The Southwest France Blog
Clear, current answers to the real questions about moving to south-west France — from buying and visas to the cost of living. Start anywhere.
Duras
A thriving château town above the vineyards — shops, restaurants, a 12th-century fortress and some of the best-value wine in France. The complete area guide.
Read the guide →RelocationMoving to France from the US: Everything you need to know
Yes, Americans can move to France and live there full-time, but you will need the right long-stay visa before you arrive. The process is manageable with preparation, and for those open to living outside the major cities, southwest France offers a quality of life that Paris cannot match at anything close to the same cost. The Duras region in particular, sitting between Bordeaux and Bergerac in the Lot-et-Garonne, has attracted a steady flow of Northern European and American buyers for good reason: property prices remain low relative to quality, the landscape is agricultural rather than touristic, and the pace of daily life is genuinely calm without being isolated.
Read the guide →PlanningBest Time to Visit Southwest France: Month by Month
The best time to visit southwest France depends entirely on what you are coming for, and the honest answers are not the obvious ones. August is the worst month and the liveliest. February tells you the most. This is a month-by-month account of weather, crowds, prices, what is open and what is happening.
Read the guide →Buying propertyBuying Property in France: Process, Costs and Pitfalls
Buying property in France is safe, well-regulated and open to buyers of any nationality, but the process differs from the UK or the Netherlands: the notaire runs the transaction, you commit earlier than you might expect, and the real cost is more than the asking price. This is the whole journey, from first offer to keys.
Read the guide →PropertyCheap French Property for Sale: What You Really Get
Cheap French property is real — there are habitable houses in this region for less than a new car. What the listings do not show is the roof, the septic tank, the artisan queue and the heating bill. This is an honest guide to what a bargain actually costs once it is finished.
Read the guide →Cost of livingThe Real Cost of Living in Lot-et-Garonne: An Honest Guide
The cost of living in Lot-et-Garonne is one of the first things people weigh when they dream of moving to south-west France — and the honest answer is more interesting than "everything is cheap". Some of daily life costs noticeably less than in Britain, the Netherlands or Belgium, some is broadly comparable, and a few things cost more. Here is the detail, area by area, so you can build a realistic budget.
Read the guide →WineCôtes de Duras and Bergerac Wine: A Vineyard Guide
Côtes de Duras and Bergerac wine sit at the heart of one of the least celebrated but most rewarding corners of south-west France. Duras stands at a crossroads where several distinct appellations meet, from its own vineyards to the sweet wines of Monbazillac just to the north. For anyone living here the vines are not a holiday destination but the everyday landscape, and the pleasure of buying direct from the grower is always close at hand.
Read the guide →Area GuideDordogne Market Towns: Which to Live In
Every guide to the Dordogne market towns tells you which day the market is on. Almost none tells you which of those towns still has a bakery open in February. This is a guide to the market towns as places to live rather than to visit — what each is like, what it has, and who it suits.
Read the guide →WineThe Dordogne Wine Region: Appellations and Terroir
The Dordogne wine region is the one that Bordeaux's shadow keeps hidden. It has thirteen appellations, a sweet white that predates most of the famous names, and prices that make no sense next to the quality. This is a guide to the geography — what grows where, why, and how it all relates to the giant next door.
Read the guide →Getting aroundDriving in France: Exchanging Your UK Licence
Rural life in south-west France runs on the car, so driving in France is something to plan for from the very start. This is how the roads, rules, paperwork and connections really work around Duras — when you can keep your licence and when exchanging a UK licence becomes compulsory, how to register or buy a car, and what it all costs.
Read the guide →Town GuideDuras, France: A Complete Guide to the Town
Duras sits on a ridge above the Dropt valley with a medieval fortress at one end and its own wine appellation on the slopes below. This is a guide to the town itself — the château, the market, the wine, what is actually there, and what it is like to live in rather than drive through.
Read the guide →Town ProfileEymet: The History, People and Character of a Bastide
Eymet is a thirteenth-century bastide on the Dropt with an unusually complicated past and an unusually international present. This is a portrait of the town rather than a relocation guide — how it was built and why, what four hundred years of contested border did to it, and who actually lives there now.
Read the guide →Area ComparisonEymet, Dordogne: How It Compares to the Périgord
Eymet is in the Dordogne, but it is not in the Dordogne most people picture. The bastide sits on the département's southern edge, an hour and a half from Sarlat and half an hour from Bergerac, and the difference between those two worlds — in cost, in crowds, in who your neighbours are — is the single most useful thing to understand before choosing where in this region to land.
Read the guide →PracticalEymet Weather: The Climate Through the Year
Eymet weather is inland south-west France: hot summers, mild wet winters, and long variable shoulder seasons that are the best time to be here. This is what each part of the year is actually like, why it matters more if you are moving than visiting, and what it means for an old stone house.
