Table of Contents for this Episode
Categories: Atlantic Coast, Bordeaux Area, Moving to France
Discussed in this Episode
- Port d'Envaux
- Saintes
- La Rochelle
- Taillebourg
- Saint-Savinien
- Château de Panloy
- Île de Ré
- Île d’Aix
- Île d'Oléron
- Jonzac
- Marennes
- Fouras
- Châtelaillon-Plage
- Fort de l'Ile Madame
- Bordeaux
- the Marais Poitevin.
[00:00:15] Annie Sargent: This is Join Us in France, episode 506, cinq cent six.
Bonjour, I’m Annie Sargent, and Join Us in France is the podcast where we take a conversational journey through the beauty, culture, and flavors of France.
Today on the podcast
[00:00:30] Annie Sargent: Today, I bring you a real life in France report with Susan Hayes, who will share her experiences living in the Charentes Maritimes.
This is a region I’ve had the pleasure of visiting a few times, and it’s truly enchanting, and I think we haven’t talked about it enough. If you’re concerned about overtourism, it’s essential to recognize that France offers many incredible destinations beyond Paris, Provence, and Normandy.
So, join us as we uncover the hidden gems of the Charentes Maritimes, stay tuned, you won’t want to miss this.
And if you live in France and want to come on the podcast to tell us about why your place is great, please reach out to me annie@joinusinfrance.com.
Podcast supporters
[00:01:16] Annie Sargent: This podcast is supported by donors and listeners who buy my tours and services, including my Itinerary Consult Service, my GPS self-guided tours of Paris on the VoiceMap app, or take a day trip with me around the Southwest in my electric car. You can browse all of that at my boutique: JoinUsInFrance.com/boutique.
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Magazine segment
[00:01:48] Annie Sargent: There won’t be a magazine part of the podcast today because Christian, the wonderful person who puts together these episodes and his family are going on vacation, so I had to schedule this episode early as well. I hope you understand that, you know, this is summer, we take vacations, but I’m putting out an episode every Sunday, nonetheless.
I do want to send my thanks and a shout out to our new Join Us in France champions: Harvey and Cheryl.
To join this wonderful community of Francophiles who keep this podcast going week after week, go to Patreon.com/JoinUs, and to support Elyse, go to Patreon.com/ElysArt. I’ll keep sharing timely updates on Patreon and on Facebook, and I’ll be back next Sunday with a regular episode.
Bonjour, Susan Hayes, and welcome to Join Us in France.
[00:03:01] Susan Hays: Bonjour and thank you so much, it’s a real honor to be a part of this.
[00:03:06] Annie Sargent: Wonderful to have you. So we are going to talk about the Charentes Maritimes, which is a department where you live and you have been living for a long time, as you’ll tell us. And you reached out to me because you run a website called ourfrenchlifestyle.com, which I’ve looked through and I think it’s very nice, so we’ll talk about that a little bit at the end. But first, I would like you to introduce yourself and tell us how you came to live in the Charentes Maritimes and what you like best about it.
Introducing Susan Hays
[00:03:37] Susan Hays: Well, we came here about 10 years ago, having previously lived further south in France, with our family, five children, so they’ve all been educated in France, as well. And actually, I’ve been coming to France since I was a little girl, and so has my husband, since he was a small child.
And it was always a bit of a dream to live here, but working in France is always quite difficult and making a living.
So to start with, we lived here a little bit and also in other parts of the world. And we sort of flitted a little bit between the two. So we have sort of multicultural children. Then we came back here in 2014 permanently, before we went to the States for a tiny bit, and then we came back here again 10 years ago.
And each time, we’ve lived in Provence, we’ve lived near to Biarritz. And each time we have sort of not quite got it right, you know, it’s so easy to look at all the properties online and be totally, it’s like a dream. Everything looks sort of so wonderful, you know, when you think of France, and it’s so easy to get caught into these properties that are so beautiful.
And then you buy them quickly and then you realize you’ve made a bit of a mistake. Like so many people, we did this and we made a mistake in Provence and, beautiful property though it was with distant views of the Med and everything you could dream of, olive trees, but it wasn’t the dreamy lifestyle that we imagined.
[00:05:04] Annie Sargent: How so? What made it different than what you imagined?
[00:05:07] Susan Hays: We got burgled.
[00:05:08] Annie Sargent: Aha.
[00:05:09] Susan Hays: That was a really, really down thing, we had to fit a very expensive burglar alarm before any insurance company would even touch us. And we were just in a little village and I think it was, the police just said to us, and this is a long time ago, so 18 years ago. And the police said, take a CD ROM, because obviously that was the days of things like that, as opposed to just your mobile phone, of every valuable you have, because they’ll be back. And, you know, it’s quite scary, especially when you’ve got young kids and they lock the gates and et cetera, et cetera. So it wasn’t quite the lifestyle we wanted. When we came back here from the States, 11 years ago, we knew exactly what we wanted and we made a list. And having made some very costly mistakes, you know, and lost a lot of money, we knew what we wanted and we knew to stick to our checklist. And we did. And we knew we wanted to be within 20 minutes of a good sized town that is open all year round, not just during the tourist season. We stuck to it quite rigidly.
Choosing La Rochelle Area
[00:06:11] Susan Hays: And came across our property. We also knew La Rochelle quite well. We knew this area from coming here when we were both quite small. Roddy, my husband, knew it from fishing days and it’s close to the coast, which we love.
