anyone in south west France?

[anotherbadnight]

trying to engineer a move and as both self-employed can sort of choose, within reason, where we go. It needs to be an area with a decent amount of industry/ activity though. We are thinking SW - anyone know any nice, family-friendly towns we can aim for? Anyone know Toulouse for example? Or anywhere nearer the coast?

May not be far enough west for you, but we have just spent four years in Montpellier and loved it. Don't know how family-friendly I'd say it is (as can only compare with NZ or Luxembourg, both of which are better than anywhere in France as far I can tell), but the people were very friendly and it was near the sea. Do you have any specific questions? How old are your children and what would you want to do for them schooling-wise?

Have you considered Pau and the region around there? It is a wonderful place to live with lots for families

Toulouse is quite nice, lots going on as it's a big university town and the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales is there, so quite international.
I've not spent a prolonged period there for ages, though, so it may have changed.

But you really need to take your time, travel to the SW and look at places to see how they fit your requirements and taste.

hadn't checked this in a while and now you have probably all gone away!

Montpellier's lovely and we have been thinking about it, but I've been told unemployment there is worse than most areas in France.

I like the idea of Pau, have been through but never stopped, remember it being all steep hills and palm trees? Is it a good family place then?

And toulouse (or nearby) is where I am thinking of at the moment, just because it have lots of industry and workwise seems to be good - but it's a bit further than the coast than we wanted.

dcs are 2.5 and 4.5, they are pretty much bilingual and we'll be looking for a state maternelle for them - so would like to find a nice area with nice schools!

we are trying to find a medium-sized town, really. We'd like to be fairly near the coast too. we're planning to come out in the spring to house hunt and narrow down the search but would love to hear other people's thoughts.

Don't have anything to add about places to live - I guess it depends a lot on what field you work on and what you need around you for that.

Just one point about the schooling though - you may want to consider the private Catholic maternelle as well as the state ones. They tend to have a better reputation and are often not very expensive. We looked at both the state one and the Catholic one in our local neighbourhood and decided we felt more at ease with the Catholic one despite not being Catholic. It only cost 40 euros a month and was really very good, whereas I subsequently heard about problems with violence in the state one from a friend whose kids went there. Also, the state ones are done on a map basis so you are automatically assigned to one depending on your street, whereas the private ones you can choose (but often have to enrol early).

Good luck with the decisions and let us know where you end up!!

thank you!

I live in Bordeaux and love it.

Tis wonderful and not far from coast or mountains, tgv direct to Paris, flights cheapo to UK for marks and spencers crackers at Christmas. Very good state and private schooling and nurseries.

Have also (nearly) bought a house in the charente so can bang about that too, but would not recommend darkest france profonde for round ze year living.

ANOTHER french thread.

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