Read the guide →PropertyFarmhouse for Sale in France: A Buyer's Guide
A farmhouse for sale in France is the version of the dream most people are actually carrying — stone, shutters, a barn, some land. This is an honest guide to buying one in the south-west: what the money buys, what the barn will cost you, and the checks that separate a good purchase from an expensive education.
Read the guide →PropertyFosse Septique & Septic Tanks in France: The Buyer's Guide
A fosse septique is the single most expensive surprise waiting inside a rural French property. If a house is not on mains drainage, its septic tank and soakaway become your responsibility from the day you get the keys — and a failing one can add five figures to a purchase that looked like a bargain. Here is what a septic tank in France really means for buyers.
Read the guide →HealthcareHealthcare in France: How the System Really Works
Healthcare in France has a well-earned reputation for high standards, patient choice and good value. Once you are a legal resident you can join the French healthcare system, and this honest guide covers registration, the carte Vitale, the mutuelle top-up and what everyday care actually costs.
Read the guide →Area GuideLive in Monségur: The Quiet Gironde Bastide
Monségur is the bastide most people drive past. It sits on a spur above the Dropt with long views in three directions, a fine covered market hall, and something its better-known neighbours do not have — a Gironde address, which puts it inside Bordeaux's orbit rather than the Dordogne's. This is what living there is actually like.
Read the guide →The areaLiving in the Dordogne and Lot-et-Garonne: An Honest Guide
Living in the Dordogne and Lot-et-Garonne is the daydream of almost everyone who imagines rural France: honey-coloured villages, vineyards, weekly markets and unhurried lunches. This is the honest picture of what daily life here is really like — the landscape and seasons, the towns and their characters, the cost of living, the community and the trade-offs — with Duras, where three départements meet, as the natural place to begin.
Read the guide →RelocationMoving to Eymet: Life in the Dordogne Bastide
Moving to Eymet is one of the softest landings in rural south-west France: a 13th-century bastide with a proper market, real shops and one of the largest English-speaking communities in the Dordogne. Here is what living in Eymet actually involves — the town itself, the community honestly appraised, the property market, day-to-day amenities, and how it compares with quieter neighbours like Duras, twenty minutes south.
Read the guide →EligibilityMoving to France After Brexit: What Britons Need to Know
Moving to France after Brexit is still entirely achievable for British citizens, but the rules changed the day the transition period ended. This guide explains what shifted, why owning a French home is not the same as being allowed to live in it, and which route now fits your plans — from the 90/180 Schengen limit to the long-stay visas, income thresholds, healthcare and tax.
Read the guide →RelocationMoving to France from the UK: A Post-Brexit Guide
Moving to France from the UK is still entirely achievable, but Brexit changed the rules and the dream and the paperwork are two very different projects. This is the whole journey: who can move and on which visa, the timeline and logistics, money, tax and healthcare, your first ninety days, and the mistakes that catch people out — with south-west France, and Duras in particular, as the place to land.
Read the guide →PropertyProperty for Sale in Eymet: A Buyer's Market Guide
Property for sale in Eymet attracts more foreign buyers than almost anywhere else of its size in south-west France, and the stock in the bastide itself is thin. This is an honest guide to what your money buys in Eymet and the villages around it, what the process costs, and what to check before you offer.
Read the guide →PropertyProperty for Sale in South West France: Where to Buy
Property for sale in south west France spans a region roughly the size of a small country, and the price of an identical stone house varies threefold across it. This is a guide to where the value actually sits, what drives the differences, and how to narrow a search that starts far too wide.
Read the guide →Real estateProperty in Lot-et-Garonne: A Buyer's Guide
Buying property in Lot-et-Garonne means buying into one of the last genuinely affordable corners of rural France: stone farmhouses among vineyards, village houses within walking distance of a Monday market, and barns waiting for a brave new owner. Around Duras, where the department meets the Dordogne and the Gironde, the Lot-et-Garonne property market still offers the golden stone and long summers of the south-west without the price premium a famous name attaches. This independent guide explains what your money buys, the types of house you will find, where to look, and the process, costs and pitfalls of buying property in Lot-et-Garonne with your eyes open.
Read the guide →Taxes & moneyProperty Taxes in France: What Owners Actually Pay
Property taxes in France are more detailed than a first glance suggests, but they are rarely the burden newcomers fear. This honest guide walks through the taxes you meet when you buy, own, let and eventually sell a French home — from taxe foncière and taxe d'habitation to capital gains tax on French property — and flags where non-residents and second-home owners differ.