We didn’t want to be too inland. It is the second sunniest area in France, maybe not this year, but normally.
[00:06:33] Annie Sargent: Nowhere is sunny this year.
And where is this year exactly? Nowhere. After the Mediterranean, you know, the coastal areas and those places, this is meant to be the second sunniest area in France, and also the driest area after those Mediterranean areas.
So for instance, further south nearer the Dordogne and nearer Bordeaux, they get around 1200 millimetres of rain a year. I mean, don’t quote me, but roughly, we’re supposed to get around about 750. So, a lot less rainfall. This year, I think we’ve, we’ve blown all records completely. But, it’s good.
The wettest year in living memory
[00:07:09] Annie Sargent: I was just telling you that this year, 2024, is the second wettest year in 65 years. So we’ve had rain everywhere.
[00:07:18] Susan Hays: Yeah.
Here they say it’s been the wettest winter in living memory, which I can well believe. But then I’ve heard so many wonderful stories of people saying they had plants that were nearly dead that have come alive again, and the arts this year have been amazing.
So I guess, you know, nature’s doing what nature does. The ground needed it.
Choosing a property with eyes wide open
[00:07:36] Annie Sargent: Yeah. Yeah. I want to second what you said about, you know, don’t be so mesmerized by a beautiful property that you ignore a lot of other considerations, because there are a ton of places in France where really life would be a bit lonely, a bit boring. Burglaries can happen anywhere, obviously, but the PACA region, so the Provence Côte d’Azur region is, famous for having a problem with burglars. You really want to consider your list. So if you don’t mind me asking, what was on your list of things you didn’t want to compromise on?
[00:08:13] Susan Hays: What we didn’t want to compromise on, I think were the mistakes we had made, one was certainly we did want to feel safe. I mean, obviously burglaries happen everywhere, but it is nice to feel safe. We love the idea that the children can run out the door. When they were little, they went to the village primary school and they could walk down the village streets on their own.
That for them, is still one of their best childhood memories coming back from school aged nine and 11. I mean, they weren’t tiny, tiny, but… and so they would stop at the boulangerie with their friends on the way home and buy a pain of chocolat or a chocolatine as it’s called here, or a little packet of candy for gouté.
And the memories that they just remember with their pull along backpacks coming being able to do things like that. So that was one thing. Number two was absolutely had to be somewhere that had life all year round.
Another mistake we had made before, not in Provence, but further south than here, it was amazing in the summer and we bought in the summer and we were totally mesmerized.
And then come the winter, we were fortunate, we were very good friends with our French neighbors. But aside from that, we were, it was sort of kind of on our own, there was nobody else around, it was very lonely, we were in a tiny little area, no shops were open, there were no villages, it was, let’s say there were three other houses. And for six months of the year, if I wanted to get a decent cup of coffee, and see some real civilization, you know, sit in a cafe and people watch and have a bit of fun, it would mean an hour’s drive down the autoroute to Pau or an hour’s drive down the autoroute to Biarritz, which when you’ve then got to strap in children into car seats and it’s just too much, who’s going to drive 135 kilometers for a cup of coffee?
[00:09:56] Annie Sargent: Right. Right. And some places it wouldn’t be that bad, but if you have to get into the car to do anything, that’s something to think about.
[00:10:04] Susan Hays: Yeah, definitely. And we wanted good size cities, that we could, town cities, that we thought we could get to within a 20 minute drive that we could pop out, have lunch if you need to go and get something if you just not necessarily spend a lot of money. But if you just want to feel a part of society. That was really important to us. We also wanted to be relatively close to the coast because we like water and we like the coast. And the climate, we didn’t want to be somewhere that was super long winters, you know, I come from England and even after we came back from Florida, I was really keen to go to Brittany and Roddy said to me, I know it looks fabulous now after Florida, but just think of those long grey winters.
And he’s right. I wouldn’t have coped with it. I know I wouldn’t. Even though I adore Brittany and Normandy, for me, I need a little bit more of a sunny area.
[00:10:58] Annie Sargent: Yeah. Is he also from Britain?
[00:11:01] Susan Hays: He is, but he’s from the Channel Islands, so going to Jersey, Albany, which are very, very close to France.
Places that you enjoy visiting
[00:11:06] Annie Sargent: Awesome. Okay. So what are some of the places that you enjoy visiting? Tell us about the towns you like to take visitors to, the towns you like to visit yourself because they’re just fun. We’d love to, to hear about that.
[00:11:21] Susan Hays:
Port d’Envaux
[00:11:21] Susan Hays: So starting right here in our own village, we live in a little village called Port d’Envaux, and it is really unusual because it is small village, 650 people or so, which swells quite a bit in the summer, but we do have three restaurants, we have a riverside cafe, we have a boulangerie, so it is very unusual that we can walk to all of those things in a tiny village, and that is because we are situated right on the river Charente.
And it has been a designated swimming area for 80 years, and you can rent kayaks and paddleboards, I think is one of two places in the area that has anything even vaguely like this. And people come here from all around nearby to the restaurants which are open 12 months of the year because it’s sort of like their mini seaside resort, if you like.
