Southwest France
An ideal mix between culture, sport and nature
Discover Occitanie
We are convinced that the southwest of France is the ideal location to spend your holidays… and we hope this article convinces you too!
What distinguishes this region from others is the wide variety of activities it proposes. On one hand, you can spend days wandering in well preserved medieval villages, majestic tows, immense castles,or fancy art galleries. On the other hand, there is wine fields to discover, mountains to climb, lakes to navigate and walking trails to master. Everybody will find happiness in the southwest of France!
Even though there is a lot to do for a lot of people, it hasn’t been touched by mass-tourism, which has some great benefits for you:
- Real estate remains rather affordable at the moment
- But they will keep increasing in value, so you will not lose money on you investment
- You can enjoy anonymity, rest and peace
- Restaurants don’t need to be booked 1 month in advance, and you can eat amazing food for next to nothing
- There are (almost) no traffic jams, except for some tractors
- Tourist shops haven’t driven away artisans
Protected heritage
What motivated us to do what we do at Sud’arrange is our passion for traditional architecture. And we’ve got plenty of that around here: medieval villages built around churches, cathedrals, or castles. Traditional houses in stone, brick, woodwork, clay,… As most of them are protected by the French heritage counsel they are often well preserved or restored to former glory respecting their past and building materials/techniques. Try not to look up too much when wandering in the narrow streets, you might hurt your neck!
As the country has been well fought for between the English and the French royal families, or between Christians and Heathens or even before that Gallic and Romans, it’s packed with culture, historical sites and exhibitions or museums. Comme and discover this next time you visit!
Every week, we visit a town or village of the southwest and write an article about it on our blog-page, you can find them here, or in the ” discovers southwest France” subsection.
Furthermore we make sure to post regularly about our adventures on Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn.
Perfect to spend your vacation
Tourism is one of the driving forces behind the southwest France’s local economy, but it not the only one. The region thrives of agriculture, manufacturing, and the service industry. This diversity has some major benefits for locals and tourists:
- Most regions have decent average incomes, which translates in well maintained buildings, roads, and other infrastructure.
- Actual accommodation capacity doesn’t lend itself to mass tourism (and local politics won’t allow it) which means you can enjoy your peace and quiet, without the stress that often comme with large hordes of people
- Year-round activities, as the Southwest doesn’t live of seasonal income there are things to do all year round. businesses don’t shut down for the winter and events are organised regularly.
- We think locals are nicer than in other areas of France. As they don’t see foreigners as cash cows nor parasites, they are more likely to interact with you when you’re visiting.
As you can see, the Southwest might just be the place for you to spend the holidays!
There is something to do for everybody
Culture
13th century castles, fortifications, monasteries, cathedrals, mills… Everything witnesses of the glorious past of this region, once well fought over because of its riches. Today these foreign influences make this region particularly interesting from an archeologic and cultural viewpoint. You will be able to spend hours in exhibitions, museums, houses of religion, forts, …
Nature
If the outdoors is more your cup of tea you won’t be disappointed. The southwest of France has some of the most elaborate labyrinths of hiking trails and walking trails. Be it in the mountains, through the wine fields, alongside its many canals and rivers or past authentic cities… better buy some good shoes before coming here!
As there are some long stretches between civilisation, you can spot some amazing wildlife too, or if you’re a bit impatient we have some amazing zoos and safaris. The kids will love them!
You don’t like walking? No problem, France is known for its mountainbike trails or Tour de France stages. You won’t go far with a normal bicycle, but with an electric bike it’s very nice cruising around the south of France. If you like water, there lots of it. We have the Mediterranean the Atlantic Ocean and all the lakes and rivers in between. Come surfing, sailing, kayaking, canoeing, jetski’ing,…
Sports
You don’t like walking? No problem, France is also known for its mountainbike trails or Tour de France stages. You won’t go far with a normal bicycle, but with an electric bike it’s very nice cruising around the south of France.
You prefer water to land? There lots of it. We have the Mediterranean the Atlantic Ocean and all the lakes and rivers in between. Come surfing, sailing, kayaking, canoeing, jetski’ing,…
The presence of the mountains is a great benefit to leisure activities, we have some amazing canyoning spots, you can go rock climbing and winter season only means one thing: SKI (and snowboard, ok that’s 2 things…)
As you can see the southwest is a very divers region where every season brings its own activities to the table. We love it here and we’re sure you’ll love it too!
Our hunting grounds
While our property hunting and managment agency is located near Toulouse we concentrate on Aveyron, Tarn, Tarn&Garonne, Lot and Lot&Garonne when hunting for your dream vacation home. Why might you ask? Simple, we think the area north of Toulouse is perfect for people that come here to blow off some steam but still want to be active. It’s the perfect mix of sports and culture and it has an amazing number of great places to visit.
But our central location is perfect so that we can also find your dream house south of Toulouse Ariège, Gers, Haute Garonne and Hautes-Pyrénées are all departments that have a lot of things to offer and real estate might be a todd cheaper in these areas. If you love the mountains, they might be the perfect spot to settle down.
Want to come over to work in the area, we know Toulouse inside-out and will find the perfect house for you in the greater Toulouse area! Don’t have the budget to buy one yet, no problem, we can also find you an amazing rental!
At Sud’Arrange we want to promote the area we live in and love, Occitanie. Everybody knows the Provence, Vosges, Dordogne or Normandie, and while they are great places, we are sure you will be amazed about what this region has to offer!
We’re doing our best to map the area for you and show you around the beautiful villages by writing weekly articles about them, you can find them here, or in the ” discovers southwest France” subsection.
Furthermore we make sure to post regularly about our adventures on Facebook, Instagram, Youtube or LinkedIn.
If you want to be kept updated about our adventures, sign in for our newsletter!
Must-visits
As we mentioned before we’re trying to map the area for you to have some guide when you’re visiting the area. The map below shows all the towns and villages worth visiting. As you can see there are a lot of them. Why not buy a house in the centre of this area and use it as a base from where to discover the surroundings? Having a “pied-à-terre” will make you experience France in a different way, you will automatically integrate the local culture!
- Blue: All places listed by the tourism offices
- Red: Places we visited and are well worth the trip
- Orange: Places we visited that are worth the trip but arren’t big enough to spend a complete day
- Green: Places we didn’t like
If you click on the Red, Orange and Green dots they will show you our article about the place.
Comme and discover southwest France!
If you're tempted to buy a "pied-à-terre", make sure to contact us,
we can help you find the house of your dreams!
