Shopping List Of Houses
From Dream to Reality: Our French Adventure Begins
We've been enchanted by the idea of moving to France almost as long as we've been together. Our first weekend away was a romantic trip to Paris, followed by our first vacation together—one magical week in Normandy and another in the Dordogne. As you know, France is a vast, beautiful country brimming with stunning landscapes, rich traditions, fascinating history, and of course, amazing food and wine. We've been completely smitten with the romance of it all for years.
When we relocated from the UK to Luxembourg for work in 2019 and gained our EU passports in 2024, suddenly our French dream felt within reach. Still, we thought it would remain a "someday" plan for at least a few more years.
Like many dreamers, we started small. We joined Facebook groups and subscribed to podcasts about living in France, then signed up for property alerts. We jokingly called these emails "property porn"—we could look, but we couldn't really touch.
Then last week, everything changed. One house appeared in our inbox that was simply irresistible: lovely, potentially affordable, and located in one of our favorite regions. One of us (we won't say who!) couldn't resist any longer and fired off an inquiry for more details.
That single email led to a conversation with an estate agent who specializes in helping people find homes in France. Soon we had a curated list of recommended properties—and incredibly, it contained three other houses that all had serious wow factor in a similar area.
A bit of financial research revealed we could afford more than we'd initially thought, so we upgraded our criteria to "wow factor only" with a pool. The timing couldn't be better either: with a national holiday next Thursday, we only need to take one extra day off to travel Wednesday evening and have late Thursday, all Friday, and Saturday available for viewings.
Our agent has committed to spending at least Friday with us, with other agents available Saturday. We've sent our wishlist of preferred properties for viewing.
So here we are—we're going house shopping in the Dordogne at the end of this week!
Below are our top choices. No guarantees we'll be able to view any of them yet, but we've requested viewings and are waiting with fingers crossed.
House 1. Near Bergerac. €446,850
Pushing the limit of our budget but worth looking at.
House 2. Near Villetoureix, 335,000 €
This was the house that came through in an email and made Teresa respond asking for more information. It’s beautiful from the front, back, inside and has a small pool.
This one set the standard against which all the others that we are considering are being judged, at least on paper.
House 3. near Issigeac, 399,000 €
Yes, having a pool is a theme, almost a must have. I would like one (Mark), Teresa less so, but the visiting grand children, family and friends would definitely all appreciate it.
House 4. Family Home with Heated Pool in Peaceful Setting Near Bergerac.
418,700 €
From the email of recommendations we received this was initially the stand out one, top of budget, wow factor property. Now we’re waiting to see if the photos live up to the reality.
House 5. The last one worth showing.
4-Bed Home with heated pool close to Sarlat-la-Canéda. Price 345,000 €
The famous Sarlat le canada is somewhere we previously visited and had high on our list of locations. However all the others are also within an hour or so of Sarlat so it has a lot of competition.
We do have other properties suggested for viewing but above are the top ones. We now wait to see what viewings are avaialble and which ones we really like and can consider.
All properties shown listed through Beaux Villages Immobilier https://beauxvillages.com/
