Why Are There So Many British People in the Dordogne?
What you have noticed around Château Marouatte is not incidental. The Dordogne has one of the most remarkable concentrations of British residents in rural France. For decades, Britons have bought houses, restored old farmhouses, opened businesses and retired here. The phenomenon became significant enough that the area has sometimes jokingly been called “Dordogneshire.”
And there is a much deeper history behind the modern migration.
The English connection is much older than the expats
The relationship between southwestern France and England goes back nearly 900 years.
In 1152, Eleanor of Aquitaine married Henry Plantagenet, who became King Henry II of England in 1154. Through that marriage, Aquitaine came under the control of the English crown. It remained at the heart of the complicated Anglo-French relationship for generations. Cambridge’s history of the region notes that Aquitaine remained in the hands of Henry’s royal successors from the mid-12th century and became one of the central issues behind the Hundred Years’ War.
That doesn’t mean today’s British residents are somehow continuing an unbroken English community from the Middle Ages. They aren’t. But it does add a wonderful historical twist to the modern story.
The English have, quite literally, been coming to this part of France for centuries.
The modern migration really took off in the late 20th century
Today’s British community is a much more recent phenomenon.
Beginning particularly in the 1970s and 1980s, British people started buying inexpensive rural properties in southwestern France. At first, many were second homes.
Then the movement accelerated dramatically.
Official French statistics show that British migration to France was particularly strong between 1990 and 2006, when the British population living in France approximately doubled.
By the early 2000s, Dordogne had become one of the epicenters.
There was a powerful economic reason.
Imagine selling an ordinary house in southern England and discovering that the proceeds might buy you a stone farmhouse, barn, several acres of land and perhaps even a small château in rural France.
For many people, it was irresistible.
French government statistics specifically identify the combination of less urbanized surroundings and property that was more affordable than in Britain as important reasons Britons settled in these sparsely populated western regions.
But money alone doesn’t explain it.
They were buying a different life
Researchers have actually studied this movement as a form of “lifestyle migration.”
The people interviewed weren’t simply moving because France was cheaper. Many described wanting a different rhythm of life: countryside, space, old houses, village communities, markets, food, wine and the possibility of escaping the pressures of British working life. Academic research specifically examining British migrants in the Dordogne and neighboring Lot found that the desire for a perceived “better lifestyle” was central, although individual motivations varied considerably.
And standing here at Château Marouatte, I can understand the attraction.
Look around.
Rolling countryside.
Forests.
Stone villages.
Medieval churches.
Farmhouses and barns.
Weekly markets.
Quiet roads.
Long lunches.
History everywhere.
And, compared with England during the great expansion years, enormous amounts of space.
For a British couple approaching retirement with equity in their house, the proposition could be extraordinary.
Dordogne became particularly British
The numbers are quite striking.
In 2016, France counted about 148,300 British residents. More than one-third, approximately 53,000, were retirees. And British residents were disproportionately concentrated in a broad southwestern belt incorporating the Charente and Dordogne.
The Dordogne alone had approximately 7,200 British residents in the official 2016 figures, representing about 1.74% of the department’s entire population.
That’s remarkable for a foreign nationality spread across a whole rural département.
And those numbers don’t capture everyone you might encounter because there are also British owners of second homes and seasonal residents.
Across Nouvelle-Aquitaine, the pattern was particularly pronounced. INSEE found 39,000 British residents in 2014, making it the French region with the largest British population. Half were retired, they were frequently homeowners, and they tended to settle in rural areas rather than on the coast.
In some small communes, British residents represented more than 15% of the population.
So when you think, I seem to be hearing an awful lot of English accents around here, you really are.
Then there is Eymet
If there is an unofficial capital of British Dordogne, it is probably Eymet, south of Bergerac.
The British presence there became so substantial that it developed a genuine Franco-British community.
What’s particularly interesting is how the migration evolved. Eymet’s mayor explained in 2014 that the earlier generation, arriving roughly four decades previously, tended to purchase second homes. A later generation became more embedded in the community, starting businesses, enrolling children in schools and participating in local organizations. The town even developed a large Franco-English association.
That is an important distinction.
They weren’t all wealthy retirees occupying picturesque houses for a few weeks each summer.
Some became plumbers, builders, restaurateurs, shopkeepers, gîte operators and craftspeople. They restored properties. Their children went to French schools. They joined associations. They became neighbors.
They also helped revive villages that were losing population
There is another side to this story that I find especially interesting.
Many rural areas of France had experienced decades of depopulation. Younger French people moved toward larger towns and cities for employment, leaving behind aging populations and large numbers of old houses requiring considerable maintenance.
Then foreign buyers arrived who thought those same neglected stone houses were magnificent.
INSEE actually concluded that British residents were helping to revitalize predominantly rural communities, including places struggling with depopulation.
They bought abandoned or deteriorating properties.
Then came roofs, stonework, carpenters, plumbers, gardeners and builders.
Some opened chambres d’hôtes and gîtes.
Others opened restaurants or small businesses.
They shopped in village markets and hired local tradespeople.
An old farmhouse that might otherwise have continued deteriorating suddenly became someone’s dream retirement project.
There were downsides too. In areas with heavy foreign demand, concerns arose about rising property prices and whether local residents could still afford homes. That tension was being reported in Dordogne as early as the 2000s.
So the British influx has been both an economic stimulus and, occasionally, a source of debate.
And then Brexit happened
Brexit complicated what had previously been a relatively easy movement within the European Union.
British citizens who had already established themselves in France faced questions about residency rights, healthcare and their future status. Communities such as Eymet became particularly interesting places from which to watch the process because so many British people had made permanent lives there.
But Brexit did not erase decades of migration.
By then, the British presence was woven into parts of the Dordogne.
And that explains something about the Château
It also gives me another way of looking at Château Marouatte and the people I have encountered during this trip.
There is something about this landscape that seems to encourage outsiders to stop being outsiders.
You arrive and initially notice the spectacular things: the château on the hill, the ancient villages, the stone houses, the forests and fields.
Then you begin noticing smaller things.
The market.
The baker.
The person sitting at the next table.
The afternoon light on an old stone wall.
A door left slightly ajar.
An owl calling after dark.
A road disappearing through the trees.
And suddenly the idea that someone might have come here on vacation thirty years ago, looked around and thought,
“Why exactly am I going home?”
doesn’t seem strange at all.
In fact, after spending time here, it becomes remarkably easy to understand.
Perhaps that is the real story behind the British of the Dordogne. They didn’t discover an English enclave and move into it. Enough individuals independently fell in love with the same corner of France that, eventually, an expatriate community emerged around their shared decision to stay.
And there is a delightful historical symmetry to it.
Almost nine centuries after Eleanor of Aquitaine married an English king and tied southwestern France to England, the connection continues in an entirely different form.
This time there are no Plantagenet armies.
Just British retirees renovating old stone houses, tending enormous gardens, drinking wine at village tables and apparently deciding that the Dordogne feels very much like home.
