Real Estate

One of the Hottest Property Booms Is Being Driven by Rising Temperatures

Home prices are rising along France’s north-west coast, where people from Paris are arriving to escape costly urban life and sizzling summers.

Cap Sizun in Brittany.

Source: Universal Images Group/Getty Images

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In the popular imagination, the picture-perfect French country home is nestled among lavender fields on the slopes of Provence or perched near the crystal-blue waters of the Mediterranean.

But as residents of Paris — much like their peers in New York, London or San Francisco during the pandemic — gravitate toward a more bucolic and affordable lifestyle, they’re looking beyond the glamorous Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region in the south. They’re increasingly hunting for homes in France’s north-west, boosting the housing market in previously staid Brittany, Normandy and the Loire Valley.