More for Less in Limousin

The Anglo-Saxon invasion of France has been going on for decades, and there remain few regions in which the sight of an English-speaking resident still attracts bemused stares.  Unless, that is, you venture deep into la France profonde–the heart of the country-where foreigners continue to be greeted as intriguing subjects who must be approached with the help of a dictionary at all times.

This may sound like the stuff of a comedy film–but it really does happen in some areas of the largely rural region of Limousin, in France’s Massif Central, where fewer inhabitants share the large expanses of rolling countryside than are crammed into the city of Marseille.

Take real estate agent Elizabeth Nixon and her husband, for example. The couple moved from Britain to the Limousin 15 years ago, but their friends and neighbors still come to supper armed with their English-French dictionary, she laughs. “The local residents are extremely friendly, and my husband and I have a constant supply of home-grown vegetables, home-made jams and fresh eggs that appear on our doorstep at regular intervals.

“The people in my village are amazing. They have even voted me on to the local council-how’s that for integration?

“But the most touching thing to have happened is that a few of our French neighbors have bought English phrase books just so that they can have a banter with my husband-although he’s been having lessons every week with the local French teacher, he can’t quite get the hang of the grammar. I hear similar stories from other people who have also bought houses in the area.

The Limousin region is almost, but not quite, the center of France, surrounded by the Auvergne, Poitou-Charentes, the Midi-Pyrénées and Aquitaine. Home to just over 700,000 inhabitants, it covers more than 10,500 square miles and is made up of three départements: Corrèze, Creuse and Haute-Vienne.

Frequently driven through by travelers en route from Paris to the Dordogne or the Gers, the Limousin has remained one of France’s least-known treasures. Largely spared by the onward march of progress, it retains some of the most unspoiled countryside in Europe. Outside of its two most well-known cities-the porcelain capital Limoges and Aubusson, of carpet and tapestry fame- the region is one of verdant, undulating landscapes where rusty red Limousin cattle graze in seemingly endless pastures, punctuated by rivers and lakes teeming with fish, and a sprinkling of rustic towns and villages that have changed little in hundreds of years.

It was this idyllic charm that led the Nixons to buy a house in the Haute-Vienne 15 years ago. Formerly from Chichester, on the south coast of England, they moved to the area after a previous stay in the French Alps had proved too expensive.

“Having lived in Megève-the Saint-Tropez of the French Alps-for several years, I needed to get away from the snow, ice, freezing cold and the everyday cost of living in such an area. Even a cup of coffee or lunch was terribly expensive in the cafés and restaurants.

“Here in my part of the Limousin, Haute-Vienne, it is very common to have lunch out and it often works out cheaper to do so!” A typical luncheon menu of entrée, main dish, cheese and dessert, with coffee and wine included, rarely costs more than €15, she notes.

“I have an international clientele,” she adds, “and most of my customers who end up buying here revel in the peace, tranquility and sheer beauty of the region.  The peaceful surroundings and the recently improved transport links are major points in its favor.”

Although it’s one of France’s most rural regions, there are plenty of large towns within easy reach of the Limousin. Paris is only 220 miles north, and there are international airports at both Poitiers and Limoges. The A20 highway also cuts through the center of the region, providing excellent road links both north to Paris and south to Toulouse.

Prices for property in the region tend to be at the lowest end of the scale-credit crunch or no credit crunch. “The Limousin is an up-and-coming area as far as the French property market is concerned,” says Nixon. “The increasing number of buyers looking in this region has not yet driven property prices up significantly, and property here still represents excellent value for money.”

According to Nixon, who runs Limousin Property Shop, many of the properties in the region were used for agricultural purposes or to house farm laborers, so many of them come with a reasonable amount of land. And a shortage of rental accommodations makes it the perfect location for a tourist business, she adds.

A property in Limousin can be as much as two or even three times cheaper than its equivalent in size and quality in the nearby Dordogne. The lowest property prices are generally to be found in Haute-Vienne, in the north of the region, where the cost of real estate per square meter is lower than anywhere else in France-less than two-thirds of the national average.

To take just a few examples:  A two-bedroom house with a barn set in two acres of land just five minutes from the town of Lussac-les-Châteaux is currently on the market for €110,000.  A three-bedroom house with a similar-sized outbuilding in the Corrèze département, near the town of Branceilles, is on the market for €200,000, while a four-bedroom house near La Souterraine in the Creuse département is currently being offered at €160,000.

John Norton, another British real estate agent in the area, believes prices will fall even further this year.  “For serious buyers this is the time to pick up a bargain. I recently had a property on my books for €210,000 and it’s now been reduced to €140,000. It’s a buyer’s market.”

Norton, who runs The French Property Agent, has lived near Bellac, in Haute-Vienne, for the last 13 years. He has sold many local properties to Anglophones over the last decades, he says, and quite a few to Americans.

“Driving is a pleasure. Life is simple. People like it here.  I have sold to a lot of Americans over the years. They tend to go for properties that are in fairly good order, but in old-fashioned situations. There aren’t many old farmhouses to do up these days, so in that respect its good news for our American clients. Fifteen years ago there were lots of old houses to do up, but they’ve all been done.”

In most cases foreign buyers have been largely welcomed by local residents who have experienced an exodus of young families and professionals over the last few decades, with the younger generations preferring to seek their fortunes in large cities rather than remaining on the land.

“Foreign buyers have rejuvenated some villages,” says Norton. “Five or six years ago I went to look at a house that I was going to take on and an elderly lady, about 70 years old, knocked on the door. She asked me if I was going to buy the house, and I said that I was going to sell it. She said: ‘Please sell it quickly as I would love to have some neighbors.’ Out of 12 houses on her street, only three had people living in them. The local people are grateful that the houses are being lived in once again.”

 

Originally published in the March 2009 issue of France Today.