normandy/loire/brittany anyone???

hi all,

i have been thinking about moving areas when/if i sell this *place,

so i wondered if forum members can advise me,

also during the easter kids hols, i was thinking of coming up to look around the area, bringing the kids (boys 17, 14,12) with me to camp in a tent, anyone suggest a campsite, or got a bit of spare field to rent me? use of a loo and shower pretty please...maybe????

i want to move where there is good off road riding, my show jumping & mad dash days are over i think, i am more likely to plod about than zoom about now.

i am told the place to be is up north, or a lot more south of where i am now -Vendee, but i don't want to go south, at times i find Vendee too hot.

with the poor ecconomy i doubt i will get the max price for my place, especially since it would most likely appeal to a UK buyer who wants a place with income from holiday business.

i am after something with enough land for 3 horses, if not maybe for 24/7 all year out grass, but enough for day turn out most winter and all summer days, like most horse bods, i don't care about if i need to renovate/build a barn, shack or house!
we expect to have 100,000 to 140,000 euros is this enough for the areas mentioned?

if anyone has a place to sell & is ok with waiting, let me know, same if anyone likes the sound of my place and has to sell 1st.

*MY PLACE :- large stone detached farmhouse, currently made into a family part with 2 bedrooms and 2 self catering apartments for holiday guests, designed to be simple to revert back to bedrooms it could make 6-7 bed house,
attached 3 stone barns on rear, possible permission to extend/convert some of the barns to house/gite use as they already share the house roof and have doorways into the main house + windows and exit doors of their own.

lounge with working stone fireplace, large kitchen/diner, 2 utility rooms, hallway, office, oak staircase, 4 bathrooms, patio, terrace, BBQ, garden with fruit trees, veg garden, 2 very small paddocks, large carpark, another ancient house to renovate, range of stone animal housing, large open barn, workshop, covered area, storage area,
oil central heating,

asking price for the whole lot 199,000 euros + notiere, no agents fees or just the main house and attached barns 160,000 euro + notiere.

phone 0251 292055 bye

We are in brittany dept 22 but on the border with 56/29.
It is very wet here all year round, the grass grows but soon gets churned up again .
Summer when it does come for a few weeks it can get well in to the 35+ C.
Where we are there are some really nice rides though woods and tracks but from where we are in the village we have to go on the road first to get to them.
The village that we live in is lovely and everyone is really friendly and love to see the horses also we have a association in the village that organises hacks, TREC etc.. and the people that run it are lovely.
We don't have a sand school but a pony club in the next village on from us rents thiers out.
Our land is about 500 yards from the house but we have 4 hec of our own and use other bits of land and another 2 hec off english people and a french man so we have more than enough for 5.
We don't have any stables though (yet) so they all live out rugged up during the winter.
We don't have a problem getting hay or straw as we get it from our farmer stefan, though a lot of people here do have problems getting hold of hay.
Not much horsey really goes on in brittany anymore the horse fairs that they have are becoming less about horses and more just full of market stalls .
Some (most) areas are really duppy, crime is quite high in most areas (same as the uk), some villages except english people better than others.
There are a lot of English people willing to rip you off as soon as look at you, house prices are falling here only 10% of houses in the last year have sold to brits.
Making a living is getting harder and lots of brits are going back to the uk because of it.
Cost of living is getting more expensive.
But like with any where in France life is what you make of it some people love it here and some just hate it.
We have had a house in Brittany for the last 22 years and moved around to different areas and must say where we are now is the better area to where we have been.

hi there salee from the st lo region in lower normandie, the horsey infrastructure here is superb loads of surfaces to to use, regular competions, some quite large shows, not english county show size, but international jumping, national and pro dressage, lots of club events, horse ball, and a super show in deauville which even has an eventing section and int. showing jumping and john whittaker came over to participate, deauville has two race courses, deauville claire fontaine is a beautiful sight in summer with all the flowers, here we have two veterinary hospitals in st lo and lots of specialist horse vets including one who nearly 'walks on water, my farrier also shoes the world champion cso he is brill. i live 1 minute from horse food factory, in winter loads of mud, recently loads of snow easy to get, hay and straw, while it is true that the house market is slowish it varies greatly, near the towns its better, there is lots of just houses with gardens to choose from, however when you study the market round here ,st lo region houses with land are selling, for obvious reasons, and generally throughout lower normandie houses with hectares are not so readily available as previously, but are coming on to the market occasionaly, i personally think they represent a good investment longterm, when the world equestrian games come to normandie thousands of people will visit see what goes on and the reasonable prices, who knows give the economy a boost, they recently invested millions adding to what was already a top show centre in st lo, my advice is to visit, look at everything with land, don't buy too far from a town if poss, easier to resell, you might fall lucky, but be prepared to search hard, a house plus hectares literally on the doorsteps of st lo was on the market, for 130,000 but i think it was sold, vire to st lo is less expensive than st lo to bayeux and the sea, coutances can be a productive search area, where i live is known as the golden triangle of horse breeding, number one french stud 2 minutes from me, valuation of houses with land in need of renovation is precarious in this region, make your own decision based on what you need, what you are prepared to pay, i did and got what i wanted good luck selling and happy house hunting!

Hi Salee
Lovely here in Suisse Normande - very horsey and only 50 mins from the ferry port if you feel like a trip to UK. There are going to publish a guide soon to 400kms of circular riding tracks starting from our local area. Lots of tracks but quite hard and pretty hilly. Weather a bit like UK but hotter in summer - can get very hot sometimes I think because the air is so clear. Seems to be plenty of help re vet/farrier and all that and loads hay as the land is so fertile. We grow our own organic hay and it's fab. Land a bit difficult to come by as it's so agricultural but possible. Lots of stone houses wanting a bit of help - barns etc. Take a look!