[quote=briansd1]
Jazzman, I hear you about being able to get good quality houses in France… But you’d be living in the French equivalent of Alabama (which is still much more desirable than the real Alabama, and without the distances you’d be closer to the big cities).

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Many years ago, I used to do the vendange (grape picking), and farmers and villages could be termed ‘rural’. But a visit a few years back, and this has changed. Gentrification is pretty much everywhere certainly for the prettier villages. Regions like Acquitaine is home to places like the Dordogne, with comparably well priced homes and is highly cultural. There are no big sprawling metropolises, but gently rolling countryside dotted with beautiful villages and towns. The term “rural” doesn’t apply in the US sense at all. The only place in Europe where time has apparently stood still is Romania, and of course we now cherish what we have lost.