Building Land & Houses For Sale In Aquitaine
The region of Aquitaine is located in the South West of France with Bordeaux as its regional capital. It covers a wide area from Gironde Estuary on the Atlantic coast, across to the well-known Dordogne area and right down to the Pyrenees mountain range. The region of Aquitaine officially includes the departments of Gironde, Dordogne, Lot et Garonne, Landes and Pyrenees-Atlantiques.
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Properties For Sale In Aquitaine
The region of Aquitaine is the second largest French region covering 41000 km2 of South West France. There are more than 3.1 million people living in Aquitaine with a demographic growth rate of around 1% per year. Aquitaine is sparsely populated with a population density of only 76.3 people per sq km.
The main economic activities of the region are wine production, agriculture, forestry, tourism and food production. However, times are changing and there are considerable investments being made in other sectors such as high tech, aeronautics and pharmaceuticals.
The region consists of 5 departments: Dordogne, Gironde, Landes, Lot-et-Garonne and Pyrenees-Atlantiques. The principal city in Aquitaine is Bordeaux with more than 1 million inhabitants (including its suburbs). Other important towns and cities include Bayonne, Pau, Agen, Perigueux, Bergerac and Mont-de-Marsan. Smaller but equally appreciated towns for home hunters embrace towns such as Sarlat, St Emilion, Biarritz, Arcachon and Dax.
Aquitaine is considered to be an attractive and especially varied region with its unmatched array of natural assets and architectural styles – to name a few: the mighty Atlantic ocean, the architectural splendor of Bordeaux, the rolling vineyards of Entre Deux Mers, the outstanding landscapes of the Dordogne and the natural beauty of the Pyrenees mountains.
Remarkably, Aquitaine offers reasonable property prices in terms of value when compared to Northern Europe and the U.K. In particular, it has always attracted homebuyers on a regular basis moving from more northern climes. Although the French themselves have a love affair with Aquitaine, equally so, there have always been a good number of British and Dutch nationals buying properties in Aquitaine.
Newcomers are generally split into two groups. Younger families tend to move relatively close to Bordeaux, Bayonne or Pau for business opportunities whilst those retiring or seeking a quieter life, head for the rural countryside and the quaint villages which are peppered across the region.
Aquitaine has a fine architectural heritage with many fortified towns, exquisite gothic churches and fairy tale castles. It reminds us without doubt of its historical past and its great medieval wealth. In fact, the region’s inhabitants date back even further to prehistoric times with the famous Lascaux Caves in the Dordogne, not far from the towns of Perigueux and Bergerac.
The connections between Aquitaine and England are still very much alive in this region as it was an English possession for 300 years. It is also the place where a Royal dynasty originated by the marriage of Henry II of England to Eleanor. Many fortified towns and villages bear the mark of English noblemen and the Knight’s Templar through their names and monuments.
In summary, Aquitaine is one of the most popular parts of France for those settling or buying a second property - happy house hunting!