Saintes
[00:12:11] Susan Hays: So we love it here because this is quite buzzing all around you see people cycling and walking down the streets, And then, if we want something a bit bigger, we go into Saintes, which is about 10 minutes from us. It used to be the capital of the Charentes Maritimes, but that has now been replaced by La Rochelle.
It dates back to pre-Roman times, so you’re walking around a city that existed over 2000 years ago. Maybe not some of the buildings, but obviously just to get that sense of age is utterly phenomenal. It has one of the best preserved Roman amphitheater in Europe, which I think was built about 200 years A. D. And it is absolutely phenomenal. We also have a Roman arch which is from about the same time frame, and it sits on the river Charente, so it’s very beautiful. It has a pedestrianized area, beautiful markets, the beautiful cathedral. But most of all, I think it’s just the history that just comes across somehow in the atmosphere.
You think you’re just walking these streets that are so old.
[00:13:15] Annie Sargent: Yeah. Yeah. Saintes is a quaint little town, I would say. It’s not a big city, but it’s good to have a medium sized city. Do you know the population of Saintes, for chance?
[00:13:24] Susan Hays: About 26,000 so it’s…
[00:13:27] Annie Sargent: Okay.
[00:13:28] Susan Hays: I mean, by European standards that’s a nice sized town, you know, by American Standards is absolutely tiny.
[00:13:35] Annie Sargent: Yes. But it’s big enough to have a hospital, probably to have doctors of most specialties anyway, to have a high school or two, to have some infrastructure for the locals. Mm hmm.
[00:13:47] Susan Hays: Absolutely. Now, I can vouch that it has a very good hospital. Our daughter just spent eight days there with a ruptured appendix.
[00:13:55] Annie Sargent: Mmmh oi!
[00:13:56] Susan Hays: It is a superb hospital, fantastic care. It doesn’t have a university but yeah, it has high schools, it has everything you need on a regular basis. And if you want more, La Rochelle is 45 minutes away. And La Rochelle is about 120,000.
So a lot bigger with a lot more going on. And then you can go an hour and a quarter down the road and we have Bordeaux, which is several million.
[00:14:22] Annie Sargent: Bordeaux is probably half a million, but then if you took all of the metro, yeah, it’s probably over a million. Wonderful.
So Port d’Envraux is, pardon, Port d’Envaux, I added an r there, it’s got the name port, but it’s not on the sea. It’s a riverport. And I’m looking at pictures and I’m seeing kids splashing in the river, you mentioned kayaking earlier. That’s probably just six months out of the year, right? You don’t have people renting kayaks year round, do you?
[00:14:56] Susan Hays: No, the kayaks, although we have our own kayaks and paddleboards, and so we sometimes go out in the winter, but no, it’s the kayaks and paddleboards and electric boats are for rent by the cabin, which is, serves drinks and it’s very much outdoors, they have no indoor area. So when that is open, you can rent things.
It is basically April through to October.
The Charentes stone and Sculptors
[00:15:20] Annie Sargent: And the other thing I’m seeing is like sculptures into the rock. So is there like a fun walk you can do that where you walk past?
[00:15:30] Susan Hays: Yeah, so this area, the stone, the Charentes stone, which is extremely famous, and Crazannes, which is the next door village, about two kilometers away, their stone, their quarries, stone was exported and is used to build a great deal of Versailles, and was also exported as a gift to the Americans and is used in the base of the Statue of Liberty.
[00:15:54] Annie Sargent: Oh, oh!
[00:15:55] Susan Hays: So that is our local stone from the next door village.
[00:15:59] Annie Sargent: So is that Crazanne? Is that what the one you meant?
[00:16:02] Susan Hays: Yeah, C R A Z A N N E S.
Right.
The stone works here called L’Iliopédielle, and this is where they, you can go, you can walk around, it’s an old quarry, there are most incredible carvings in the rocks. And all year round you can walk around, there are carvings with big stones, big pieces of Crazanne stone that they have put up.
But in the summer months, starting about April, they do workshops. And also people are there, people from, last year was the New Zealand year, we had a lot of Maori culture. And every year they invite different sculptors who come and create these incredible pieces out of stone and huge pieces, you know, three meters tall and they’re standing on ladders and you can just stand there and watch them chipping away at the stone and what they create is out of this world.
Château de Panloy
[00:16:54] Annie Sargent: How fun, how fun. There’s also another one that looks not far from you, the Château de Panloy. Is that how they say it? Panloy?
[00:17:02] Susan Hays: Panloy, yes, that is literally one of our dog walks, it’s maybe a five minute walk down the road, two and a half minutes if you walk super fast. Beautiful Chateau, they have lots of events going on, again it overlooks the river, family owned through and through. And they have events, they have haunted chateau evenings, they have…
[00:17:21] Annie Sargent: Looks like they do something at Easter.
[00:17:23] Susan Hays: They do the Easter, they do chasse aux oeufs, the Easter egg hunt.
And they also have opera in the park in August, which is utterly stunning. You sit on the lawns, take your own picnic, and watch the opera in the grounds of the chateau. That as the backdrop out of this world. It’s the most magical evening.
[00:17:42] Annie Sargent: That’s wonderful that you live in a small village. I mean, 600 people is teeny tiny, but you have so much going on at least part of the year and then the rest of the year you can look around not too far. That’s wonderful.
