France

Try the South West of Franec near the Pyrenees. If we ever moved there, it's where we'd go. Towns nearby are St Jean de Luz and Biarritz.

Completely not in the areas you've suggested, but my MIL has just moved to Suisse-Normande/Calvados area. About 45mins from Caen airport and Ferry terminal. Is also on the train line to Paris from Argentan.

They have the most fabulous farmhouse, 7 acres of land, lovely neighbours. The surrounding area is beautiful. If they didn't live there, I'd move in an instant ?

Sorry that my info on Italy rather ruined your plans ?

France - I'd be looking at the Limousin region, although it might be a little too remote in terms of airports etc.

Thanks for those, I'll have a look. I feel a bit like we are sticking a pin in a map at the moment so it's good to have some suggestions!

I'm quite pleased that France is an option as my French is far better than my Italian.

I'm going to France on holiday tomorrow! I haven't been for years so really looking forward to it. I can't offer practical advice re living there but I can offer lots of photos of beautiful scenery and reports of lovely food and drink to whet your appetite if that helps? ?

Not at all Boop, it's good that we looked into that side of things. On paper is sounds pretty grim for dogs in Italy and it would make H's life harder as the dogs would be a big part of his lifestyle. Being able to take them to cafes, shopping etc is a must as he's going to be on his own at least two weeks a month. So, thanks for pointing me in that direction!

It also makes sense for me to be able to get over here via train is needs be. I can't rely on planes 100% of the time. We'd just never considered France as an option really but now it's top of the list.

Hello. I live in the jura which is about an hour and a half north of Lyon airport. Its a beautiful area and normally has good sun in the summer and snow in the winter, very rural (maybe too rural?). House prices aren't expensive and France is also experiencing a slow-down in the market so expect it to get cheaper. Otherwise there is l'Ain which is very similar, less moutinaous but even closer to the airport. Both are very well connected by train to Paris and will be even better with the new superfast trainline going down. Towns like Bourg en Bresse are quite large but due to proximety of lyon more expensive. Other than that is the drome area south of lyon but I don't know it very well (yet!). Sounds like I am trying to sell you it!

What? WHAT?!?! I know you were umming and aahing about this but I thought it was all a bit hypothetical and now you're talking about visiting and short lists?!?!

Nooooooooo!!

[CBH rushes off to the kitchen to seek solace in a cupcake]

That's great thanks, good to hear from someone that lives there. I'm not sure anywhere could be too rural for H, he'd live in a cabin in a forest if I let him ?

Move near me so we can hitched meets! What you describe is exactly where we live - about an hour from Toulouse. Not full of ex-pats but proper France, we have about 50 acres but don't use most of that so rent it out. It isn't traditional holiday country so prices are great - not too far from the mountains for skiing in winter and the coast is near for summer. I communte back to the UK all the time via eurostar and is easy-peasy.

CBH I'll fill you in over a cupcake next week. Anyway, you are looking to bugger off to Australia or somewhere equally glam in the not too distant future. Plus, I'll be here for at least two weeks a month, I may even need to kip on your lovely new sofa ? The more we look into it the better it seems for us and can offer us exactly what we want. It may well all fall through, you never know!

Thanks Jess, I'll hover over on BT and see if I can spy her (I'll be keeping my legs crossed incase I get ht with that dust).

Then seriously look at the southern part of the Jura (closer to the airport) (St. Claude) and the Ain just south of it. Prices may be a bit higher because you're also close to geneva (an hour over the mountains). Very foresty too! I love it here and the people have always been very friendly to me (my financé is from here though), not too many expats either!!! I love it here but maybe I am a bit simple! Unfortunatly they're not translated but look at the piccies!

https://www.jura-tourism.com/

https://www.ain-tourisme.com/website/fr/index.asp

It is ok I am here - stay away from that BT dust it is addictive! Mant to say dogs are welcome everywhere in this region including inside shops, bars and cafes etc but there are regarded as working animals rather than pets, which I don't see as a bad thing.

[CBH kicks hound off sofa and hastily dusts it]

Actually, because it's you, you could have the spare room! ?

Have the boys got their pet passports sorted out? I think it takes about six months for them to go through the process so might be worth looking into this if you haven't? You know I'll support you in whatever you choose to do - I have to admit I'm liking the idea of having a visiting friend coming over from France every couple of weeks - I mean, come on - you can pack a few bottles of wine in your bag, right?!

Australia will depend on a job offer - I think with you behind this move and not relying on waiting for somebody else to make a decision - you can drive this forward and make it happen a lot quicker than we can.

I think the life you have described before Viva is pretty much H's ideal. He'd love a HFW way of life. It's good that you commute easily, that's the biggest thing for me really, I need to know I can work. We hadn't thought of that side of France but looking at the map it's the area we used to go when I was a kid.

I'll also look at Jura, the pictures on that website look amazing!

It's really quite exciting! I am sure I'll be picking your brains as we go through the process, I hope you don't mind.

My parents have a house in Brittany about an hour south of St Malo. It seems so big over there! The have a renovated house which they've done and a huge field in a small hamlet so going to any big shops is a day out ? Children love it though and my parents take their two dogs each time they go over and they have the run of the field.

One thing is handy if your French isn't brilliant is that around these areas where you have a lot of English is that usually between your bad French and the English that the locals have learnt you tend to get by ?

