# Next Scouting Trip



## Kid Charlemagne (May 1, 2018)

Earlier this year I did a scouting trip to Occitanie, searching out areas for future retirement. I looked primarily Carcassonne south to Quillan/Axat, and while Carcassonne is still on the list, I think places like Limoux, Quillan, etc were a little too remote, especially once you get up in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Very pretty, but better to visit than live in.

So now I'm thinking of the next scouting trip, and looking for folks' thoughts on other nearby areas.

Specifically, I'm looking for anyone's experiences in the Canal du Midi area, ranging from Carcassonne east towards Narbonne. The small towns in between there look like a good mix of quiet & rural but still with decent access to trains, highways, and amenities.

I'm also curious if anyone has any experiences of the Têt river valley (towns like Ille-sur-Têt, Vinca, Prades, or the west suburbs of Perpignan). I've driven through that area a few times and it seems like it could be a good match for my needs and interests.

Any thoughts?


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## jweihl (Jul 18, 2017)

Like everything, "it all depends." It is wise to do scouting trips though. We are two US couples that retired to France a little over a year ago. 

Prior to moving we did a lot of thinking about what we wanted in a location (criteria) and ended up with: Warm weather, good rail transport links, proximity to airports, reasonable cost of living, center of a not too large (but still lively year round) city, charm/history. Bonus points for being a prefect city. While we liked Provence, it was a little pricier than we were comfortable with. Languedoc area seemed to have the best fit for our criteria. 

Once we landed on the region, we started doing research on actual cities that we might want to consider. We ultimately picked several and scheduled a scouting trip in 2019. We visited Narbonne, Beziers, Nîmes, and Montpellier; along with side trips to smaller locations just for fun (Sète, Uzes, Soave). We actually liked all of the places at first blush. In fact each of the four of us preferred a different city. Ranked order voting put Nîmes as the clear winner, as it was everyone's second pick and one person's first pick. Looking back, we made a great choice for us, and I think each of us would now rank it first among the four. It's really, the right size for us. Narbonne and Beziers just a bit too small (I visited Narbonne last November and it was pretty dead), while Montpellier is just a bit bigger than we wanted (though we go their quite often).

I think what really helped us was to think very carefully about what type of community you envision yourself in, and spend a good deal of time refining your criteria. Among most people I talk to, weather, transport, and community size all seem to be super important things to consider.


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## jweihl (Jul 18, 2017)

Kid Charlemagne said:


> Earlier this year I did a scouting trip to Occitanie, searching out areas for future retirement. I looked primarily Carcassonne south to Quillan/Axat, and while Carcassonne is still on the list, I think places like Limoux, Quillan, etc were a little too remote, especially once you get up in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Very pretty, but better to visit than live in.
> 
> So now I'm thinking of the next scouting trip, and looking for folks' thoughts on other nearby areas.
> 
> ...


BTW, Carcassonne is one of the communities that I would rate higher than my initial first impression. For me, I think I'd rank it over Narbonne or Beziers.


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## ccm47 (Oct 15, 2013)

Carcassonne has it all: good transport links, shopping, sports, oodles of history etc.
We looked at buying a 2 bed apartment there, with a view to retiring there once we were less physically able. The apartments which interested us most were in gated communities with a concierge in situ. The residents were a mix of owners and tenants. Allocated parking within the community was where it all fell apart. One lunchtime we walked around the community, with the estate agent, to check out the ambiance because we thought we had found an ideal apartment. What we found was a good 20% of vehicles were either uninsured or lacking their roadworthiness certificates, other clearly needed bodywork. These vehicles were in regular daily use! When parked outside the communities for about 20 minutes at a time we saw unbelievably bad driving including a 4 year old at the wheel on the road! We realised our chances of having good relationships with neighbours who couldn't /wouldn't pay routine bills would be low and the chances of our own vehicles being damaged high. What was even more worrying was that the local police clearly were not upholding the motoring laws in town as the law breaking was so flagrant.
We changed our minds entirely about an apartment and bought a boat on the Canal, at least one can move it if the neighbours cause us a problem and it's a lot bigger than the yachts we used for offshore racing. Our boat has no steps to worry about if moored up so could be lived on permanently.
Currently the boat is having a year at Capestang. This village is attractive to all ages it seems. It has a number of foreign residents and tourists. There are regular buses including a 2 hourly bus service to Béziers (it passes the mooring), a sports stadium, several restaurants, a twice weekly market, multiple shops, two schools, a lively social calendar, historic buildings etc. There would definitely be worse places to live but because of the steep hills I would recommend having motorised transport available if possible, even the Canal is at the top of the village!


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