every region has its advantages and disadvantages too - too far north is very like the UK climate, too south and it’s boiling and crowded in the summer. Or else boiling and empty.
You actually need several houses. Or some lovely rentals.

@pinkhousesarebest
While I love our chalet, I agree with a lot of that.

We have a good climate (avalanches notwithstanding) but it's a very time consuming hobby, you have to love French bureaucracy because there's tons of it. It's a nightmare to get tradesmen or even a straight answer on anything (and I'm bilingual) And you'll spend half your holiday in M Bricolage.

We love our house, but it helps that we didn't actually pay for it (except in the blood, sweat and tears of dealing with the French inheritance system) and everyone in the family mucks in with upkeep as part of the deal.

With teens, we tend to go twice a year, once for skiing and once in the summer, but we make sure we travel to other places too. They love visiting and have friends there but it would be boring for all of us to limit our holidays to one house in one party of one country.