We've seen the vet today and they are having their injections next month. They then have to wait a month, have a blood test and if that comes back ok, they are free to travel (if not then the process starts again). They then have to have another bloodtest after 6 months which they can have in France. So really, we should be fine for around October time, although we'll maybe leave it to the end of the year so we have a better idea on what my earning will be. We'll most likely go over in October for a coupe of weeks to look at areas and housing.

It's good for them to have a passport anyway so even if we don't go it's worth doing so they can travel with us.

Poochanna, if you're going to be selling in Quinton I can give you lots of advice on local estate agents, we're currently weighing up our third (can't decide which icon to insert - ? or ?)!

This is a very interesting thread to me as <whispers> we're moving to France too <whispers>

It will be within the next 12 months - poss slightly longer if I am pregnant again - and will be a permenant move.

We are looking at Limoux

We aren't going to sell, we will rent this house out and rent in France for 6-12 months to see how it goes, just incase we hate it. Plus this house is a really good investment so would be silly to sell at the moment. Looking around there are lot of places to rent, especially over the winter so hopefully that should be fine to begin with.

I take you, you are having EA issues?

Ooooh, another mover! I'd love to take the leap and just go but I'm worried how I'll find the commuting so a soft launch is what's needed ?

Viva, the penny has dropped. If you are over on BT, you must have caught some of that dust, congratulations!

We go to a place about 30 mins from perpignan. its ideal in som many ways. less than an hour to spain, 90 mins to barcelona, 45 to girona, couple of hours to toulouse etc. you have the beach, and the mountains are an hour away on the other side. the climate is fantastic, even better than provence, and property is not particularly expensive at all. sea front villa around 350,000 euro, as opposed to over a million on the cote d'azur. you can fly to/from perpignan or girona. ring me and i ll tell you about the village we re in if you want.

We've got some friends who live in the Languedoc, if you go quite a way in land it's much cheaper apparently than near Montpellier! They're about an hour from Carcassonne/half an hour from Beziers. Not so good for farming as it's all vineyards round there, but depends on if you're into that sort of thing...! It's roasting in the summer but not far from the coast so easy to cool off.

Any info just ask. My H used to see himself as HFW now he hates him mainly because he made it look easy and it ain't! It is great fun though and I don't regret it for a single second. I travel to the UK about one a month for work, it helps then we have a house just outside London so I don't need to bother with baggage etc. If you live in France then for some reason Eurostar is cheaper than if you are based in the UK - I don't know why! I would say you need to speak a bit of the lingo. I'm lucky in that H is fluent (he is half-French) but I really struggled at first but you need to make the effort in order to be accepted by the locals even if they end up talking to you in English at least you started out trying to speak French. There is one family in the village who still speak English all the time (they have lived here for a couple of years )and they are referred constantly to as "The English" - whereas we are just know by the name of our farm. Here are some photos of our place to try and tempt you... http://www.photobox.co.uk/my/album?album_id=25128650

Fabulous, loads of ideas! Thanks so much.

I have to bugger off to a meeting now but will come back to this later (with loads for questions no doubt!)

Nick, you around tomorrow? I'll call you.

Thanks - I'm on my second lot of dust in just over a year! Yes I am mad.

I m free to talk after 1:30 and before 6.

you should buy a great book too, called "more france please, we re british", by helena someone or other, i forget her surname. read that and still see if you fancy it. it gives a great insight into the tax issues and the further issues of running a business from france, employing people etc.

That sounds like a plan. Yes, we're struggling - we're on joint agency at the moment but one in particular has been terrible - put it in the paper four weeks running with the wrong address, despite us correcting them every week, lost the internal photos etc etc. We're thinking of renting it out now too but we've dropped 22k in 6 months for two viewings. It's a long and gruesome story! Rentals are really moving quickly at the moment.

Have you thought about Haute Savoie? Alpine so it might not be the kind of rural you are after, but there's Geneva airport, as well as a host of smaller ones during the ski season. Geneva airport has a French side so you don't always have to go through Swiss customs etc.

If you look anywhere near Geneva (Jura, Haute Savoie) you can come and stay with us! And St Genis has the best patisserie in France - it's won awards and everyfink!

The Jura, from just outside our garden, looks fab!

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ninjapotato/1131013136/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ninjapotato/2338066311/

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ninjapotato/2338900328/

I'm so envious! I love France! My parents in law have a house just outside of Nice, which is beautiful, but if you want more of the countryside, I would definitely recommend the Vaucluse/Avignon area. You can get the TGV straight to Avignon and Nimes airport has most of the budget airlines travelling there. Orange and Avignon are beautiful roman cities, and the countryside outside is just breathtaking. You have the benefit of skiing in the winter/glorious summers and everyone is so friendly. We stay in village called Ville Sue Auzon near Mont Ventoux (husband's a bike nut) but there are loads of villages around there. Going to Bedoin in a few weeks actually. Lovely Provencal areas, a little more reasonable than the main drags but with good links. I would also recommend around Perpignan though. We were over there last year, just as a stop over to Spain so didn’t really have very high hopes but the city itself was so much more than we expected. Good links, amazing food and some beautiful scenery on the drive over (from Montsegur). From there we got the train to Girona, which was only a short hop (we stopped in a place called Collioure on the border which looked particularly nice), then from Gerona, the coast around there is beautiful. Places like Tamariu, Begur and Agua Blava (obviously Spain but easily doable for a weekend, or even the day)

Ooo good luck. I am so envious it is untrue. Unfortunately our jobs mean we can’t work outside of the UK, but if we could we’d be over to France like a shot!