Read the guide →RenovationRenovating in France: Costs, Permissions and Pitfalls
Renovating a house in France can be the most rewarding project of your life, or the most expensive mistake. This honest guide to renovating a house in France covers what to buy, the permissions you need, how to work with artisans, what the work really costs per square metre, and how to sequence it without losing your nerve or your budget.
Read the guide →RetirementRetire to France from the UK: A Practical Guide
To retire to France from the UK is entirely achievable, and post-Brexit it is a paperwork exercise rather than a right. This is what the move actually involves — the visa route, your pension and how it is taxed, the S1 and French healthcare, inheritance, and the practicalities nobody warns you about.
Read the guide →Schools & educationSchools and Education in France: A Guide for Moving Families
Schools and education in France worry many parents more than any other part of the move, yet the state system is free, well-regarded and closer than you think. This honest guide explains how the French school system works, how to enrol your child, how non-French-speaking children are supported, and what expat families around Duras can realistically expect.
Read the guide →WorkingSelf-Employed in France: The Micro-Entreprise Explained
Becoming self-employed in France is one of the most common ways newcomers build an income once they arrive, and for most the starting point is the micro-entreprise regime, still widely known as auto-entrepreneur. This is how freelancing in France really works: the right to work, registering with URSSAF, the 2026 turnover ceilings, cotisations sociales, VAT and when to switch.
Read the guide →Start HereSouth West France: A Complete Guide to the Region
South West France covers an enormous, various stretch of country — from the Atlantic dunes to the Pyrenees, from Bordeaux's vineyards to the prehistoric valleys of the Dordogne. This is an orientation to the whole of it: the départements, the landscapes, the food and wine, and where the good value sits.
Read the guide →OrientationSouth West France Map: How the Region Fits Together
A map of south west France tells you where places are but not how far apart they feel, which is the thing that actually shapes a trip. This is an orientation to the region — the départements, the rivers that organise it, and a table of realistic driving times between the places you are weighing up.
Read the guide →PlanningWhere to Stay in Southwest France: Accommodation
Where to stay in southwest France matters more than which sights you pick, because the region is rural and your base decides what is reachable. This is a guide to the accommodation types — chambres d'hôtes, gîtes, hotels, camping and longer rentals — what each is actually like, and how to choose a location.
Read the guide →HeritageSouthwest France Attractions: The Ones Worth It
Southwest France attractions divide fairly cleanly into the ones that justify a long drive and the ones that do not. This is a guide to the named sites — the painted caves, the gardens, the show towns, the city set-pieces — with an honest assessment of which repay the effort and how far each actually is.
Read the guide →OutdoorsSouthwest France Bike Tours: Routes and Practicalities
Southwest France bike tours have one enormous advantage over most of Europe: there is nothing on the roads. Empty départementales, courteous drivers, gentle valley gradients and greenways on old railway lines make this some of the best riding in France, and almost nobody knows it.
Read the guide →HeritageSouthwest France Castles: Which Ones to Visit
Southwest France castles exist in a density found almost nowhere else in Europe, and the reason is unhappy: this was contested ground for four hundred years, and everybody built. This is a guide to which are worth your time, what makes each different, and how to visit without castle fatigue setting in by Wednesday.
Read the guide →HeritageSouthwest France Cultural Sites: Reading the Layers
The southwest France cultural sites worth your time span an improbable range — Palaeolithic painting, Roman remains, Romanesque churches, medieval planned towns, Renaissance conversions and the scars of the Wars of Religion. This is a guide by layer rather than by list, so the landscape starts explaining itself.
Read the guide →ExploringSouthwest France Day Trips: Where to Go from Duras
Southwest France day trips are how you actually learn this region — not from a map, but from the accumulated experience of driving out on a Tuesday and coming back with a sense of where things are. This is a practical guide to what lies within reach of the Duras area, how far each is, and how to build days that work rather than days that exhaust you.
Read the guide →EventsSouthwest France Festivals: The Calendar Year
Southwest France festivals divide into the ones with a website and the ones advertised on a hand-painted sign at a road junction. The second kind are better. This is a calendar of both — the named annual events worth planning around, and the village programme that carries the rest of the year.
Read the guide →FoodSouthwest France Food Guide: What to Eat and Buy
The southwest France food guide most visitors need is not a restaurant list but a translation of the market stall. This is what the region actually produces — duck and goose, walnuts, prunes, cèpes, truffles, cheeses — what each is for, when it appears, and how to buy and cook it once you are here.
Read the guide →ExploringSouthwest France Guided Tours: What Is Worth It
Southwest France guided tours range from a genuinely expert half-day among the vines to a coach doing three crowded towns before lunch. This is an honest look at which kinds are worth paying for, which you can do perfectly well yourself, and how to find the good ones in a region where the best are barely advertised.
