Is there a problem with Confolens?

[NormanH]

I am helping some English friends look for a place and I have been amazed at the quantity of properties in the area around Confolens, and especially how cheap they seem to be. For around 40,000€ there seem to be town properties is quite habitable condition.

Is there some major problem that I don't know about?  I don't know the area at all, but I do know that some people find small French towns very dull after a few years here..

I was thinking more of something major though.

[Bugsy]

There are a lot of English there Norman, a lot.

[mint]

I've been there once and I found the river very smelly but that was in the summer.

Generally speaking, I found many areas of the Charente (16) and Limousin (whatever number that is) very cheap for houses.

And I HAVE looked around those areas fairly extensively before buying both times.

[Anton Redman]

Start point an acre of land needs a horse. Then look at how much latter the drift from the land happended. both 87 and 16 have more homes than work 

[sid]

I haven't noticed a problem with the river at Confolens, or with the town; we picnic there every year with the grandchildren, just by the river, before an expedition on the Velorail.  I'm puzzled.  [8-)]

I don't know about lots of English people being there.... perhaps British would be more accurate ? [;-)]  [:D]

 

[powerdesal]

Is the presence of lots of English / British people considered to be a problem - if so, why ?

[Christine Animal]

[quote user="Anton Redman"]Start point an acre of land needs a horse. Then look at how much latter the drift from the land happended. both 87 and 16 have more homes than work [/quote]

 

Is my English getting that bad?  Did anyone understand that post?

One thing I do know, un hectare par cheval.

 

[idun]

I'm not sure what AR meant about an acre of land needing a horse.

But I did understand that there is usually a problem and often a bad problem if there are more homes than work.

[Anton Redman]

Posted in haste. Broadly pre mechanisation in order to intensively farm you needed about one horse per acre in the UK or France and each working horse needed a man controlling it. There were pull factors in the drift from the land such as availability of better paying less arduous factory work. There were also push factors with the increase in mechanisation, combine harvesters and tractors etc increasing the amount of land a man could look after and hence a decrease in farm jobs. The lack of primogeniture in France leading to constant sub division of farms also contributed to their drift from the land being much slower than in the UK.

Have a look at the change of population for for instance Vayres in 87

http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vayres_(Haute-Vienne)