Nice Neighborhood

France is a big place, nearly as big as Texas. But where Texas has just four or five regions -- and only one with any appeal -- France has dozens of regions and departments, each with its own seductive charm. Settling on a place to buy a house abroad is much like picking a neighborhood in your hometown -- you must consider how well a place suits the way you want to live and, for resale, location, location, location. Before I started thinking about the sort of house I wanted to own, I had to narrow the search to the region where I wanted to live.

If you don't already know France, take a tour. Spend a month or more. Think about whether you prefer the mountains or sea, the sun or seasons, cities, villages or countryside and then plot a course and take it.

I lived in France for a number of years, so I spent some time just remembering the regions I liked best. Normandy, so lovely and green, with the world's best tarte tartine and Calvados, proximity to England and Paris and a cozy quaintness that immediately makes me feel at home. Brittany, windswept and salted by the sea, colored by Celtic mystery and music. The Jura with its soaring mountains for winter sports and summer hikes, the volcanic moodiness and solitude of Auvergne, the floral charm of Alsace and friendly, yummy Strasbourg... how in the world to choose?

There were a few priorities. Sunshine. Music. Vines and olives. The way the wind smells after blowing across miles and miles of fennel and wild thyme. Wine. Friendly people. On a more practical front, proximity to the high-speed TGV, France's train a grande vitesse. After flying for hours from The States, I wanted either a short drive from Paris or a short train ride from Charles de Gaulle. (The TGV now conveniently runs from a station under the airport, where there is also, happily, a hotel. If I'm too tired to go on, I just pick up my bags and hit the sack.)

Finally, I wanted to be near my friends in Avignon, a stop on the TGV run between Paris and Marseilles. I've had friends there for 30 years, and others who come each summer. No region can offer anything more appealing than friendships that span decades.

So after a few weeks looking at houses throughout the Languedoc Rousillon -- very very popular with the British because of direct flights between Montpelier and Stansted -- I came home to Provence. This is where I'd focus my search. Nice neighborhood.

Virtual France

Shopping for a second home is like shopping for anything else these days -- cars, computers, men -- the first stop is your laptop. When I started looking for a home abroad, I began my search a little closer to my full-time home in Texas. I researched real estate in Mexico, Costa Rica, Belize, Honduras, Panama (which has been terribly clever in its policies and marketing to American retirees) and further south. It quickly became clear that the more affluent members of the Baby Boom generation have driven the cost of real estate in the Western Hemisphere sky high. The most desirable cities in Mexico are quickly becoming like Palo Alto -- teeming with rich immigrants who drive the cost of housing higher than locals can afford. So one night, while researching pricey homes in a Managua suburbs, the question hit me: "Are homes in France as pricey as these?" They weren't. French real estate, for a variety of reasons, is a relative bargain.

Roughly 95 percent of all French residential real estate is online. Some of the real estate sites have not quite mastered slick, American-style marketing -- there are pictures of mops leaning against dining tables, of the disembodied hand or foot in a shot of the kitchen -- but many of the real estate (immobilier) Web sites are quite good. And there are a great many sites, like FrenchEntree.com that provide general guidance.

Although I read French, most of the Websites are fully or partially in English. And a few are really lovely. You can spend an evening wandering virtually through the Dordogne, exploring villages and peeking inside bedrooms and gardens. Then the next night you can tour the Gard, visiting homes in villages or in the country. There's a lot to see -- and you can do it all in your pajamas with a nice glass of Chateauneuf du Pape.

How to Buy a House in Provence

Even now, with the check cleared and the keys in hand, I'm not entirely sure what motivated me to buy a house in France.

Certainly, the happy memory of the decade I spent living in Paris and Avignon had something to do with it. Certainly, the stories my father told me when I was growing up about his landing on Normandy Beach on D-Day, the beauty of Normandy, the charm of the French had something to do with it. Certainly, the anger and fear I feel over the direction my own country is headed played into my decision to buy a home outside the United States. But really, I guess, despite all the research, self-analysis and real estate data collection, it was more about a simple feeling of love that has always drawn me there.

Lawrence Durrell summed it up in something I first read 30 years ago. He wrote: "I believe you could exterminate the French at a blow and resettle the country with Tartars and, within two generations discover, to your astonishment, that the national characteristics were back at norm – the restless, metaphysical curiosity, the tenderness for good living, and the passionate individualism…. This is the invisible constant... "

So now, from my laptop in Texas, I'll recount how I went about finding the perfect cottage in the perfect French village and it will give me great pleasure to recall all of this until I can return to my village again.