House in St Cere

[sueinbushey]

We are travelling to France at the beginning of August to view various properties in Depts 46 and Southern 19. The one that has really caught our eye on paper is an old partly renovated house situated just outside St Cere (Northern Lot just south of the River Dordogne). Don't know this particular area - so can anyone shed any views on this area - anyone know any good or bad points, stories, on-going or proposed developments, crime rates etc, etc. Will obviously visit the Mairie when we are there but would like to hear any comments in the meantime.

Thanks Sue

[goose]

Sue, We've just bought in this area and we're very pleased. We're about 10 miles from St Cere, in 46 but very close to the border with 19. We did look at a house in St Cere itself but it was right on the main road and too noisy for us. Parts of St Cere can flood, ask the agents if the property is "inondable" - (or just steer clear of the river banks!) We drove around SW France for 3 months this spring looking for an area and one of the things we really liked about this area is that it is alive all year round, not a dormitory like so much of SW France. Its also very pretty of course. Beware though, it isn't "a place in the sun" in the depths of winter!

In St Cere high st there is an agency called tout immobilier with an english speaking agent called Matthew. He is very good at listening to what you want to view and only showing you stuff you want. We had previously viewed many unsuitable properties from other agents and he narrowed his selection down to 2 before we left the office, one of which we bought. Can't recommend better than that.

Good luck

Goose (yes really) and Tracie.

[Iceni]

We live above St Céré in the hills - wonderful. We have not heard that the town floods, we were here two years ago when we had a stream in our sous sol and St Céré did not flood (I joke not about the stream - 60 ruddy feet of it and have now discovered that the water is channelled to our basement from the field when it gets really bad...).

The town is fun in the summer, two late night markets in July and August (tourist stuff but nice) and weekend markets in the summer and twice monthly local rural markets all the year round. A great centre for art and there is an arts festival each year in July and August.

If you want to contact us when you are over, just send a pm to me before you come. We are renovating a barn and live here full time. The area is being discovered and prices are rising but I love the place all the year round - mind the winter is quiet but there are loads of small towns around which means that even in the winter there are markets to visit and people to see.

[goose]

Apparently the river that runs through the centre of town floods although I don't know if its happened recently. We looked at a house that overlooked the river nr the campsite and the agent warned us that the garden was considered to be at flood risk. According to the Tourist Office, the area used to flood regularly in days of yore and some clever Dutch engineer built a series of canals (now hidden beneath paving) to releive the flood waters. As long as you're not on the banks of the river itself it should be ok I would have though.

The fete de musiques, June 21st-ish, are good fun too, We got to the Biars and also Bretenoux ones this year. Apparently the St Cere one was rainy?

[sueinbushey]

Many thanks for the information regarding the possibility of flooding. We will certainly look into this aspect thoroughly before making any commitment. I assume, as you have said, that unless you are actually on the river bank, you will probably be OK - thanks to the Dutch!