Good evening everyone! The Gers region!

[Gillyann]

I'm very pleased I found your delightful forum It's been so helpful to trawl thorugh the various posts and there is a very positive feel here

I wonder if I could ask a question or two about the Gers region of France.

We are going (travel at Stanstead permitting ) the first week in October via Ryanair of course, to Pau, and staying in a farmhouse at Mielan.

We are looking at the whole area, Gers plus Midi Pryennes, with a view to re-locating there next autum 2007 possibly and run a gite ot two, or even a small B&B.

We are finding a lot of difficulty googling websites with property details, and even Living France and the other mags don't seem to have that much on the area

We would both be very grateful if anyone here can give us a few links? And for new build also - as this may be the route we go down to live in ourselves whilst buying a couple of smaller older houses for gites.

Thanking you in advance for your time and trouble

Gilly and Arthur.

[Aoucarde]

hello there
We live in the Gers region about half an hour from Mielan.
What a shame you are not staying in one of our gites www.france-getaway.com.
We offer a special house-hunters service which includes introductions to estate agents and tours of the area.
We also know of several private sales which you might be interested in.
If you would like to get in touch I am sure we could help you.
The Gers is a fabulous region....very beautiful and totally unspoilt.
P.S We offer a pick-up service from Pau airport.

[Giddy Goat]

The Gers is a fabulous region....very beautiful and totally unspoilt.

I second that Gilly, so good luck in your search. Aoucarde will be very helpful I'm sure; they don't know me but I know who they are and that their ears are very much to the ground for their part of the Gers. Our property (see website) is further to the north, near the delightful town of Condom - , and I can help you with loads more agents' details, the good, plus the ones to be a bit wary of. It would be useful if you could PM me with your budget though, as some tend to list properties only from a certain price and upwards.

As you're probably already aware, many French agents work alongside Brit agents, who are not permitted to set up on their own with a carte professionelle, but on whom the French rely to select and separately market those properties on their books which might appeal to the foreign buyer. Usually the Brit (or sometimes German/Dutch) agent aligns himself to one particular agency or branch eg ORPI, so there is never any fear that the asking price is different on a Brit agent's website - the danger however, comes sometimes from a certain small number who persuade the French agent to increase the official asking price, and who are responsible therefore, for overall price rises in the area. So if you know who these are and happen to find a property you like through them, it's handy to also know that they will be pretty negotiable if they have to be - sometimes to the tune of several tens of thousands of euros!

[Gillyann]

Many thanks to you both, Aoucarde and Gascony Goat, and I have Pm'ed you Aoucarde and am about to do the same with Gascony Goat

It's brilliant to find such helpful members on this site - sorry I haven't been around for a wee while, business took over!

Kind regards

Gilly and Arthur