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.
At a glance
Most writing about south-west France is produced by people who spent a fortnight here. That is not a criticism — a fortnight is what most people have — but it produces a particular kind of article, one that is very good on castles and very quiet on what a Tuesday in February is like.
This blog is written from the other side. It comes out of the Duras area, where Lot-et-Garonne, the Dordogne and the Gironde meet, and it draws on living here through the whole year rather than the pleasant third of it.
This page is the index. Every guide is grouped by theme below, with a note on what each is actually for.
If you are thinking of moving here
The core of the site, and the reason it exists.
Moving to France from the UK — the whole journey, post-Brexit: who can move, on which visa, the timeline, the first ninety days, and the mistakes that catch people out.
Moving to France after Brexit — what changed, and what it means in practice for British nationals.
Visas and residency in France — the routes, the paperwork, and the difference between owning a house and having the right to live in it.
Healthcare in France — PUMA, CPAM, the carte Vitale, the mutuelle, and what it actually costs.
Schools and education in France — the system, the stages, and what to expect if you arrive with children.
Being self-employed in France — the micro-entreprise explained, for anyone planning to work here.
Driving in France and exchanging a UK licence — the exchange process, the rules, and the things that differ.
If you are buying property
Buying property in France — the process end to end, the costs, and the pitfalls.
Property taxes in France — taxe foncière, taxe d'habitation, purchase costs and the rest.
French inheritance law — the reserved portion, and why it matters before you buy rather than after.
Renovating a house in France — costs, permissions and the artisan queue.
Fosse septique and septic tanks — SPANC, compliance, and the survey that catches buyers out.
Property in Lot-et-Garonne — the best-value corner, and what the money buys.
Cost of living in Lot-et-Garonne — real monthly numbers rather than impressions.
If you are choosing where to live
Living in the Dordogne and Lot-et-Garonne — an honest guide to the wider area.
Dordogne market towns — the towns assessed as places to live rather than to visit, including the February test.
Moving to Eymet — the town with the largest international community, appraised honestly.
Eymet, Dordogne — how Eymet compares with the rest of its own département, on cost, crowds and access.
Eymet: history, people and character — the town profile rather than the relocation guide.
Live in Monségur — the quieter Gironde bastide, and what a Gironde address changes.
If you are visiting
Best time to visit southwest France — month by month, honestly.
Southwest France weekend getaway — worked 48- and 72-hour itineraries.
Southwest France day trips — what is within reach, and how far each really is.
Things to do in southwest France — organised by the kind of day you want.
Southwest France attractions — the named sites, assessed for whether they justify the drive.
Southwest France off the beaten path — the quiet country, and how narrow the tourist strip actually is.
Southwest France insider tips — the practical knowledge residents acquire and visitors rarely do.
If you want to get outside
Southwest France walking tours — the route network, waymarks, maps and seasons.
Southwest France castles — why the density exists, and how to read what you are looking at.
Southwest France cultural sites — the historical layers, from Palaeolithic to the civic nineteenth century.
If you are here for the food and wine
Southwest France restaurants — how the system works, which matters more than which names to look for.
French markets in the Dordogne and Lot-et-Garonne — market days, what to buy and how to shop them.
Côtes de Duras and Bergerac wine — the home appellations.
The Dordogne wine region — the appellations as geography, and why they are underpriced.
Southwest France wine tasting — the practical how-to, from ringing ahead to getting it home.
Southwest France local experiences — the participatory side: fêtes, night markets, harvests and the associative life.
Four reading orders, depending on why you are here
The index above is comprehensive, which makes it a poor place to start if you do not already know what you want. These are the paths most people actually take.
"We are thinking about it, vaguely"
Start with the region rather than the paperwork. Read the guide to living in the Dordogne and Lot-et-Garonne for the overall picture, then the cost-of-living guide for the numbers that make people either serious or relieved. Then the market towns guide, which is where the abstract idea of moving to France turns into the concrete question of which village.
Leave visas and inheritance law until you have decided the place is worth the trouble.
"We have decided, now what?"
Reverse the order. Visas and residency first, because the immigration route determines the timeline and everything else hangs off it. Then healthcare, then the property-buying process, then taxes. Then the specific guides on septic tanks and renovation if you are buying anything old, which in this region you probably are.
The single most useful thing in this sequence is not an article: it is renting for a season, including a winter, before committing.
"We are coming on holiday"
Best-time-to-visit first, since it shapes everything else. Then the day-trips guide to understand what is within reach, and the weekend guide if you have only two or three days. Insider tips before you travel rather than after, because the things in it — the bonjour, the lunch hours, the Monday closures — are the ones that otherwise cost you an afternoon each.
