Where to buy a flat in Cote D'Azur?

[lucieinlondon]

DH and I are hoping to buy a flat for my DM for her birthday. While she has lived in Britain since she married my late DF, she has always loved her home country of France and we often visited her hometown as I was growing up.

She enjoys the mild climate of Southern France and loves the sea. She still has her French nationality, so she can take up residence whenever she wants and for however long she wishes.

DM lives alone now. We want a place that is a manageable size, not too expensive but safe. She needs to be able to access shops conveniently. It should ideally be close to the sea. Good public transport is a must. We think that maybe parts of Nice will suit? Any Riviera towns

This thread is calling me poor, in French

Spose it depends on what counts as ‚not too expensive‘ for you. My impression is that anywhere within miles of the seafront is going to be pretty costly.
But you could do worse than Menton. It’s on thqt main coastal train line, but also has regular buses along the coast, into the Hinterland and into Italy. The cheapest decent apartments close to the seafront start at 4,000 euros per qm. I‘d want to go for a two room flat in one of the fancy converted 19th century hotels, where rich sickly Brits went to convalesce. It still has a bit of a genteel tone, very different from Monaco or St Tropez (and way cheaper too).

Would you consider adopting me and appointing me as your flat hunter? Fluent French, know the area as DP owned a small flat in Nice some years ago, and I could do with a benefactor!

Anyway, assuming you are genuine, you and Mother need to visit the area. Find a place that fits her needs and RENT something for a while to see the Summer and Winter vibe. Then buy.

Le Bon Coin website is good for rent and buy. As is FNAIM.FR - similar to Rightmove.

Get searching and visiting. Bonne Chance.

Not my intention. We want the best for DM of course

Thanks, I'm looking at Menton. DM will enjoy the local markets

Merci! I'll let you know if I have any queries. Nice to see someone who is familiar with the area

This cannot be real. For a start, why would you not ask your French mother where's best to buy a flat in France? 🤔

If she is French, she would probably have a strong idea of where she’d like to live…? Does she know the area..?

We haven't told her yet. We will reveal it to her when we actually have a flat or two for her to view. Of course, she will have to inspect them with us.

She not from a wholly different region

Assuming you're actually my daughter, I'd like Antibes please

I feel as if this poster should liaise with UHNW tax advisor AMA poster and see if they can't make this apartment tax efficient...

Fréjus/St Aygulf. Some very decently priced apartments for the region.

The mild climate of southern France? Has she been back there in recent years? Because I am from Nice and the summers are becoming intolerable IMO with more and more days sometimes hitting over 40 degrees in the arrière pays. I would not buy in the South of France these days because of rising temperatures

Further down the coast, Mandelieu-La Napoule and Théoule are also worth a look. Busy in summer as they all are but quieten down quickly. Lovely arts and culture programmes, markets etc.

It may be worth knowing that the trains routing through Menton are being systematically targeted atm by French immigration officials looking for migrants without the right papers who are using the trains to cross from Italy. Menton is a frontier/ border town and there is lots of pushing back by the french authorities - it makes for an uneasy atmosphere in places.

www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2023/10/14/on-the-french-italian-border-migrant-arrivals-increase-as-do-pushbacks_6173415_7.html

I would say to have a look at how steep the towns are. We were quite surprised by Villefranche-sur-mer, which is beautiful but is sort of on two levels - the road is much higher up the hillside than the harbour and there are shops in between as well as on the main road. Great public transport links but I could see that sort of steep-ness being an issue for an older person if and when mobility declines.

I agree with this.
We live in the Dordogne and summers are ridiculously hot and dry.
We now have subsidence.

Would your dm like Royan? It’s on the west coast.

If you draw a blank on the Côte d'Azur or the hotter summers are a problem, how about Rue Guynemer in Paris? And Monaco is always a good fallback - maybe Monte Carlo?

It is a very good point. Arcachon and/or Cap Ferret across the lagoon are both cooled by Atlantic winds and the sea is altogether cleaner.

And arcachon also flat, and on mainline TGV from Paris that has been upgraded so superquick journeys. Close also to Bordeaux which is lovely city to visit.