[00:17:56] Susan Hays: So much going on. And for locals, you know, there is so much sport as well, I mean, in the Salle Polyvalente, which I’m trying to think of what you would call an English name for that.
[00:18:06] Annie Sargent: It’s a kind of a city facility that can be used for different things. So a multicultural hall or some sort of something like that.
[00:18:15] Susan Hays: It’s not really a salle, it’s very much the sports, you know, they have an indoor tennis, they can convert it for an indoor tennis court, it’s that big, and they have badminton, and the badminton club has 30 or so members from other villages, they have badminton twice a week, Monday and Thursday, our daughter plays.
Fantastic that all of these things are going on, and everybody is so enthusiastic.
[00:18:39] Annie Sargent: Yeah, you probably have a lot of associations that do sports and theater and singing.
[00:18:46] Susan Hays: Of course hiking is so popular. The local rambling groups, bicycling. It is, you know, village life, I think is what you make of it, but there is so much going on and everybody is so welcoming.
[00:18:58] Annie Sargent: Yeah. Have you, I suspect because you have five children, you probably got to know a lot of people just through the children’s activities.
[00:19:05] Susan Hays: Absolutely. I mean, it certainly helps you stand at the school gate and you talk to people and it’s the best way. And then they get to know friends and then the friends, you know, and you get to meet the parents. It’s a great way to meet people.
[00:19:16] Annie Sargent: Yeah, and then this year they want to join the badminton club, and next year they want to join the handball club and whatever. And they just get to know everyone around that way. Yeah, that’s an excellent point.
(Mid-roll ad spot)
[00:19:29] Annie Sargent: But it sounds like there’s also a lot for visitors.
Taillebourg
[00:19:34] Annie Sargent: So another place you mentioned was Taillebourg.
[00:19:37] Susan Hays: Yep.
[00:19:37] Annie Sargent: Tell me about that.
[00:19:39] Susan Hays: Taillebourg is almost across the river from us. It’s on the other side of the river. It is a much, much older, again, it’s a village, it’s about the same size as Port d’Envaux here, but it is much, much older. It has a huge chateau up on the hill, which overlooks the river down over the river. Port d’Envaux is actually not that old, which going back to this village for a minute is quite interesting.
So, the actual main part of Port d’Envaux only dates to about 1800.
[00:20:08] Annie Sargent: Mhm
[00:20:09] Susan Hays: Which for a French village is not that old. The main part of the village and actually where our church is, is actually called Saint Saturnin, which is a commune of Port d’Envaux just down the road. They have the really old houses, some date back to the 1200s, 1300s, 1400s, and that is where our church is, because that used to be the main part.
And then, this part, where the actual village is now, where the restaurants, the boulangerie, and the houses, was all built at the very beginning of the 1800s for the shipbuilders. And this is where the money was made, hence the port, because it was a shipbuilding area where people would stop with their boats.
We actually have a big plaque of all the names of all the boats, and the sloops that were made, and who built them, and who the captain was, and were he lived on what is translated as Shipbuilder’s Road. And so this is where the money was made, because the stone was brought here and then out to sea, taken to another port to then go up the Seine to Paris.
And likewise, it was famous for its alcohol, for brandy, and cognac. Going back to Taillebourg, Taillebourg is on the other side of the river and is much, much older, little narrow streets, riverside cafes, a lot of history, more artsy. And then Saint-Savinien, next door, Saint-Savinien sur Charentes is a slightly bigger town of about 2000 people.
That is, again, a very, very artsy place with a lot of galleries and little shops, little artisanal shops, and the three villages together are known as the Golden Triangle.
[00:21:44] Annie Sargent: Hmm. Very nice. Yeah, Taillebourg, I’m looking at photos as you’re talking. It looks lovely as well. It does have an old chateau, with an old tower…
[00:21:54] Susan Hays: And the old chateau, interestingly, that is where, in the grounds of the old chateau, in one of the buildings, is the local primary school, and the main chateau that you can see, that is the school canteen now.
[00:22:06] Annie Sargent: That’s cool!
[00:22:08] Susan Hays: Being a little school kid, that’s where, I mean, they would just take it for granted, but that’s where you have your lunch.
I think it’s wonderful.
Taillebourg in the Lot-et-Garonne
[00:22:14] Annie Sargent: There’s also a Taillebourg in the Lot-et-Garonne. So, something to mention to listeners is when you’re looking for a place in France, it’s good if you know the zip code as well as the name, because we do have a lot of names that come back, you know, time and time again. So if you just tell your GPS, take me to Taillebourg, it might take you to the wrong place if you’re not careful.
[00:22:37] Susan Hays: Totally. In fact, we were with some clients yesterday and they tapped in one address the day before and they’re from the States. And they said they ended up in Cognac and they were about an hour from where they meant to be, but they didn’t know where they were going. So they just blindly followed the GPS.
[00:22:52] Annie Sargent: Yeah. Yeah. If you don’t know any better, why would you be very worried about it?
Saint-Savinien
[00:22:58] Annie Sargent: Saint-Savinien, why don’t you tell me about that place? It also looks lovely, nice river, you know, all of these places are along the river, which adds a lot to the charm. And the river is La Charente, of course, because Charentes Maritimes.
So in this episode, we’re not talking about seaside towns, we’re talking about towns along the river.
