Rieux Minervois - What's it like?

[Lori]

Came across this house.  Does anyone know this area?  Curious.  Will do a bit of research, but if anyone is familiar with the area, can you say if this is a normal price for this type of house?  And what is the area like?

If it was located in the Vaucluse, you'd have to add around 100,000€ to the price tag.

https://immo-minervois.com/biens/?ref=R1868

[NormanH]

One of our regular posters lives very close, ( I leave it to him to comment if he so wishes) and Judith probably know the area too.

I used to go through the village every couple of weeks too.

It is not far from Carcassonne which is a bit of a dump despite the touristy  "cité", and the coast isn't  far either.

Béziers and Narbonne are the other two urban  centres. Béziers is being cleaned up by having the façades washed but its soul stays dirty. Narbonne is a bit nicer.

There is a strong 'gitan' presence in the area, so look out for camp sites.

I have no  idea about prices since it is way out of my league.

[Lori]

Thank you Norman.  I have received a very informative note from the poster I presume you are referring to.  I am about to reply to him in a minute.

We have never liked Carcassonne, but I admit it has been many years since we were last there.  Just never did appeal to us, nor did la cité.  What an awful thing they did to that area.  My opinion only of course.

I don't know Beziers or Narbonne well.  Have only driven through or around Narbonne and never been to Beziers.  It is good to know what these places are like as we have wondered about them.  We have discounted Nimes as we know it suffers so many problems.  I know there are likely a few decent suburbs of Nimes, but since we don't know which ones they are, we just took a pass on the whole thing.  Plus, even if they are decent now, the problems seem to great that I could see them extending into what might be decent now, corrupting it.

Do you see Beziers in the same way we see Nimes?  Narbonne also?

If we were already down South, we would definitely drive over to have a look at the house I linked as it just looks a bit too good to be true.  There is always a reason, but having not visited it, we don't know what the reason is.

This is such a helpful forum.  I always get such wonderful help here.  Thank you all !

[Gardengirl]

Lori, I don’t know the area at all, but the property looks good and at an affordable price.

However, I wouldn’t write off Nîmes at all - we have many friends there, French, Dutch and English, some right in the centre and others right out beyond the suburbs, with properties in a range of prices.

Our apartment is in a small town not far from the Pont du Gard, so not far from Nîmes and Avignon. In normal times we go into Nîmes fairly often, usually by bus, meeting up with friends who live there and in surrounding areas for outings, meals etc. The facilities there are excellent.

[NormanH]

Béziers is like Nîmes without the Roman bits, but with even more social problems and drug-dealing.

In both la Corrida has a massive following (and YES they DO kill the bulls) and in Béziers there is nostalgia for the period in the 70s when there was a winning rugby club.

This combination of Blood, Violence, cultural and economic deprivation, with an unhappy mix of pieds noirs and the very Algerians who expelled them but have now migrated to live in the tower blocks  means that there the newly cleaned façades are like whited sepulchres..

[cajal]

I would say this is it: HERE

Edited to add agents photographs. Click on the string of images at the bottom, on the site, to show enlarged image.

If you look at the agents photo 2  and the street view, both the rear of the property, you will notice the similarities. The shrub against the wall and the lower roof to the left.

Also, if you look at the agents photo 4 and the satellite view  HERE you will see the solar panels on the higher roof are identically laid out in both images.

The images of the pool, far-end right, both show the dimensions to be wider to accommodate the steps.

The address is:

8 Chemin de Laval

La Redorte

Occitanie

Hope that helps.

[NormanH]

Some of the land around there is liable to flooding, but I don't know enough detail to see it that lotissement is concerned.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xF615F0YYQg

A Plan

https://www.laredorte.com/ppri-plan-de-prevention-risques-dinondation-bassin-de-largent-double/

[Judith-aka-Judith]

Sorry, Lori, busy day.

Yes, NormanH is right, it is not that far away.  La Redorte, in the pictures offered above, is not Rieux Minervois, but we do have to drive through La Redorte to get to it from us .. we are a bit nearer to NormanH in Beziers .. It is a pleasant town, though I have not stopped much, usually drive throught it, it is close to another village  Peyrac Minervois (both quite large) all three ribbon developments.  Rieux is well known for its 7-sided church.  Cannot honestly say about flooding, but all this region in the plain of the Languedoc can suffer.  Its largest nearest big town is indeed Carca, but it's not as bad a people make out, I have known worse, including NormanH's Beziers (my bête noir).

Since I cannot determine which house you are referring to, I cannot judge the price, but then, since I have not looked at house prices now for 10 years, I could not judge their accuracy now. 

Ask more if you want .. plenty of retirees, plenty of ex-pats (or whatever you wish to call them!) but that is typical of the whole region.

