We are Geoff and Janet Langman and we live near to Salies de Bearn in the Pyrenees Atlantiques region of South West France. Like many who have spent memorable holidays in France - as a couple and latterly as a family, we had dreamed of making the move. So when the opportunity presented itself, we travelled the whole of France and settled on the Pyrenees Atlantiques because of its temperate climate, the accessibility to both mountains and sea, and its strong regional identity.

We have two teenage boys aged 14 and 16. Our youngest is at a local college and has benefited from the small class sizes and the care and attention given to him by the teachers and other pupils in order to help him integrate and learn French as quickly as possible. Our eldest son left college last September and is now working as an apprentice plumber, taking advantage of the excellent apprenticeships which are so much a feature of French ongoing education. Both boys became fluent French speakers in 18 months.

We formed Landes Pyrenees Properties in order to help people realise their dream of finding a property in this beautiful area of southwest France. Through our own experience of living, working and buying property here, we are able to offer a personalised service to support your own property purchase.

We work independently with a national chain of agents, local immobiliers and notaires and are therefore able to access far more properties than an individual agent or notaire. We are also able to source houses direct from private sellers. As a result we have a wide range of properties from building land to chateaux and our selection is constantly changing.

The greatest advantage of being established and living and working in the area is that we have our finger on the 'pulse' of the local property market and through our ability to search the local market, we can save you the time of going from office to office and enable you to concentrate fully on finding the right property.

It is important to understand that in the Pyrenees Atlantiques and Landes areas, you will need at least E80 000 to find a property and, when renovation is involved, you can expect to spend the same amount again.