Chris Slade describes the son et lumiere presentation at the abbey of Bon Repos called "Le Pays de Conomor" in Brittany, which takes place during the first two weeks of August.
Where would you live in France?
An interesting survey
A few years ago, French Property News conducted a survey among their readers. The question was: where would you prefer to live in France? Unsurprisingly, the most popular regions where readers were likely to buy were headed by Aquitaine, Poitou-Charentes and Languedoc-Roussillon. In addition, Brittany and Pays de la Loire were also in the Top 10.
Of course, these regions are famously popular with British nationals and are already home to a fair few. So the question is: what factors have helped them make the decision to move to these regions? Weather, culture, or gastronomy? Is it perhaps the fact that property prices are more reasonable than in the UK? Or, most importantly, is it the example set by people who have already taken the plunge that appeals? Indeed, the number of British expats is already significant in some of these regions.
A geographical change
However, since the survey, the number of French regions has changed: in fact, on January 1st, 2016, 22 regions became 18 (including 5 overseas territories/départements). For example, Aquitaine became Nouvelle-Aquitaine, thus merging the former regions of Aquitaine, Limousin and Poitou-Charentes together.
What do you think?
As a result, we were wondering where you, our readers, would prefer to live in France. If you had the choice of any region, which would it be? So, why not vote for your choice in our poll? We would certainly be really interested to know your preferences…
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Had my wife and I the choice, we would choose to live permanently in Brittany. We have spent the last thirty years messing around in France and there are few parts of the country we have not visited. For all sorts of reasons, including coastline, food, culture, people, landscape, woods and water and general ambience, we find Brittany in a class of its own. This may be because of my Celtic genes and my wife’s Breton ancestors (including a Le Moal church architect from Guingamp and a Cornic privateer from Morlaix) or just because the region is so perfect for the likes of us. Whatever, we need to move around, and as our home in the mountains of north-west Finistere is about as far away from anywhere else in France as you can get, we must reluctantly move on soon to research and write the next book. But I somehow think we will be back.
Whilst Brittany generally gets all the glory, and would be the most natural choice for me, I think that Pays de la Loire also has attractions – Nantes is often voted best place to live in France and La Baule (hands up those who thought La Baule is in Brittany) has one of the most beautiful beaches in Europe! But then, I love Aquitaine too, as my wife has her family in Bordeaux, plus the region is famed for its gastronomy, and has some fairly good wines too! So difficult to choose….