Choosing Where to Live In France
Why did we chose to live in the Dordogne France
How did we end up in the Dordogne
There was never any question of where we would buy a house in France. It was always going to be in the Dordogne, and more specifically Perigord Noir (Black Perigord) as close to Sarlat as we could afford.
Why the Dordogne?
Well that was decided many years ago when the OH was a young man in his 20’s hitchhiking around France, on this particular day he was heading to Bordeaux from somewhere around Clermont Ferrand . He got a ride with a French man heading in the general direction of Bordeaux, the man spoke no English and at that time my OH spoke no French but the driver was adamant that OH travel to a town called Sarlat in the Dordogne, he kept pointing to Sarlat on the map and gesturing madly and taking in rapid French. So the OH went to Sarlat and discovered a beautifully preserved medieval town in a valley filled with medieval chateaux, ancient villages and green rolling fields. He was hooked from that day, and over the years continued to travel back to Sarlat getting to know both the town and area.
Fast forward some years and I first visited the Dordogne with the OH in 2007. I was a little ambivalent about France, I had been to Paris and the Cote d’Azu
re a few years previously and hadn’t been overly smitten, for me Italy was the place I wanted to be. After all, I had lived in Italy for 2 years and thought it the best country in Europe. It was going to take some convincing for me to get on board with France.
On that trip in 2007 we stayed in a tiny beautifully converted cottage that had once housed pigs on a farm way out in the countryside about 10 km from Sarlat. We drank champagne with the farm owners, explored the back roads of the Dordogne, spent time just wandering around Sarlat and of course had the obligatory drink in the town's magnificent town square.
By the end of that trip I was sold and totally in love with both the area and the town of Sarlat. I couldn’t wait to return.
Over the following years we visited France a few more times exploring it extensively, from tiny villages at the base of the Alps in the Jura to the busy and popular cities of Provence. We kept coming back to Sarlat and the Dordogne…it seemed all roads lead to Sarlat.
So when we were in a position to fulfill the dream of buying a house in France there really was no decision to make. It was always going to be the Dordogne and ideally Sarlat.