Finding home
I’m trying to find out where home is. I’ve been looking for it all my life. Some days I wonder if the search is, in fact, the destination – that I simply enjoy the journey. I’ve been roaming around France lately, exploring different areas, getting a taste of the atmosphere, taking the temperature, gathering data.
If finding a place to call home is a problem to be solved, in my view you can never have enough information, but it’s problematic to find reliable sources.
It’s also important to understand exactly what you’re looking for. In this, I was delighted to discover a blogger called Vinay Debrou (Day Brew). His recent blog post ‘In Praise of the Small Goldilocks City’ describes his own search for home, having tired of living in mega-cities like London and New York. In his words, he was looking for somewhere ‘just right’, not too big, not too small, joyful, affordable, clean, friendly and filled with community spirit and surrounded by nature. His criteria for measuring this is size (between 50 and 100K population), friendly to outsiders, sufficient infrastructure (internet, roads) and plenty of nature. To demonstrate this, he uses this handy chart:
I currently live in Barfleur, a vacation town (or rather, large village). It’s reasonably friendly to outsiders, and the infrastructure’s OK, so that puts it in the middle of the chart, convenience-wise. It’s surrounded by beautiful nature. But it’s a little small and rather remote, so the community isn’t that progressive or coherent. I’d like to live somewhere a little more future-orientated, and certainly somewhere where the climate is more conducive to enjoying the outdoors. It rains here. A lot.
I’m certainly lucky to live in France, where the chances of finding my own Goldilocks town are quite high. Certainly, I know the places to avoid. Anywhere north of here is a no-no, weather-wise. Anywhere in the centre or the east of the country, however beautiful, is probably too far from the ocean for my taste but I’m open to other water-based possibilities like lakes and rivers. Nowhere flat, I’m a hill person.
So, I’ve been exploring the south (broadly the Mediterranean region of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur (PACA) and south west (Aquitaine). I’m fortunate enough to have a friend with a house in a village above Menton on the French Riviera, and I’ll be spending some of autumn in her home to give me a chance to explore.
Earlier in the year I visited Figeac, a lovely town in the Lot department. The Lot is famous for its Perigordian houses in traditional style with terra cotta roofs that slant jauntily upwards. This area of the Lot is green and wooded with gently rolling hills. It feels progressive, and it’s relative proximity to Toulouse means a fairly sound economy and youthful workforce, giving it a friendly, open feeling. It’s certainly a possibility although the distance from the sea is a downside. A huge plus-point is land prices. I could get a generous, wooded plot for an affordable price, giving me money to spare to build the eco-home of my dreams.
The conclusion I’ve reached, and this is tough for a logical, essential solitary person, is that it’s all about the ‘feels’. Somewhere not only has to tick the boxes, but feels right. Somewhere where people are mostly smiley, curious but not intrusive, and where there’s good community capital.
I’ll keep you posted.