[00:23:21] Susan Hays: Absolutely. So, Saint-Savinien is, as I say, part of the golden triangle of these three, Port d’Envaux, Taillebourg, Saint-Savinien. Saint-Savinien is the biggest it has banks, and more shops, so it’s definitely classified as a town, as opposed to a village. It has a middle school as well as a primary school.
It has a big supermarket on the outskirts, big garden center. But it’s the old part of the town that is so fascinating. There are little streets that wind, the big houses again overlook the river, but then the little streets go along beside the river or just behind and wind uphill towards the church.
And there are so many artists gathered there. There are lots of little artists’ galleries, little artisanal shops, boutiques owned, you know, very much individually. It is exceedingly charming town. You can grab a coffee, you can go to the boulangerie, there’s a couple of little restaurants. A lively place all year round, again, with great clubs, great social life.
And it is just beautiful, very, very beautiful. It used to suffer a lot from flooding, but oh gosh, about 50, 60 years ago, they started on the lock, which has helped immensely because now they can regulate the water and things, so you know, it’s very, very rare now.
[00:24:41] Annie Sargent: Yeah, it looks like one of the main activities to do there is to get on a boat and float along the river. So I assume they have group cruises and they probably have little electric boats that you can rent and things like that.
[00:24:56] Susan Hays: Absolutely, the whole thing. And there’s a big riverboat that comes from Saintes all the way down as far as Saint-Savinien. You can have dinner on the boat, or aperitifs, or you can just do just a cruise on its own, whichever you would rather, but it’s a big boat, it takes you all the way from Saintes past here. It calls in on Port d’Envaux quite often on the way back. It’s just a big river boat, super popular, it’s a very popular river. You’ll find a lot of people are having fishing beside it, families picnicking, but also as you say, people taking little boats and going up and down. It’s very much, you know, we’re only 40 minutes from the coast at the most, 35 on a good day. But this is where everybody comes.
It’s like our own little seaside.
[00:25:40] Annie Sargent: Yeah, yeah, so there’s a little company, there’s a company called Les Petits Bateaux sur l’Eau, and it’s 30 years old apparently, and they rent funky looking little boats. It looks like they have an industrial crane like they would be, I don’t know, it’s a reminder of the industrial past of the area.
I bet kids love that. If kids can tool around, no, that’s fantastic. Would you say there are a lot of visitors in that area?
Drinking habits and social norms in France
[00:26:06] Susan Hays: Huge amount. The population swells enormously in the summer, but never to the degree that you think, Oh my goodness, you can’t move, I’m just inundated. I mean, it is busy, and definitely people and bicycles are the main priority down, certainly down the village roads here, as opposed to cars. But it’s not so heaving that you just think, I can’t stand this. It’s a lovely kind of busy. It’s a kind of busy, it just has, because it’s families, it’s not a nasty, there’s no undercurrent or even, you know, the French drink in a very different way to a lot of other cultures. It’s always very social, but not over drinking as such.
And it just, there is a lovely atmosphere all summer when it’s full and in the winter, yes, you don’t get so many visitors, but we do still get people that come here. So, yeah, it is quite touristy, but not in a bad way.
[00:27:00] Annie Sargent: Right. Yeah. It’s a very good point that French people drink in a very different way, because, technically, if you drink two glasses of wine at lunch and two glasses of wine at dinner, you’re an alcoholic category, but it’s not, it doesn’t feel the same as binge drinking four glasses of wine in 10 minutes or two pints of beer in five minutes or whatever it is.
You know, it doesn’t have the same effect. It’s more like throughout the day. There are people who drink a little bit throughout the day, especially when they’re on vacation. We drink less and less as far as daily life, but when people are on vacation, they’re probably going to have a couple of drinks at lunch and a couple of drinks at dinner.
And it’s, you know, they’re not drunk. They’re just having a good time, I guess.
[00:27:42] Susan Hays: I agree. I never drink during the day because I always end up having to get in a car or go somewhere. So, and I don’t like drinking during the day. I don’t drink very much anyway, you know, one glass of wine at night and that’s me completely. But I think, you’re right, what the French do is they tend to, they don’t just go, oh, drink and knock it back and then a second one, and then a third one. A glass of wine lasts quite a long time. It’s a very different, as you say, they drink probably more in some ways, but it’s a very different way of drinking.
[00:28:13] Annie Sargent: Mm hmm. Mm hmm.
La Rochelle
[00:28:15] Annie Sargent: And you mentioned La Rochelle, briefly, and L’île de Ré, as well as Jonzac. I want to go talk about those a little bit, and then we’ll talk about the type of business that you run.
La Rochelle, we’ve had a whole episode about it. It is a lovely, lovely town to visit. I spent two days there. I wish I had had more. I think it’s a great town to spend a whole week because there is so much to do around there as well. What do you think?
[00:28:41] Susan Hays: I think La Rochelle is absolutely beautiful. As you said, there is so much to do around. It’s a big city. The shops are beautiful. The old archways walking down the streets. The market is sublime. And the coast, you’ve got, you know, the two fortresses that overlook where, from the marina where the boats go out to sea.
It is a beautiful, beautiful city, a lot of history, well preserved, lovely parks, superb food, great restaurants. Fantastic.
