For our family, the number one priority when looking to buy a house in France, was the weather. Much of England’s green and pleasant countryside is extremely beautiful but only because it rains so much! Ideally we wanted a contrast to our life in England and also to be able to go swimming every day. So when considering which area of France to choose we wanted plenty of sunshine, clean rivers and proximity to the sea.

 

I was advised that anywhere south of Limoges, the weather is consistently hotter and drier than elsewhere in France. Even so, there are pockets of the south where it rains a great deal; like in the Cevennes, a range of mountains in south-central France made famous by Robert Louis Stevenson in his book “Travels with a Donkey in the Cévennes”, which cover parts of the départements of the Ardèche, Gard, Lozère and Hérault. This good advice led us to look even further south and so the Corbières and Aude region appealed above others as house prices and living costs were considerably more affordable than in Provence and the Cote d’Azur. People have christened the area “the other South of France” and as an alternative to the Cote d’Azur it has excellent credentials. The region’s tourist offices never fail to miss an opportunity to stake the claim that “we have over 300 days of sunshine a year” which is clearly a positive sign. The Mediterranean Sea is just as warm and beautiful “round the bend” from Marseille so why pay between 25 and 50 percent more for everything and be hemmed in by too many tourists in expensive and showy glitterati resorts like Nice, Saint Tropez and Cannes? The beaches here with their golden sand are just as pretty as the ones in Provence with far less people on them.