Exploring the Béarn, Episode 281

<p>This is Join Us in France episode 281, bonjour I'm Annie Sargent and in this episode of the podcast, I bring you a conversation with Patty Lund who was really fun to talk to, I think she will cheer you up! She is checking out places in France where they might want to move at some point. On this trip she and her husband explored the area of Béarn and Pau because it's close to the mountains (they love snowboarding), also close to great surfing around Biarritz, and the Béarn is an area with almost zero non-French tourists, which means house prices are still reasonable as long as you stay away from cities.</p> <p>They were based out of Sauveterre-de-Béarn (an hour from Biarritz) and from there spiraled out to several scenic villages such as Navarrenx, Salies-de-Béarn, Oloron Sainte Marie and more that we talk about and you will find them all listed in the guest notes for episode 281.</p> <h2>Exploring the Béarn</h2> <p>A lot of villages in the Béarn on the Chemin de Compostelle (Compostella pilgramage route) which means many of them have a huge Basilica church for little population today. That's one of the things that makes them wonderful. Another thing is many of these villages have interesting people living there. She talks to me about one restaurateur that aims to have zero waste. In France we produce less garbage anyway, but how do you get to zero waste?</p> <p>She decided to talk to me on the podcast about this area because there isn't much information in English about it on-line. And I am grateful for that because it IS way too hard to get good information about minor travel destinations. The sad reality is that if you want to make a living in the travel blog business you need to talk about the things that people search by the millions and never "waste your time" with places that don't get much search volume. So, they all talk about Paris. It could be something totally inconsequential in Paris, but it has to be Paris.</p> <h2>How to Find Genuine France</h2> <p>As a result, there are a lot of places in France