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a place in the country...


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Only just noticed this topic area existed! Have posted a couple of messages recently about moving to the SW in next couple of yrs. We are looking at a number of areas and will be doing a recce next Spring. Our shortlist at present includes Castres, Castelnaudary, Carcassonne and Foix (and the surrounding areas as we are still undecided about town, village or country living!). In the meantime if anyone living in this region could share their knowledge and experiences we would be pleased to hear from you.
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dibble, I think you will find a lot of the forum members are enjoying the outdoors at the moment, which may explain the low response to your previous post.

Hopefully, come the Autumn with the nights drawing in, activity on the forum will pick up a bit, as to my mind it has been unusually quiet. That said with the continuing decline of the £ and UK property market, the French dream for many has probably been postponed for the time being! 

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yes.

i was confused about south west and south east.

we are near perpignan - west of marseille and the posh folk of nice and so on. but we are east of bayonne and the atlantic lot.

so, apparently, we are south east.

i think that we should be south central!!
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There is a line called La Méridienne Verte which I have always thought runs down the middle of France. When we travel through the Aveyron, Albi - Rodez or Albi - Millau we see it. The towns you describe are definitely SW France. There is no south central but then there isn't a London NE1 etc either.
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Oops - I seem to have started a geographical debate!!! I just assumed that the south east was sort of east of the Camargue, meaning Provence, Cote d'Azure, French Alps and those sorts of places, leaving the south west to cover Languedoc, Midi Pyrenees and Aquitaine? but hey ho - I could be wrong! Nevertheless... back to business, east or west, can anyone help with advice on the areas I mentioned? PS thanks all the same for your responses to date - much appreciated.
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Nudging back to the subject of the original posting, I am happy to share our experience of that area. We picked out roughly the same locations and spent some time camping there. We finally settled for the edge of the Gers just North of the Pyrennees where we found exactly what we were looking for. The main downside of the area you mentioned is; it is a bit touristy (but that could mean more interesting) and we did find it rather windy (which I hate). The people we do know who live in the area chosen by the OP love living there.

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Dibble

Here is a site you might like to see about the area .... as you can see its an area full of things ranging from  from A to Z . So until you have had a good look at the area and fined down the area you want to be its very hard for others with very different ideas of where they want to live... to know what to tell you..... My best advice is get out there and look around .... when you find that village that takes your heart you will know [:)]

 http://www.frenchentree.com/fe-regions/DisplayArticle.asp?ID=451 

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hi Dibble

Oops, been off-line most of the summer due to lots of vizzies + good weather! [:D]

We live on the outskirts of Castelnaudary (just over 3 years now) so, if you're looking around this area next spring, get in touch + we can perhaps e-mail/meet up to swap info . . . it's a lovely part of the world to live in.

Sharon

PS, JK, you're deffo the class snitch . . . look forward to meeting you sometime if you're down this way visiting Twinkle! [B]

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Officially we are in the South East, but as the Paris Meridian, Le Meridean Vert, runs through Carcassonne you can take yer pick.

When we started to look at this area 4 1/2 years back we stayed in Mazamet in Feb. It had negative tempratures and a lot of snow! We looked round the end of the Black Mountains towards Revel and on towards Castelnaudry and were met with sunshine that got more so as we got nearer Carcassonne. That was it and we then started looking to the immediate North of Carcassonne but not too far or high into the mountains. We have now got our dream in the very West of the Mnervois and we love it here. I have arthritis in my hands and a buggered up back and this weather here suits me wonderfully. The Montane Noir gets lots of rain and we get very little, but we get their water [8-|][:D]!!

We didn't look South of Carcassonne because we decided that there were too many expats that way and we were not as keen on the country either. OK, before the S Carcassonne knives come out, if that's where you want to live then the very best to you [:D][blink]!

The history of this area has me spell bound, me who hated history at school. There is so much to learn and see and how they ever built some of the chataeu never mind attacked them, I will never know!

The wine! Wel the only thing I can say is all this wine and so little time, comparitively!! There is some of the best wine ever in this area. Some well known, Minervois, some never heard of outside the area, Carbardies, and that is the only AOC that is allowed to have a mix of the grapes from the Med region and the Atlantic region. Rich, dark and deep tasting wonders [8-|]...

A recap :- North of the Black Mountains much colder in winter than the South side in my humble opinion... Lots of lovely wine to the South too!

Edit :- Just had a look back and decided that my French smell ing is worse, if possible, than my English! Just as well that I never make mastikes?

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