Lot-et-Garonne

Occupying a prime spot centred between Bergerac, Toulouse and Bordeaux, and underpinned economically by fruit production and tourism, the Lot et Garonne offers an enviable rural lifestyle whilst never being far from the madding crowds.
Sometimes known as the Tuscany of France, the landscape is populated with sunflowers, vines, cypress trees and red tiled roofs.
The north of the Lot et Garonne includes limestone hills and some pine forest where it joins the Landes. Thereafter it becomes rolling valleys set around the important rivers that give it its name.
Visitor towns include Duras, Nerac, and Monflanquin, with larger towns at Marmande, Villeneuve sur Lot and Agen. The list of pretty hilltop bastides is quite impressive, too.
Lot et Garonne fact file
Land area: 5400 square kilometres
Population: 325 000
Population density: 60/km²
Main town: Agen
Local property styles
Everything from stone-built farmhouses and formal maisons de maitre to medieval, timber-framed village houses in one of the pretty bastides.