Lets start at the beginning

Around 5 years ago, we began talking about the idea of going self sufficient.  It was the subject of conversation many evenings and we got seriously into the idea; to the point where we mentioned it to family & friends.  Most were quite incredulous and thought we were mildly crazy and partially deluded - quite an accurate appraisal given we had an “idyllic” life already in Chamonix. It was not an easy decision – made all the more daunting at the thought of leaving the amazing friends we have made in the Alps over the years. Fortunately we received enough support and belief in our project to convince us to pursue the dream……although we decided that it was a project for the future, not for the immediate and that we needed to finish our projects in Chamonix first.

Our circumstances have changed dramatically over the last 18 months. Al's employers went bust hence he started a new business and got heavily involved in another.  It has been quite challenging so around 6 months ago we decided that life was too short for the stress and strain of meeting mortgage repayments. Selling up in Chamonix, clearing the mortgages and looking for a new rural way of life seemed a tangible reality.

Firstly we decided that we would stay in France - the UK was not a contender due to the weather and Spain and Italy meant a linguistic challenge too far (our Spanish is limited to waiter vocabulary and the Italian = Spanish with a different suffix). So we started looking at areas of France with affordable property and in November 2010 had a good look around the Creuse, Haute Vienne and the Dordogne departments. We visited some beautiful properties but came to the conclusion that we were looking too far north for warm and sunny weather and a most importantly a long growing season. Ben & Scarlett thought exploring derelict buildings was a great way to spend their half-term!

We returned home to start some proper research starting with climate statistics and quickly realised we needed to look further south but not too close to the Atlantic coast (less sunshine and more rain) or too close to the Pyrenees (harsh winters).  It emerged that the ideal property would be in a warm, sunny and relatively dry climate but with a water source on the land to irrigate if needed.  We therefore narrowed it down to around 10 departments from the Southern Dordogne down to the Haute Garonne on the edge of the Pyrenees.

Here is a link to a website with a clickable map of French departments;  http://flagspot.net/flags/fr(dep.html

Al started spending lots of time researching properties with the minimum criteria: 2+ hectares of land, a water source and a house that was at least livable albeit dated (we didn't want a property "renovated" to someone else's taste), in an area with relatively cheap real estate and came up with around 50 properties spread over around 300kms from the Bergerac to the Pyrenees.

In the meantime, Ben and Scarlett were getting quite into their skiing and we decided that a good way of narrowing our search area was to concentrate on properties within 2 hours drive of the ski resorts of the Pyrenees. This decision reduced the list of properties down to around 20 theoretically-suitable properties in the Gers and Haute Garonne departments (both south of Toulouse).

Ruth and Graham flew in to look after the kids and other animals to allow us to make a trip to the area for 4 days in January 2011 to see a shortlist of 12 properties; a trip which turned out to be very fruitful……..