L’île de Ré
[00:29:10] Susan Hays: And then of course you can hop over the bridge by car, which is a big bridge built in the 60s, 2.6, 2.5 kilometers long, to the L’île de Ré, which is absolutely fantastic. It’s a fantastic island, extremely expensive to buy property there, but most people rent bikes and go around, it’s the best way to see, but you can just go by car, it’s just stunning, a wonderful place. So there is so much going on here.
People come and stay with us for a week and then say, Oh God, we haven’t even scratched the surface of the places we want to go and visit.
[00:29:46] Annie Sargent: Right. Yeah, because you have the Marais Poitevin, which is not far as well, that’s worth a day or two.
Jonzac
[00:29:53] Annie Sargent: And the other town you mentioned is Jonzac, but that one is south of Saintes, isn’t it?
[00:29:58] Susan Hays: Yep, Jonzac is further south, and when you, like so many French towns, when you drive through the outskirts, you just sort of think, oh, and keep going, because they tend to build their modern buildings on the outskirts with their, you know, the modern shops and the big commercial centres. But when you actually then park in the centre, and it is all pedestrianised, really beautiful, and they have a lovely, during the summer, the summer market, and they have a lot of food stalls and all the tables are lined up in long trestle tables. And you just go and buy whatever food you feel like buying from the food stalls. And sit at the trestle tables along with hundreds of other people. And they have a live band playing and it’s so convivial and you’re just eating whatever you happen to choose.
And you’ll have, you know, little kids of six dancing, teenagers, adults, grandparents. That is one thing I love about French way of life is this, there’s not this sort of stigma of teenagers being seen with parents, or being seen with grandparents. People do tend to mix together, it is far more socially acceptable that you can dance with your granny, or dance with your mother, or your father and…
[00:31:09] Annie Sargent: Yes.
[00:31:10] Susan Hays: And I think that is fabulous. It’s a far more family orientated way of thinking.
[00:31:15] Annie Sargent: Yeah, definitely. Yeah. So if I’m looking at the map of all the places that we mentioned, the furthest south is Jonzac, then you go up to Saintes, then there’s a bit of a triangle with Port d’Envaux, Taillebourg and Saint-Savinien. And then you continue on, you will drive through Rochefort, next to Fouras, which is, or perhaps they say Fouras, I’m not sure if they say the S in that one.
[00:31:42] Susan Hays: Without the S.
Okay, so Fouras.
[00:31:45] Annie Sargent: Fouras, I thought was a lovely, lovely little town.
Châtelaillon-Plage
[00:31:48] Annie Sargent: Then you drive north some more. I don’t know anything about Châtelaillon-Plage, but that sounds intriguing.
Rebuilt towns and islands near the coast
[00:31:56] Susan Hays: Châtelaillon-Plage is really, really pretty. Quite newly built. It was bombed quite heavily during the war, so it’s a bit like Royan, which is further south on the coast. Again, bombed heavily during the war. So you’ve got a lot of not such old buildings, but it is lovely.
And the other thing along the coast is we have not just the Île de Ré, we also have the Ile d’Aix, which is only accessible by boat from Fouras.
It’s a foot boat. There are no cars except for service vehicles on the island. I think about 200 people live there permanently and it has lots of little cafes to go in and a wonderful place to visit in the summer. And Napoleon’s last place on French soil, last house where he lived on French soil before he was exiled to St Helena.
So there was a museum there, wonderful again for a day trip to take the boat. That’s Ile d’Aix. Yep. So we have the islands.
Fort de l’Ile Madame
[00:32:54] Susan Hays: We also have the l’Ile Madame, which is only no houses. You just walk around very wild, fabulous for nature, accessible only at low tide because you walk across the causeway.
I’Ile d’Oléron
[00:33:05] Susan Hays: And then of course we have the I’Ile d’Oléron, which is the further south of the four islands. Again, heavily populated.
[00:33:13] Annie Sargent: Yeah.
[00:33:13] Susan Hays: Fantastic Atlantic beaches, it’s where all the surfers go, amazing surf. And another very, very pretty island, if you like island life, again, connected by a bridge that’s over 2km long.
[00:33:24] Annie Sargent: So it looks like Fort de l’Ile Madame is something you can visit and it is connected to the land by a causeway. There’s this thing called Passe Au Boeuf where it’s a hiking trail.
[00:33:38] Susan Hays: It is, it’s a wonderful hike all the way around the island, but as I say, when it’s high tide, you can’t get across the causeway.
[00:33:44] Annie Sargent: Right, right. So you have to go at the right time for those. And then Ile d’Aix where you just have to take a boat.
[00:33:52] Susan Hays: Absolutely.
[00:33:53] Annie Sargent: Only from Fouras, or do they also have boats from other towns?
[00:33:57] Susan Hays: No, only from Fouras. It’s a big, it’s quite a big boat. And you can take your bicycle, or it’s foot passages.
[00:34:06] Annie Sargent: Yeah, yeah. And, so I said it wrong, the town is Châtelaillon-Plage. Châtelaillon-Plage. Wow, that’s a mouthful.
[00:34:16] Susan Hays: It is very, very pretty again on the Atlantic, a seaside town, but super pretty, definitely well worth a visit.
[00:34:26] Annie Sargent: Yeah. Okay. Then you go further north and you’re at La Rochelle and then L’île de Ré. So it’s kind of a long, it’s 160 kilometers between Jonzac and L’île de Ré if you’re driving. So it’s only three hours drive total, but so many places where you can stop along the way that you can probably spend two weeks just doing that, you know.