Read the guide →PracticalSouthwest France Insider Tips: What Locals Know
Most southwest France insider tips turn out to be lists of villages. These are not that. This is the practical knowledge that residents acquire in their first two years and visitors rarely acquire at all — about timing, closures, etiquette, money, driving and the small conventions that make everything easier.
Read the guide →PlanningSouthwest France Itinerary: One and Two Weeks
A southwest France itinerary works best when it resists the urge to cover ground. The region is larger than it looks and its pleasures are slow, so these are worked plans for one week and two — built around a single base, market mornings and the fixed hours of French life rather than a driving circuit.
Read the guide →Living HereSouthwest France Local Experiences: Joining In
The best southwest France local experiences are not bookable. They are the vendange, the village fête, the vide-grenier on a Sunday morning, the walnut harvest, the long communal table under the plane trees. This is a guide to the participatory side of the region — how to find it and how to take part.
Read the guide →ExploringSouthwest France Off the Beaten Path: Quiet Corners
Southwest France off the beaten path is not hard to find, because the beaten path is remarkably narrow. Step twenty minutes off the Dordogne valley circuit and the coaches vanish entirely. This is a guide to the quiet country — the bastides nobody stops at, the small appellations, the empty valleys.
Read the guide →OutdoorsSouthwest France Photography: Light, Places, Seasons
Southwest France photography is mostly a question of hours rather than locations. The subjects — vines, limestone, river valleys, bastide squares — are everywhere and forgiving; the light is what separates a snapshot from something worth keeping. This is where to be, and when.
Read the guide →FoodSouthwest France Restaurants: How to Eat Well
Eating well in southwest France restaurants has almost nothing to do with finding the right names and almost everything to do with understanding how the system works — the menu du jour, the fixed service hours, the difference between an auberge and a ferme-auberge, and why the best meal of your trip will cost very little.
Read the guide →PracticalSouthwest France by Train: Routes and Realities
Southwest France train travel is genuinely good between the cities and close to useless between the villages, and knowing which is which saves a great deal of disappointment. This is what the network actually covers, what it costs, and how far you can get without a car.
Read the guide →PracticalSouthwest France Transportation: Getting Around
Southwest France transportation comes down to one honest fact: outside the cities, you need a car. This is a guide to what exists — airports, the rail network, buses, ferries and the roads themselves — and to what is genuinely possible without driving, which is more than nothing and less than you would like.
Read the guide →Start HereSouthwest France Travel Blog: Every Guide by Theme
This southwest France travel blog is written from inside the region rather than about it, by people who live in the Duras area and deal with the same notaires, markets and Februaries as everyone else here. This page is the way in — every guide organised by theme, with a note on what each is actually for.
Read the guide →OutdoorsSouthwest France Walking Tours: Routes and Practicalities
Southwest France walking tours range from a waymarked two-hour loop out of a village square to the long pilgrim routes crossing the whole region. The network is far denser than most visitors realise, most of it is free, and almost none of it appears online. This is how to find and walk it.
Read the guide →PlanningSouthwest France Weekend Getaway: 48 and 72 Hours
A southwest France weekend getaway lives or dies on one decision — whether you try to see the region or settle into one corner of it. Two days is not enough for the first and is plenty for the second. These are worked itineraries for 48 and 72 hours, built around the flights and the fixed hours of French life.
Read the guide →PracticalSouthwest France: What to Pack, Season by Season
What to pack for southwest France depends far more on the month than on the region, because inland summers are genuinely hot and winters are wet rather than cold. This is a practical list by season, plus the handful of things that catch people out whatever time of year they come.
Read the guide →WineSouthwest France Wine Tasting: A Practical Guide
Southwest France wine tasting works nothing like the ticketed, polished version most visitors have met elsewhere. Here you ring a doorbell at a working farm and the person who made the wine pours it for you. This is how to do it properly — when to call, what happens, what to say, what to buy and how to get it home.
Read the guide →ExploringThings to Do in Southwest France: A Local Guide
There are a great many things to do in southwest France, and almost all of the good ones are unstructured. This is a guide organised by the kind of day you want rather than by destination — outdoors, on the water, around a table, among old stones, or at whatever the village has organised this weekend.
Read the guide →Visas & residencyVisas and Residency in France: A Complete Guide After Brexit
Buying a home does not give you the right to live in France full-time. This honest guide explains visas and residency in France for every nationality: who needs a long-stay visa and who doesn't, the 90/180-day Schengen rule, the carte de séjour, and the whole path from moving to France after Brexit to settled residence.
Read the guide →Moving to south-west France: the basics
Short answers to the questions people search most before they move — each one opens out into a full, sourced guide.