http://www.completefrance.com August 2019 French Property News 27
The figure is even higher for expats in
France, a whopping 37% of whom are single,
according to the Internations network. Eleven
years ago, Annette was one of them. Today, she
lives in the same Hérault village, only now she
shares a 200-year-old house with her partner
Miles and their two dogs Skype and Duffy. She
still remembers, however, what it was like to
single-handedly build a new life abroad. So,
with Annette’s help, here is our guide to an
independent life in France.Taking the plunge
A great advantage of going it alone with French
property is that you can be nimble. Don’t like
your home? Change it. Don’t like your location?
Move on. It’s your life; live it your way.
Annette was understandably nervous when
she moved on her own to the south of France,
but approaching the move with a ‘try it and see’
attitude rather than ‘make or break’, gave her
the courage to go for it. After meeting Miles,
they hedged their bets by renting for a few
more years before committing to a house
purchase. Unlike in the UK, where tenants have
been left behind by rampant house price
inflation over the past decade, France has seen
only gentle growth in that time, at least in rural
areas, so their decision was not too costly. “The
rental culture is very strong,” says Annette. “A
lot of French people feel no pressure to
purchase or get a mortgage.”
As it happened, Annette remained in love
with her adopted nation and village. Indeed,
expats in France feel happier and more
welcome there than ever before, according to
the Internations network, which compiles the
annual Expat Insider report. Last year, France
jumped up its global rankings of top expat
destinations, to the exact halfway mark out of
68 countries while the UK plummeted into the
bottom 10. However, less than a fifth of the
surveyed expats said France was an easy place
to live if you don’t speak French. This is
another area in which being on your own can
work to your advantage, says Annette. “As a
single person you may learn French faster than
couples and families, especially if you switch
off the BBC and over to French radio!” she says.Location location location
Annette already knew the Languedoc area well
when she moved here and did not spend long
researching locations. Her heart was set on a
small rural community where she could see the
same familiar faces and become part of a
predominantly French social scene.
If you intend to live in France, you may come
to appreciate contact with fellow Brits, if only
for the easy conversation and the hugs that are
‘not the done thing’ in France. But as Annette
says, over-reliance on them could hold back
your efforts to integrate, so there is a balance
to strike. You’ll find the highest concentrations
of Brits in western France, particularly in the
towns and villages of Dordogne, the old
Poitou-Charentes and Languedoc-Roussillon
regions, and central Brittany.
Of course, just because a town or village is
popular with expats or tourists doesn’t mean
you won’t find it oppressively quiet at times. If
you plan to live there all year round, it’s worth
visiting in winter and talking to the locals.
Check out transport links and local opening
times; French businesses and community
facilities tend to close for longer periods than
their UK counterparts, especially in the
countryside. You might have a local swimming
pool that opens for only two hours a day from
Easter to October, or a restaurant that serves
food only at lunchtimes and Saturday evenings.
Retired or retiring? Every year, property
experts at Le Figaro put together rankings of
the best towns and cities for retirees. They take
into account the annual number of hours of
sunshine, services available to older people and
ease of access to health services. Apart from
the inland city of Limoges, all the places in this
year’s top 10 are coastal communities.
Topping the 2019 rankings are Arcachon and
Andernos-les-Bains, two seaside resorts that
face each other across a huge bay sheltered
from the Atlantic Ocean south of Bordeaux. On
the Riviera, it’s Cannes and nearby Mandelieu-
la-Napoule that come top and, between
Montpellier and Marseille, the Roman city of
Arles in the Camargue wetlands. On the
Occitan coastline, the little city of Narbonne in
Aude and the resort of Agde in Hérault are alsoEXPERT ADVICE
€109,000: An elegant two-bedroom apartment with
high ceilings a short walk from the heart of Salies-de-
Béarn, a tourist spa town in Pyrénées-Atlantiques; there
is a big expat community here with conversation classes
and lots of activities; the ground-floor apartment is one
of six in a secure block with private parking and com-
munal gardens (sophiefolley.com)
€215,000: In a prime location in the heart of historic
Gard town Uzès, just 45 minutes from Nîmes airport and
TGV station, a two-bedroom apartment with a sunny
terrace offering rooftop views; the apartment is part of
an 18th-century building a few steps from the celebrated
Place aux Herbes, botanic gardens and shops and
restaurants galore (laresidence.com)€350,000: In the heart of Paris a few minutes’ walk
from Notre Dame, a delightful dinky 18m^2 studio with
exposed stones and ceiling beams; it’s in an exceptionally
quiet area of the Ile St-Louis on the ground floor of a
secure 17th-century building with digital key, entry
phone, off-street parking and service bills of approxi-
mately €75 a month (leggettfrance.com)pilesasmiles Getty Images