I have a friend who is looking for a small house or apt. to rent in Southern France over the winter months. Possibly a 6 month rental.

She has two school age children so doesn't want to be in an isolated rural area.

Any ideas or suggestions for websites etc. would be very helpful. Thanks.

Southern France is a large area, ranging from the Italian border to the Atlantic Ocean. But your friend could simply Google "long term rental in ... (adding whichever town she chooses)" to find web sites listing long term rentals.

www.leboncoin.fr has lots of rentals.

She could also make inquiries on the ex-pat forums such as www.angloinfo.com and www.totalfrance.com, which might turn up people with second homes looking to rent off-season.

Unless your friend has a passport from one of EU-member countries, she is facing a lot of up-front paperwork, starting with obtaining a long-stay visa. All doable but hope her plans are for winter of 2012-2013 if she does need a visa.

Ditto on Cathinjoetown's comments re the long-stay visa requirements.

We spent the month of November 2010 in the Rousillon area (SW) France, looking for a potential long-stay property. We eventually decided not to go ahead with our plans (we were considering 10 months) but it really had nothing to do with the visa process or the availability of places to rent. We found several wonderful properties that would fit your friend's probably needs.

We wanted to have a car -- and that posed more of a problem/cost hurdle than comfortable lodgings!

Still, among places I would suggest she look at, consider Uzes as a possible "home" town, as there is a good lively population in residence year-round. Similarly, the we found several places in the smaller town of Olanzac, which is not far from Homps, and has a fairly active English-speaking group that draws upon expats from the countryside and other villages surrounding it. It is on a bus route with easy access to Beziers, and other towns. Another town we found to be quite lovely was Ceret -- which isn't all that far from the Mediterranean, and for that matter, Barcelona. And slightly more to the north, the town of Foix. These places all were very charming, and seemed to be comfortable places for families to live, based on the observations we made living in and visiting the area throughout the very non-touristy month of November.

We worked primarily with an agent at www.gosouthfrance.com, although we found other places using google and "long term rental in XXXX" as suggested above.

Thanks all for those responses. I believe she may have a EU passport but will advise her about this.

She hasn't chosen an area yet but prefers something close to the border with Spain as she has family there. I did google the "long term rental" question but was looking also for a personal recommendation.

Céret is charming but it is a very small town and public transportation is not very convenient. She could have a look at Perpignan which has an airport, a station, a reliable bus network and offer lots of activities for children. Spain is just 30 km away.

Thanks - will check out Perpignan.

Her child will also need an EU passport. She will also need to check on what the regulations are for schooling the child whist she is in France, and consider health insurance too.

Sorry - her children.

hetismiji2,

While we're jumping ahead here to some extent, I believe the kids' can enter France on the strength of the mom's EU passport. I believe they will have to apply for cartes de sejour, but can do that once they are in the country by applying at the mairie of the village or town where they are renting.

But, if the kids are going to be enrolled in school, all the more reason for mom to go to the French consulate nearest to where she is currently living to ensure all the steps are followed. All we can do is give anecdotal information and encourage early planning.

Regulations change constantly and I'm not surprised that one hand doesn't know what the other is doing. When we first arrived in France, our mayor's office told us I would have to apply for a carte de sejour at the prefecture in Toulouse. We headed up there only to see a small photocopied sign which said only residents of Toulouse could apply. So, back to our mairie, they made some calls, dug out a file and yes, the mairie was meant to initiate the process, which they proceeded to do and all went well.

Patience and politeness win the day.

Will advise her to check on all these passport suggestions.

I did look at Perpignan and it appears to be a good location especially as it has an airport. Perhaps the best idea for her would be to contact some realtors in the area as most of the listings are for holiday/summer type properties.

Also look at local newspapers, the Perpignan tourist office, and De Particulier à Particulier.

Royal : if your friend needs info, I live in Perpignan.

Thank you for the offer Pvoyageuse - will be in touch.

And thank you to all who have responded.