All suggestions welcomed!

[Locheelad]

We live in UK and own a house in Picardie.

Next year, we will move to France but being honest the weather in Picardie is not clever. That house will be sold and we will move south.

Suggestions welcomed therefore for areas and villages. More the merrier. There will be a gift for somebody if we end up in their suggested village - promise!! We have thoughts but you guys live there!

Some ideal world goal posts are:

must be within 2/3 hrs from a 'good' airport.

must be no more than say 6/7 hrs from Calais.

would prefer rural but within say 20 mins of a town with supermarket etc

must have some shops if a village. ideally add a bistro.

must be scenic etc  you know what i mean!

must be warm - am fed up of  two day UK summers and 6 month Picardie winters!

All suggestions welcomed! Who would want my wife and i as neighbours?  Guess there will be no replies now!

Thanks

Bob

[mint]

You sound like a hell of a nice chap, Bob, but definitely no, you wouldn't like where I live![:D][:P]

When I was househunting, I kept being told that for warm weather, you need to be south of the Loire.  So, you'd need to work out how far south you can go if you are to be no more than 6 to 7 hours from Calais.

[Chancer]

[quote user="Locheelad"]We live in UK and own a house in Picardie.

Next year, we will move to France but being honest the weather in Picardie is not clever.

Being honest it aint just the weather [:D]

That house will be sold and we will move south.

Smart move, dont have any recommendations but I wish you all the best, I'll be joining you when I have purged my pein [;-)]


[/quote]

[PaulT]

What an invitation your title has but I will ignore it.

Where we are in 31 it can be hot but it can also be very cold - just over two weeks ago we had the heating on in the evening.

[NormanH]

I thinl WB has a house for sale that might suit you....

[suein56]

Such a good idea Norman ...

http://www.green-acres.com/en/properties/68580.htm

and who better to come up with the way to get there !

http://www.the-vendee.co.uk/routes.htm

Edit : sorry can't do live links on my tablet

Sue

[woolybanana]

Thank you guys, very much indeed. If interested, contact via the ad site, svp or pm me.

[andyh4]

Wooly's house may well be the answer.

However just going south may not be the solution to your problems. From Valence (1 hour S of Lyon) you can just make Calais in your defined limits, but we get snow every year and frequently get winter temperatures well below zero.

[Pommier]

I would certainly consider WB's house, or around that area. Apremont is a very attractive little town with a lake and castle and it's within a few minutes drive of lovely coastline.

[Locheelad]

Evening all,

Thanks for your thoughts.

A few ideas to follow up here. We have to be realistic in that we would expect to have some sort of winter but hopefully it would not be drawn out and the summer would be longer and hotter than we would get in Picardie. We are located in the very north of the Somme.

I also think that initially we would rent very short term before firming up in an area. We are there in about 4 weeks so can continue the research then.

Thanks again for the thoughts

Bob

[idun]

[quote user="andyh4"] From Valence (1 hour S of Lyon) you can just make Calais in your defined limits, but we get snow every year and frequently get winter temperatures well below zero.[/quote]

WOW, same distance as we were from Calais and we always allowed 10 hours, have done it in less, but even viamichelin says 8hours 20............. ps I have been in someone's car who was speeding and telling me that they could get to Calais in 6 hours (which is where we were going), and that at the speed they were going they could have............only they were stopped and fined, because the gendarmes do[Www]

[andyh4]

You are right Idun

For some reason I had it in mind that the OP had specified 6/8 hours (instead of 6/7) and I reckon that (8 hours) is just do-able without risk of a fine. But only on a good day.

Viamichelin does seem to give real time estimates and I have looked at the same trip on different days and have received different timings for the same route. I doubt I could legally do Calais in 7 hours though, under any road conditions - well not without a plane.

[suein56]

[quote user="Locheelad"]

I also think that initially we would rent very short term before firming up in an area.

[/quote]

An excellent idea; you can even think of renting for the longer term even when you find the 'right' area. OH and I did just that as when we arrived in France in 2005 as our preferred area was in the midst of a price hike which did not begin to subside till well after the global banking crisis arrived in France from late 2008 onwards. We finally bought in 2012.

Hopefully it won't take you 7 years to find your 'coup de coeur'. [:)]

Good luck.

Sue

[Jonzjob]

[quote user="Locheelad"]Evening all,

A few ideas to follow up here. We have to be realistic in that we would expect to have some sort of winter but hopefully it would not be drawn out and the summer would be longer and hotter than we would get in Picardie. We are located in the very north of the Somme.

[/quote]

You could try advertising the house in the German press and estate agents Bob. They were trying to get land in the Somme a while back[Www][Www]

We are too far south for your 6/7 hour trip to the ferries, but even here we get a lot of sub zero winters. Last year, Feb time, we had a solid 2 weeks of sub 0 temps and it got down to -11ºC at one stage. We are not high at 150 metres either. We get snow most years and a few years back it appeared in MAY!!!

I don't think the rules have changed in 10 years, but when we moved over we rented on a contract of 2 years and spent time looking around to buy. The rule is/was that you can give 3 months notice to quit and it usually takes about 3 months from saying yes to a house and getting the keys. So it fits perfectly. The landlord has to give you a hell of a lot longer notice to quit and can't throw you out in the winter months, can't remember the limits? We were in our rental for 8 months having found our house after 5 months. Worked a treat for us [8-|]

[Ian]

Locheelad. Would that be Lochee, as in Dundee?

We're south of the Loire, as has been recommended. Department of Indre. Chosen to about under a day's drive from Calais.

Further south, in Limousin, it's much higher and winters are longer, summers are shorter .In general, summers here are comfortable to hot, winters are cold but short, spring and autumn are reasonably good.

Good luck

[Sprogster]

Bob,

I have a house on the Cote D'Azur, which is much further south than the travelling time you have specified. However, even on the Med my experience over the last 11 years is that the weather from the end of October to April is getting worse! There is no doubt that the Winters have become much wetter and colder, with far less sunshine than used to be the average.

As a result I know quite a few retirees and second home owners in France who reluctantly have or are considering moving to alternative warmer Winter climes, such as Morocco, Florida, Canaries,or Madeira. I say reluctantly because if it was not for the consistent poor Winters they would not have considered moving elsewhere.