"We came on holiday and now we are thinking about it"
This is the most common path of all, and it has one specific piece of advice attached: come back in February. Everything else on this site is secondary to that. A summer visit tells you the region is beautiful. A winter visit tells you whether you want to live in it.
What this blog does not cover
Worth stating, so you know where the edges are.
The Périgord Noir from the inside. Sarlat, Domme and the castle country of the eastern Dordogne appear here as places to visit, and the guides are honest that this is a different market with different prices and a different summer. We do not pretend to know it as home.
The coast. The Atlantic beaches, the Bassin d'Arcachon and the Landes are covered as day trips, not as places to live.
Legal or tax advice. The guides explain how things work and what to expect. They are not a substitute for a notaire, an accountant or an immigration adviser, and on anything with a real financial consequence you should have one.
Current prices. Deliberately. A figure quoted precisely today is wrong within eighteen months, so the guides give ranges and benchmarks and tell you where the number comes from.
Anywhere we have not been. If a village is not mentioned, it is generally because we do not know it well enough to be useful about it rather than because there is anything wrong with it.
How these guides are written
A few principles, stated plainly so you know what you are reading.
They are long. Each is written to be the most useful page on its subject rather than a summary, which generally means several thousand words. If you want a quick answer, the questions at the top of each guide are there for that.
Figures are given as ranges. Precise prices date badly and vary by property, commune and year. Where a benchmark is useful it is given as one; where a number would be invented, it is left out.
They are not sponsored. Nothing here is paid placement. Where a guide argues against something — a town that fails the winter test, a way of spending a weekend, a purchase that will not pay off — that argument stands.
They are honest about the downsides. Rural France has a GP shortage, an artisan queue, quiet winters and real bureaucracy. A guide that omits those is selling something.
They assume you might be anyone. Nationality is mentioned only where the rules genuinely differ, which is mostly visas.
The recurring themes
Read enough of these guides and the same handful of arguments keep surfacing. They are worth stating once, in one place.
Come in February. A summer visit is not evidence. The question that decides whether people stay is whether a quiet, wet Tuesday in a small French town reads as peace or as isolation, and only winter answers it. Look for an open bakery, someone in the bar, a school in session and shutters open on the houses in the centre.
The name on the département is worth less than the drive time. Property is marketed by département, and "Dordogne" carries a premium that a kilometre of countryside does not justify. Searching geographically — a circle around the towns and services you will actually use — turns up better houses for less money than filtering by a name.
Lunch is not negotiable. Roughly midday to two, and it closes shops and offices as well as kitchens. Almost every wasted afternoon in this region traces back to ignoring it.
Join something in the first year. The people who settle happily are almost always the ones who joined a walking club, a choir or a language exchange early. The ones who struggle usually waited for a social life to arrive.
Say bonjour. On entering any shop, bar or waiting room, before anything else. It is the cheapest possible investment in how you are treated and the most consistently overlooked.
Budget for the artisan queue. Good builders, roofers and plumbers are booked months ahead across the whole region. A cheap house that needs a roof is only cheap if someone will come and put one on.
Everything good is offline. The village calendar, the walking circuits, the growers worth visiting and the restaurant that is actually the best in the area are all found on a mairie noticeboard, in a tourist-office booklet or from someone at a market — not through a search engine.
Why the Duras area, specifically
A fair question, since the guides keep returning to it.
The country framed by Sainte-Foy-la-Grande, Bergerac, Villeréal, Lauzun and Marmande sits where three départements meet — Lot-et-Garonne, the Dordogne and the Gironde. That junction is the whole argument. You get the Dordogne's markets and Bergerac's airport at about thirty-five minutes, the Gironde's wine and Bordeaux at around an hour and a quarter, and Lot-et-Garonne's prices, which remain among the better value in the region.
The famous places stay accessible without being on top of you: Saint-Émilion and Bordeaux an hour and a quarter, Sarlat and the great castles about ninety minutes, the painted caves of the Vézère under two hours. Close enough to see properly. Far enough that their August never arrives on your doorstep.
And there is a British and Dutch community here that is decades deep but not concentrated, which turns out to be the useful configuration — somebody who can explain the tax form, and every reason to be talking to French neighbours rather than only to them.
None of which makes it right for everyone, and the guides say so. What it does make it is a good vantage point from which to write about the region, because it is close to most of it and beholden to none of it.
If you have read a few of these and want to talk to an actual person rather than a page, Tina lives in the Duras area, works in local property, and will give you a straight answer about whether this part of France suits you — in your own language, and without any interest in persuading you that it does.
Why this matters if you're looking at Duras
Everything here is written from the Duras area, by people who live in it. Tina is the local expert behind the practical side of it.