[nomoss]

[quote user="cajal"]

I would say this is it: HERE

Edited to add agents photographs. Click on the string of images at the bottom, on the site, to show enlarged image.

If you look at the agents photo 2  and the street view, both the rear of the property, you will notice the similarities. The shrub against the wall and the lower roof to the left.

Also, if you look at the agents photo 4 and the satellite view  HERE you will see the solar panels on the higher roof are identically laid out in both images.

The images of the pool, far-end right, both show the dimensions to be wider to accommodate the steps.

The address is:

8 Chemin de Laval

La Redorte

Occitanie

Hope that helps.

[/quote]

Well spotted. You have more patience than me.

The stream which was to blame for the 1999 flood in la Redorte was the Argent-double, to the NE of the town, which was blocked by debris, flooded across open fields into the canal, and increased its level until it overflowed, just reaching the very lowest waterside properties. Only an area about 250 metres uphill from the canal was affected, just

beyond the old railway bridge, where the level reached about a metre

above the road.

The Rec de Naval, to the SW of the town, seemingly misnamed as Laval in the street name - caused the flood of 2018. The reason for this was because it flows through a pipe under the canal in the port, which became blocked with debris and made the stream overflow into the canal, which has an embankment stopping water flowing out of the canal along its downhill side.Again, the canal absorbed the excess water, and the level barely reached the lowest properties.

The Rec flows past the end of the property to the SW of the house for sale, but there is no chance of flooding there because of the slope towards the canal, the high banks of the Rec, and the fact that excess water runs into the canal and only slightly increases its level.

I wish this house had been available at today's price when we bought our place in 2010!

[Judith-aka-Judith]

As you say NoMoss. The Argent double causes problems further downstream too .. too many rivers all descending from the hills (in both directions for us) to one or two spots .. we have 3 rivers plus the canal du Midi in our locality ..

[Lori]

You guys are amazing !  What eagle eyes you have Cajal.  Yes, that is the house !  Looks awfully close to the Ruisseau de Naval to me, but I know so little about the area, other than what you folks have told me - which is kinda scary.  So, between Argent Double and Ruisseau de Naval (being much closer to Naval).

That youtube video would scare the heck out of anyone !  If this area is known for flood zones, we would have to look elsewhere.

I think I can look up the address, since I now have it (thank you Cajal) to see if it is listed as being in a flood zone.  That, of course, would make it a deal breaker for us.  It could also explain the price, but then that could be for many other reasons too.

[mint]

I don't know if my comment would be relevant in the case of this house and, if it is not, please just ignore it, Lori.

A brief look at the map shows me that the house is quite near a supermarket.  It's probably worthwhile to check out on delivery routes to the supermarket.  Years ago, a friend bought a house near Cognac in a residential area.  However, they soon discovered that supermarket deliveries would thunder past their house every morning from about 5 am.

I have noticed that in France many "zones of activities" seem to be mixed; for example, residential cheek by jowl with light industrial and lorry parks and commercial outlets practically in the midst of housing estates.

[nomoss]

The flood zones atlas for the Aude is here [url]http://www.aude.gouv.fr/atlas-des-zones-inondables-azi-par-bassin-versant-a9483.html[/url]

It's a bit clunky, but if you click on the link for the atlas, then choose the article "Aude (11,34,66), then scroll down, you can launch the CD of the area.

Choose 1/10000 scale sections, click on the bit you want on the subsequent chart, and you will get a more detailed map. The legend is on a pdf accessed from the top.

[Lori]

Thanks for all this info.  Mint, that is always something I look at.  In this case, the house looks sandwiched enough between other properties and off the road enough that it shouldn't be too bad.

For whatever reason (unknown), I cannot get that CD of the zones to open for me Nomoss.  Just stays on a blank screen.

I did find this site which is somewhat helpful. 

https://www.georisques.gouv.fr/mes-risques/connaitre-les-risques-pres-de-chez-moi/rapport?form-adresse=true&isCadastre=false&ign=false&codeInsee=11190&lon=2.648098&lat=43.251265&CGU-adresse=on&adresse=8+Chemin+de+Laval%2C+11700+La+Redorte#details_cat_nat

I guess it is all a bit of a study project at this point as we cannot move until we have been vaccinated.  And, this house will be long gone by then.  We will keep an eye on the area though.

[NormanH]

Did you try the plan I gave the link to before?

https://www.laredorte.com/ppri-plan-de-prevention-risques-dinondation-bassin-de-largent-double/

Most places should have such a plan which is  something consult wherever you are looking.

