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Winter weather?


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Hi all , it's been a long time since we started to think about a permanent move to France , but finally our UK house is on the market and we will be moving to France as soon as it's sold. We are thinking about the area around Cahors but are open to other suggestions. We have visited in late Spring and in the Summer and loved it but can anyone tell me what the average Winter is like in this area ?.
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While winters are shorter than UK, in the depth of winter temparatures in much of France can be below those in the UK. For instance we can get very cold in Lot et Garonne (fruit growing area) but it gets even colder in the Lot Valley (Cahors way). Hotter in summer and colder in winter basically.
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Yvonne,

If mild Winter weather is an important consideration for you and who does not want to minimise heating energy costs, I would suggest you spend a Winter in France before you commit to a permanent move.

My house is on the Cote D'Azur close to the sea and the Winter weather from the end of October through April is not good, being much wetter and colder than I anticipated. Recent Winters have seen much higher rainfall and less sunshine than average, presumably all part of the climate change that is going on.

Going inland and further north in France Winters get a lot colder and away from the influence of the Gulf Stream can be and often are colder than England.

France is very different in Winter and from what you have experienced in late Spring and Summer, not only because of the weather, but many rural and summer tourist areas can basically close down.
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I will give you the best advice you will every get, come down and rent for a year. This will give you plenty of time to see what it is like all year round and to look at properties with the view of buying. It's a lot cheaper to rent down here than it is in the UK. You might not like the area full time and decide to go further south and if you do rent again.
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And on a par with Alan, our boiler continued to work perfectly and we had no bursts, BUT the mains supply to the house (and 5 other properties dotted around the commune) froze 3 winters ago.

Carrying water from the community hall in 5l containers and having to shower and do our washing at friends became a chore. 19 days before we had a supply again.

Also not funny.

Extreme cases I am sure but it pays to be aware.
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Thank you to everyone who has commented on my post. I guess we'll have to be prepared for colder weather than we had thought. We have incredibly recieved an offer on our UK house just one week after putting it on the market so things are progressing a bit faster than anticipated ! . We would like to go down the renting route but have a big problem. We are breeders of Belgian Shepherd Dogs here in the UK and have seven of them . We would need to find a rural property to rent with a barn or stables that could be used as kennels for the dogs - how feasible is this ?, and is there an agency that specialises in this type of property ?
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According to the droit pages you are allowed a max of 9 dogs on one property as long as they do not make a noise or create any problems including sanitary and damage to neighbours (i.e. getting into areas of livestock). You would need to seek permission to set up a breeding kennels so best to speak to the Maire where you find a property. My own dog came from a breeder who specialised in three breeds and they were situated miles from the nearest neighbour and town/village so as not to disturb anyone.
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Thanks Val, that's really useful information. Our plans are to rent initially for around 6 months to give us time to find the right place. We would need a very rural place with around 1 hectare of land, a decent sized outbuilding or garage and no near neighbours in any area of Aquitaine up to €250,000 to buy or € 800 per month to rent. The property does not need to be big but it does need to be in good condition.
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