We looked for years for a property in France. We went on various trips to view properties and also when I cycled the length of France I took a leisurely look at different areas.
Initially, I wanted Northern France, and in particular seriously considered the gite we stay in during Le Mans in Le Lude but the wife was not keen as its all too quite for her. In the end we seriously considered Bergerac and that lower left hand corner of France as it had great links back to the UK airports and you could also get easily into Spain and the Balearic Islands.
In the end we worked out investing £250k and upwards to be routed to one place was not the way forward for us and that renting in 6 month blocks was. This meant that we could rent our family home out and this would cover rent/bills/food abroad on a renting basis....seemed silly not to.
This also gives you the opportunity to explore more. We both love France but also Northern and central Italy with Verona being our most favourite place and probably the first one we will try on this basis.
It gives you the freedom to change the type of time you spend overseas, city, rural, beach. We love Lanzarote and were blown away when we went there. Like many, we dismissed it after hearing all the 'Lanza-groty' comments but Playa Blanca is an amazing place, I urge you all to go try it if you are looking for something different. It has wide Cornish type beaches and coves which are quite with a lovely new Marina and some stunning new hotels. Its a really chilled and warm way of life and could quite happily slow the pace down over there.