Last week saw the premiere of my latest House Hunters International — Mum & Me — where I helped Farah and her daughter find their perfect home in the 7 Valleys region of the Pas de Calais in northern France.
This is not the France of glossy lavender-field postcards. There are no sun-baked terraces or fields of purple stretching to the horizon. Instead, you get rolling countryside, rivers, forests, brick and stone villages that look as though they’ve been quietly getting on with things for several centuries, and market towns where the boulangerie closes promptly at noon and nobody apologises for it. It is softer, greener, and in many ways more practical than the France people imagine when they first start googling “move to France.”
You’re close to the coast. You’re within easy reach of the Channel Tunnel and Belgium. You can have proper countryside without feeling like you’ve accidentally relocated to the edge of the world. But what draws most buyers to this particular corner of France is the price. With an average of around 1,500 euros per square metre, you can find a genuinely characterful property — beaucoup de charme, as every French listing will assure you — without remortgaging your soul.
The challenge, as with much of rural France, is finding something turnkey. Limited employment means a steady supply of beautiful but tired houses that have been waiting patiently for someone with vision, decent overalls, and a tolerance for surprises behind old plasterwork. For buyers looking to slow down and settle into real French life — rather than a holiday version of it — the 7 Valleys delivers. The weather is more temperate than the south, which either appeals to you immediately or it doesn’t.
If your budget stretches past 400,000 euros, you can find something genuinely spectacular. Like this beautifully renovated former school: 284 square metres of living space, six bedrooms and nearly 5,500 square metres of maintained garden,on at 468,000 euros
I’m also personally fond of Montreuil — we didn’t film there this time, but I recommend it without hesitation. Lively main square, good restaurants, a rampart walk that puts most towns to shame, and a theatrical festival that transforms the place every summer.
On the Market: Where Things Actually Stand
France’s property market is moving again, though cautiously. The Notaires de France recorded around 958,000 existing-home transactions in the twelve months to the end of February 2026 — up about 11% year on year. That sounds encouraging, and it is, but the Notaires themselves are calling it a stabilisation rather than a boom, which is French institutional-speak for don’t get too excited just yet.
New construction remains another story entirely. Building authorisations ticked up 3.3% in February, but starts actually slipped 1.6%. Supply is still too tight to meet demand, and nobody seems to be in a particular rush to fix that.
Mortgage rates have edged back up after a period of improvement. Crédit Logement/CSA put the average French rate at around 3.22% for the first quarter of 2026. To give that some shape: brokers like CAFPI are currently seeing roughly 3.20% over 15 years, 3.33% over 20, and 3.43% over 25.
Terrifying? No. A green light for everyone to wander cheerfully into a French bank with a folder and a dream? Also no.
French banks are not American banks, and it’s worth saying that clearly before anyone books a flight. The process is slower, the documentation requirements are extensive, and lenders have a particular talent for requesting forms you were certain you’d already submitted — twice. The culture is different. The pace is different. Buying a house in the US can feel like speed dating with escrow paperwork. In France, it’s more like being invited to a very long lunch where someone eventually slides a legal document across the table and asks for three more copies of your tax return.
As for whether it’s a buyers’ market: it depends enormously on where you are.
In Bordeaux, the heat has come off. Sellers are more open to negotiation, and anyone still pricing at 2021 levels is going to need a quiet sit-down and a spreadsheet.
Montpellier is different. Young, sunny, well-connected, full of students, and with an energy that keeps demand stubborn. There are opportunities — particularly with apartments — but nobody’s giving anything away.
A Slight Detour to London
On the Thursday, we flew from Limoges to London for a long bank holiday weekend.
The reason for the trip: my niece Olivia Dean was performing at the O2 — six nights, sold out, the whole thing. There is something genuinely extraordinary about watching someone you love walk onto a stage that size and somehow make it feel intimate. The O2 is enormous. Olivia has that rare quality of holding a room without ever seeming to try for it — the voice, the warmth, the ease. The audience leaned in. It was fabulous.
My sons had, by any measure, the time of their lives. They were treated as star guests, which they accepted with impressive efficiency, and spent a portion of the aftershow playing ping-pong in the green room as though this were a perfectly ordinary Saturday night. David Beckham was there. Stormzy was there. I mention this purely for context and not at all because I enjoy name-dropping.
(Fine. A little because I enjoy name-dropping.)
Getting back into Monday morning was, let’s say, a transition. For the boys, at least. For me — I genuinely love this job, and that never really goes away.
À la prochaine, Eleanor
Loved this episode!
Wow such a lot to read, so interesting, and funny! Thanks Eleanor 👏👏👏