Deux-Sevres

Deux-Sèvres' own slogan is that it is a place to be discovered.

Perhaps one could say that it has been found - more so, indeed by ex-pats than by the French themselves. One assumes the slogan is directed at the native population who probably don't put this Département on the top of their visiting list. But while they have tarried there has been a quiet invasion by ex-pats. Most of the books and publicity about property purchases in France have been directed about romantic ruins in Provence, dreams in the Dordogne or vineyards in the Pyrenees. While all that's been going on a modest army has descended quietly on this green corner of a foreign field. Attractive prices have certainly played a part but that, really, has been no more than a bonus to add to the discovery of a very real rural idyll.

A place to feel at home.

Deux-Sèvres is pastoral; it's green and luscious country spreading out over low hills and valleys in quite sharp contrast to the extensive grain lands of neighbouring la Vienne. One would think that many people would find much of the landscape reminiscent of 'The Country' as known in much of Britain and Ireland. Perhaps that is a comfort - the landscape seems familiar if much else is strange. If one is choosing to make a momentous decision to uproot oneself it will not be difficult to feel at home here. Even the climate is not greatly different although undeniably warmer and drier. You can add excellent communications to that formula with fast routes to the Normandy ports and airports at all corners - at Poitiers, la Rochelle and Nantes - providing low-cost flights. Deux-Sèvres, it seems after all, has been discovered!