[00:34:47] Susan Hays: Oh, absolutely.
[00:34:48] Annie Sargent: Well, if you’re interested in a leisurely exploration of the Charentes Maritimes, that would be a very nice way to do it because you do some inland, some on the ocean. Of course, these are not the only places. Again, I have to say this all the time, you know, we select a few places to tell you about.
This doesn’t mean that there’s not more interesting places. We just have to pick a few.
Food and wine in the Charente Maritime
[00:35:12] Susan Hays: Exactly. And, you know, for foodie and winey, you know, wine buffs, of course, we are covered in vineyards here. Very famous for the local drink, which is the Pinot des Charentes, as well as Cognac, obviously. So you can go on wine tours. Plenty do that. And also, if you head to the coast, Marennes, which is just before you get to the I’Ile d’Oléron, is the oyster capital.
It’s absolutely famous for its oysters. And you literally, you can drive along and there are loads of little seaside wooden shacks that you pass on. Literally shacks, I say, because you pass them on the road and they look like they would blow down in a puff of wind. And they’re selling oysters, or mussels, and you can literally just sit beside the road, the little table and have your glass of pinot or whatever, and your oysters. Fantastic for seafood, and you can pick your own live seafood if you want to choose, langoustine or whatever you want. It is really the seafood capital.
In the business of helping people find a home
[00:36:11] Annie Sargent: So briefly, let’s mention your business, you are a realtor, I guess?
[00:36:16] Susan Hays: Well, no, yes and no. Basically, we are house hunters, so we help people find the right property. We don’t sell properties for people at all. That is not, I guess we’re not real estate, we don’t sell properties. We have learned through our own experiences and our own very costly mistakes that especially moving to a foreign country, although we do have clients from Paris and French people too, that it is really difficult to find the perfect house in the perfect area, especially in France, because there’s not real estate agents. The listings tend not to be very, they’re not fabulous.
You know, you don’t really see an awful lot of what you’re going to get. The photos aren’t always the best. They tend to leave out quite a few things. And as you say, you can go online and you can look at a million beautiful properties, but how do you know if that area is going to suit you, or if that property really is quite what they say it is.
[00:37:15] Annie Sargent: It’s more of a custom, kind of, you chat with your potential customers and you help them find the right place.
[00:37:21] Susan Hays: We help them find the right property because you know here houses is not common to have a survey done so you know people don’t… there are not surveyors who go around and you pay like in England for example as x amount a few hundred pounds to have your house surveyed so you know exactly what is wrong with it.
Here there is the standard diagnostic which does your lead, and your plumb lead, and your electrics and that’s it.
[00:37:44] Annie Sargent: Yeah. And they tell you if the place is efficient as far as heating and cooling, but that’s it’s pretty basic. Yeah.
[00:37:51] Susan Hays: We basically help people, we talk to them, we find out exactly what they want. If this area is going to suit them, because obviously we only work in this area because this is where we know, and it would be wrong to advise people on an area we don’t know about.
La Cachette
[00:38:06] Annie Sargent: Sure. Sure. And you have a cottage that you rent out?
[00:38:11] Susan Hays: We do, we have, it’s just one bedroom, it’s in the gardens, it’s called La Cachette, which means the hiding place, because it is really hidden in the gardens, it’s only accessible on foot. There is no parking outside, and you walk down through the garden, and it’s a south facing terrace, overlooking the swimming pool. And it’s our little pride and joy, we absolutely love it, and we so enjoy welcoming guests here.
It is just for two people, we respect that a lot of people want privacy and we respect that. But when people want to chat, we also love sitting in the evening having a glass of wine, chatting and talking and getting to know people. It’s really, so love having the guest cottage.
[00:38:54] Annie Sargent: You also have a selection of products that you sell, etc. So, so yes everybody who’s interested in any of this, go to ourfrenchlifestyle.com and you’ll find it all there.
[00:39:05] Susan Hays: Thank you, thank you.
If you hope to come to France…
[00:39:06] Annie Sargent: Yes. Yes. So Susan, do you have general advice for people who are hoping to come to France? Perhaps scouting out the right area to live in, or perhaps just wanting to explore the area for a week or two.
Things that they should think about before embarking on a journey like this.
[00:39:28] Susan Hays: I think it’s different if you’re coming for a holiday or if you’re coming with the idea of potentially buying somewhere. If you’re coming for holiday then, I always like to do a little bit of research before I go anywhere, so I know roughly where I’m going and what I hope to go and see. If you’re coming with the idea of possibly moving here or buying a second home here, then I think the most important thing is just have a wish list.
You might not stick to it and accept the fact that, you know, compromises do have to be made, but write down very clearly what you would like in an ideal world, and then mark the things that perhaps you would be willing to compromise on. And likewise, mark the things that are absolutely non negotiable and stick to those because I think those are really important.
[00:40:15] Annie Sargent: I’m just curious about your kids, are they all grown by now or are they still young?
[00:40:20] Susan Hays: No, the youngest is 17 and the eldest is 27 so there are five of them and they’re 10 years apart. Our eldest works and lives in London but comes over here about once a month. She loves coming back here all the time. Our second eldest is in the Channel Islands in Guernsey and she’s getting married next year, which is super exciting.
