For anyone considering a move to the Pays Basque, I wouldn't pay too much attention to this article. Where to start.. it's full of misconceptions and poor advice - but then, it was co-written by a couple of English estate agents in Pau. The thing to remember when looking at this area is - that if a particular town or area is seen as expensive or cheap, there's always a reason.
La Grande Plage, Biarritz
In a throw-away line, Biarritz is characterised as "very chic and sometimes a bit snobby..". Maybe because of its high property prices? People can forget that Biarritz is a working town and therefore it's not the kind of place where you should walk back from the beach to your accommodation still in your swimming things and flip-flops, with a wet towel over your shoulder. Snobby? No, far from it.
The idea that you can live at Pau and go to the coast and back for the day throughout the summer is just pie in the sky. Yes, you could do it but would you want to?
And yes, you can find cheaper property inland as long as you'll be content with "sitting outside your new home, glass of local Jurançon wine in hand, and enjoy the great sparkling canopy of stars arching above.” Estate agent nonsense. The problem with living inland in a distant village is practicality.. Do you want to have to use the car each time you want a baguette, or visit the dentist or do whatever sport or social activity you're interested in? And where maybe your new neighbours will be less than thrilled by outsiders moving into "their" village - and perhaps seen as being partly responsible for driving house prices up?
The Basque coast is expensive for a reason.. There is life there.. activities, shops, facilities (not least of which are medical!). Many of the villages inland are slowly dying.. and we've known quite a few people (French and British alike) who have only realised the truth of that after they'd bought a property there.
Finally, I would take the quoted property values per square meter with a very large pinch of salt. The price per sq m for a house in Biarritz is quoted as 4331€. Here are the results of a search I made just now in Biarritz for houses with a surface area of between 140-150 sq m. Using the 4331€ valuation, that should have produced a list of properties with prices ranging from 606,340€ (140 sq m) to 649,650€ (150sq m). The two that come in under budget are wrecks and would need an arm and several legs spent on them. I think the figure for Biarritz should be nearer 7000€/sq m and up..
1st July. I took Nutty for a walk this morning through the peace and quiet of the shady woods that surround Lac de Mouriscot.. which is to be found about 3km to the south of Biarritz.
It's the perfect place to avoid the hustle and bustle of the coast, especially during the season. There's a path that circles the lake and I didn't check my watch but I'm guessing that it takes 30-40 minutes to walk around it. (Park at the Auberge de Jeunesse)
