Charente-Maritime – Something to Write Home About

It all starts with the seafood, naturally. And sooner or later, you’re going to find yourself shucking an oyster. These bivalves are the star gastronomic attraction on this portion of the Atlantic coast, but the most famous of all are the Marennes-Oléron oysters, which spend the latter stages of their lives in brackish water, giving them their distinctive nutty flavour.

The mussels here – many of them grown on ropes curled around long wooden poles, or bouchots – are rather special too. For a bit of turf with their surf, some Charentais eat garden snails in a dish called cagouilles à la Charentaise – snails cooked in white wine, carrots, garlic, onion, thyme, bay leaves, tomato and a dash of cognac.

There’s also plenty of food  without a shell around it. Try Charentais grillons (a pork dish), Chalais veal, Barbezieux chicken, lapin à la saintongeaise  (rabbit casserole) or potatoes from the Île de Ré. The best-known local cheeses are Manslois and Jonchée. For dessert, there’s galette Charentaise (a spongy cake), Kroumir (marzipan dipped in sugar), pichotte (marzipan dipped in chocolate) or the famous Charentais melon. The region’s key vineyards serve to produce cognac. You’ll also quaff lots of pineau des Charentes, a popular aperitif made from a blend of lightly fermented grape must and cognac.

According to the property website www.meilleursagents.com, prices across the département remained fairly static between the economic crisis of 2008 and 2017. But over the past three years, they have seen a gradual rise. The average price for a house currently stands at €2,599 per square metre, and €3,165 per square metre for an apartment. Coastal regions are able to command the highest prices, which drop substantially the further east and inland you head.

Among the main towns on the French mainland, La Rochelle is the most expensive. Here, you’ll pay on average €3,722 per square metre for a house and €3,819 per square metre for an apartment. This is followed by Saint-Georges-de-Didonne (€3,456 and €3,499), Royan (€3,454 and €3,438), Périgny (€3,346 and €3,334) and Lagord (€3,278 and €2,831).

However, these property prices are dwarfed by those of Île de Ré. Here, in the capital Saint-Martin-de-Ré, for example, houses cost an average of €7,166 per square metre and apartments €5,717; enough to make your champagne boil in its bottle.

The Walsh family – Amanda, Tim and their two daughters Eleanor and Lisbeth – bought their second home and rental property in the Charente-Maritime countryside in 2010, not far from the little port town of Mortagne-sur-Gironde on the Gironde estuary.

Tim has since retired from his job in London and is now helping Amanda sell the property in order to buy a smaller B&B. Eleanor and Lisbeth go to school nearby. “We wanted to give our daughters as much opportunity as possible in life,” says Amanda, when asked what prompted her relocation abroad. “We think that being bilingual is a distinct advantage. Plus, we think the French schooling system is better than the UK’s; and I’d had enough of working in banking in the City and wanted to run my own holiday business in France.”

It was the architecture and proximity to the Atlantic beaches that first drew Amanda and Tim to Charente-Maritime. “The Charentaise stone is beautiful and makes the most wonderful houses. We are so close to the beaches, yet far enough away not to be swamped by tourists in July and August.”

Amanda says she and her daughters adapted quickly to the French way of life. Lisbeth was four when they first arrived, while Eleanor was five. “Within a few months, they were both perfectly capable of speaking in either language,” she remembers. “They speak English like a native English-speaker and French like they’re French – no funny accents. And I studied French so, for me, the language is not a barrier.” For Tim, however, it was more of a struggle since, for the first 10 years, he commuted to France at weekends. “He has found it challenging and frustrating in equal measure,” Amanda explains. He studies at a local language school.

The family love the combination of maritime and rural living that the region offers. “We live in the middle of the countryside with no neighbours, but we’re less than five minutes from the port, which is a hive of activity. It’s absolutely charming with some lovely restaurants and bars. It comes alive in the summer with festivals and celebrations.” Amanda warns that decent restaurants can be very expensive, however. “Thankfully I adore cooking, so I have an absolute ball in the kitchen, cooking real French food with the very best locally produced food, which I buy every week from the market.”

While Amanda and her family love Charente-Maritime, she stresses just how important language skills are for any Britons wishing to relocate there. “Given that it’s incredibly rural, the locals are not keen on foreigners. But if you make the effort to speak French, they open up. They are very genuine people and will do anything to help.” The infamous French bureaucracy is a major headache, she warns. “But if you have a really good knowledge of both written and spoken French, then absolutely come to France and give it a go.”

If you’re looking to buy a French property, set up a gîte, or move to France, our Essential Reading guides are designed to talk you through every step (and potential misstep!) of the process. Once you’re ready to get searching for your dream house, you can browse our property for sale and create an account to set up customisable property alerts. The market is moving quickly at the moment, so make sure you don’t miss out!