My son has just finished university in Bordeaux, and he did fine art in Bordeaux and he is currently thinking about the future and working in the local riverside cafe for, you know, good summer money and. Yeah. And then our second youngest daughter is having a gap year in between high school and university.
And then she starts, she was going to start university this year doing international economics. Didn’t really know what to do, didn’t really want to do it, it was sort of something she put her back and, you know, sort of fell into and she thought, no, this is not right. So she’s actually been volunteering at the local primary school all year.
[00:41:23] Annie Sargent: Well…
[00:41:24] Susan Hays: A French thing called Service Civique, which basically, yeah, you’re a volunteer, you have to do X number of days per year and you get paid 600 a month, so not very much money. But you could, obviously you wouldn’t be able to work in the school otherwise, because you wouldn’t have any qualifications, so she has really enjoyed helping out.
In fact, she now does the English classes all on her own to these little kids, because she speaks more English than the other teachers, and maths, the art, so she’s done that. And she’s also reached out, she thought she might want to go into graphic design and arts, so she reached out to a lot of local societies and clubs and offered to do their artwork for them for free. And she has, she’s helping an art gallery at the moment across the river in Taillebourg.
And then the mayor said, could she come and help him with some work for the mayor? And she’s done the local badminton club logo here and the local tennis club. So, you know, she’s been really active doing her thing.
[00:42:25] Annie Sargent: She’s building a portfolio, that’s great.
[00:42:28] Susan Hays: Absolutely. And then our youngest daughter is 17 and in her last year of school, but she’s homeschooled.
She is semi pro tennis player and playing on the international circuit.
[00:42:38] Annie Sargent: Wow. Wow.
Well, you have quite the family. That’s wonderful.
Wonderful. So do you think this is a permanent residence for you? Are you thinking of staying put for the time being?
[00:42:49] Susan Hays: Yeah, it’s perfect. I mean, I think if we moved the children would kill us for a start, because they just say this is absolute heaven on earth. And even, you know, 10 years later, I’d have to pinch myself that we actually live here. Sometimes it still feels like a bit of a dream.
[00:43:04] Annie Sargent: Is this an area that has a lot of English people that move to?
[00:43:09] Susan Hays: Well, it has quite a few foreigners, and not just English. We have American, we have Dutch, we have German, Belgians, Canadians, New Zealanders. But not totally overrun. There are places inland that are far more heavily populated because obviously, the further you go inland, the less expensive it becomes.
Like anywhere in the world when you’re relatively close to the coast, the price tag goes up.
So there are a nice amount of English, or expats. There is a nice community, without feeling totally overwhelmed. You can still, I mean, our kids were the first ever English children in the primary school. So it’s not, and I think that’s nice.
It’s a nice amount.
[00:43:52] Annie Sargent: Well, so clearly your kids are bilingual. Have you and your husband learned much French?
[00:43:57] Susan Hays: Yeah, I would say we’re pretty much bilingual. I mean, I still get verbs occasionally wrong and my children shout at me and correct me absolutely instantly. In front of whoever you’re speaking to, you sort of want the ground to open up.
[00:44:10] Annie Sargent: Right, but you’re comfortable picking up the phone and making an appointment with…
[00:44:15] Susan Hays: Absolutely, and going to dinner parties with French people and mix, we have many French friends, totally, at home.
[00:44:21] Annie Sargent: That’s really important because if you’re permanently in fear of needing to speak French, either because of a medical situation or because of a, I don’t know, paperwork you need to do, or, you know, if that stresses you out, then that really means you need to work on your French because… yeah, this is France, you need to learn.
[00:44:42] Susan Hays: Yeah, you need to get more out of the, you know, I think it would be awful to be, if you live here permanently, and you’ve been here for a long time, to walk down the road to the shops and not to be able to have a conversation with somebody.
[00:44:56] Annie Sargent: Yeah, that’s absolutely vital.
All right, Susan, you have been a delight to talk to. Thank you so much for sharing about this part of France, which I have not seen most of the towns, especially in the triangle that you mentioned, I have not seen them. They look really appealing. I would like to go.
They look like the kind of place where you could spend a wonderful few days and have a wonderful time.
[00:45:17] Susan Hays: It’s known as a pretty well kept secret. And I think, just a quick addition I should have mentioned, what keeps it so buzzing, and so it’s quite a cosmopolitan area, is because it is really loved by parisians. A lot of parisians have second homes here, because it’s very easily accessible from Paris.
It’s three and a half hours by train, four and a half hours by car, and this is where they all come for their summer holidays. If they don’t head south, they come here. And so this is what keeps it buzzing all year round.
[00:45:47] Annie Sargent: Wonderful.
Susan, thank you so much for talking to me, and hopefully I’ll go visit and say hi to you.
[00:45:53] Susan Hays: Absolutely, we’d love to welcome you here.
[00:45:55] Annie Sargent: Merci beaucoup, Susan.
[00:45:57] Susan Hays: Merci. Au revoir.
[00:45:59] Annie Sargent: Au revoir.
Copyright
[00:45:59] Annie Sargent: The Join Us in France travel podcast is written, hosted, and produced by Annie Sargent and Copyright 2024 by AddictedToFrance. It is released under a Creative Commons, attribution, non-commercial, no derivatives license.
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Episode PageCategories: Atlantic Coast, Bordeaux Area, Moving to France