[nomoss]

[quote user="Lori"] .................. For whatever reason (unknown), I cannot get that CD of the zones to open for me Nomoss.  Just stays on a blank screen. .............................[/quote]

When you click on the link "Lancez le CD de l’Atlas des Zones Inondables"

You should get this (click on it to enlarge) :

[url=https://postimg.cc/mzqBs5G5][img]https://i.postimg.cc/mzqBs5G5/Aude-basin-floodable.jpg[/img][/url]

Clicking on "Découpage ... 1/10000" should give this:

[url=https://postimg.cc/hQdgP1DP][img]https://i.postimg.cc/hQdgP1DP/Aude-basin-towns.jpg[/img][/url]

Then, clicking on La Redorte will give this, which can be zoomed with the scroll wheel for more detail :

[url=https://postimg.cc/2bPRJLQp][img]https://i.postimg.cc/2bPRJLQp/Floods-La-Redorte-crop.jpg[/img][/url]

At the top of the map at some point there is a link for the legend.

The pale blue area is the largest extent of any flood.

[Lori]

Yes Norman, I did look at your link and near as I can tell, your link shows the house in the RI3 (dotted red) zone.  Nomoss's link shows the house in the blue zone.

The house is located just above where the Naval splits.  So, way too close for comfort for me.  The maps are really very helpful.

I wonder how many people actually care about this type of thing.  Having owned a few homes over the years, we are very aware of property slopes, any nearby water, unusual weather patterns (flood zones, fire zones, hurricanes/tornado, earthquakes, etc.), any nearby commercial issues, such as sewage / water treatment plants, dechetteries, garbage dumps, etc.  Of course, you can't escape everything, but we do take note of the level of all these things.

The flood zone risk for this particular house seems to by higher than we would would like.

It seems such a nice house, I'm sure someone will come along who is less concerned.  But, it MIGHT explain the price, which after a good bit of research in the same department/area seems like a good one.

Thank you all.

[alittlebitfrench]

I would think long and hard about moviong to the south of France.

What Norman has mentioned is only spreading across the whole area. It is only going to get worse.

You could not pay me enough to live in those areas.

Go North OP. The weather is the same.

[Lori]

Thank you ALBF.  I appreciate any and all advice.

We still are focused on moving back to the department we lived in for 14 years (the Vaucluse). We know it very well and are aware of its positives and negatives also.

We are just teetering on whether to rent or buy and looking around, out of curiosity to see where you might be able to get more house for your money.  All this knowing that cheaper house prices are cheaper for a reason.  Takes time and research to figure out the various reasons.

As of today, we are leaning towards purchasing something.

We would never stay where we are as the weather, for us, is terrible. The cost is enormous here and it is extremely over populated.  It has its benefits, but the negatives are weighing heavily over the positives.  We wanted to give it a try and we have.  Just not for us.

The thought of going North of here (and staying in France) is just out of the question.  Not too much area north of here anyway.

[NormanH]

A couple of useful sites

1) https://app.dvf.etalab.gouv.fr/

You can see the real prices paid for sales (although it is not quite up to date) rather than the prices asked

2) L'internaute has lots of information on individual towns including readers' reviews:

here is the  link for Béziers   (use the left hand menu to navigate)

http://www.linternaute.com/ville/beziers/ville-34032

but you can search for any other

[anotherbanana]

Lori, you are a nomad, a bedouin traveller. Barely unpacked and off again.

I think ALBF meant somewhere on the Loire or close to it. Also a good area.

[NormanH]

France begins once you are south of the Loire...

[alittlebitfrench]

@ Norman...France does not begin or end anymore.

If you want France 'France'...move to South Kennsington.

I was not thinking north north.

I was thinking in between the Loire and Lyon.

Anywhere south than Lyon.....is ummmm...a.....ummm...no.

[anotherbanana]

South Kensington is only for rich French and those who run their own business free of French vindictive administration and taxes.

[Judith-aka-Judith]

Lori

Ignore some of those  snarky comments from people who probably have not lived in those places mentioned. I have lived in central London, S Ken is OK, but not for me central, but full of the French as is said.  "Down here" is full of many places not all of which flood, lots of "hill villages", just down the road from where you are looking.  I can only advise, to come and look before buying anything, each village is its own little "paradise", and just like the Vaucluse, which I do not know but will likely be similar, there are good and bad places.  I  have friends in La Redorte, where your seen house is, next to but not the same as Rieux Minervois .. but it is not where I would want to be.

If you do decide to come down to look, I would be happy to show you around, .... there are many villages around here to look at .. and not all in the flood plain either .. 2 within 3km of our own village for example, both very popular .. locals do tend to know the "flooding villages" and liove with the "risk" because it is where they want to be. And know the regularity of it also.  Taking 1999 as an example is not useful, that was a year with unusual circumstances and villages that had never before flooded did so.  Local knowledge knows best, and also, anywhere can flood, burn down, etc etc,as they say, past happenings are no indicator of the future!