Thinking Of Buying A House In France

[Mayalabeille]

I think the UK has become a joke nation, full of chavs that will pay any price so long as some idiot gives them the money.

We're financially and morally bankrupt.

And why stay here and put up with the forthcoming austerity and high taxation to pay for this mess.

Also sick of this socialist environment, and the majority having to suffer to help a few.

Anyone have experience of this?

Anyone know of a British community in France, etc?

My job is to advise English speaking looking at France for either holiday home or permanent move. Wanted to write an e mail to you but could not from this site. So if you wish we could have a quick chat and discuss your project, see if I can assist. (btw it is a free service that my company is offering)

Perhaps you could create an e mail address to where I could e mail you some details.

Anyway let me know if I can help.

[Happy Teaboy]

My job is to advise English speaking looking at France for either holiday home or permanent move. Wanted to write an e mail to you but could not from this site. So if you wish we could have a quick chat and discuss your project, see if I can assist. (btw it is a free service that my company is offering)

Perhaps you could create an e mail address to where I could e mail you some details.

Anyway let me know if I can help.

of course it's free ! All the best things are FREEEEEEEE

Living in France myself I see a lot of companies offering help to English speaking people wanting to move.. I notice they are so helpful and really surprised I managed to do it without one ! How I managed to navigate the internet myself or read one of the million books (in english) available for FREE from the library I don't know.

[Sceptical]

A friends parents in their 50s did this - fed up of chavs, wanted more fresh air, dreamt of riding their motorbike through the French countryside, drinking endless plonk etc etc

Two small problems - 1. They didn't speak French. 2. They didn't get on with the French people they met (see problem 1).

After selling up, moving out, they were back in Blighty within 6 months.

Try it before you commit, I doubt you'll like it.

[barrabus]

I don't blame you but a few pieces of advice - learn the language, integrate, make local friends. There are far too many foreigners here who don't do that (who are the ones who shouldn't be let in in the first place!) I'm ashamed to say some English people do the same abroad. I bought a share in a property in Mallorca years ago - my Spanish isn't very good but its amazing how much more you get back by trying to integrate rather than just sticking to your own tribe.

Yes but what do you speak in Mallorca.Spanish.Catalan,or Majorcan.

[Mayalabeille]

of course it's free ! All the best things are FREEEEEEEE

Living in France myself I see a lot of companies offering help to English speaking people wanting to move.. I notice they are so helpful and really surprised I managed to do it without one ! How I managed to navigate the internet myself or read one of the million books (in english) available for FREE from the library I don't know.

Edited: sorry decided my reply was not worth it

Edited August 14, 2009 by Mayalabeille

[yodigo]

Yes but what do you speak in Mallorca.Spanish.Catalan,or Majorcan.

Mallorcan is Catalan, but spoken with a "funny" accent. The Catalans regard the Mallorcans in much the same way the English regard(ed) the Irish. So said my Catalan friend.

A Bristish friend has owned a house in Spain for 3 years. He's come to realise that most of the Brit ex-pats where is are broke or heading that way. So he doesn't trust them, and tries to avoid giving any details about himself when he does talk to them.

Edited August 14, 2009 by yodigo

[profitofdoom]

Mallorcan is Catalan, but spoken with a "funny" accent. The Catalans regard the Mallorcans in much the same way the English regard(ed) the Irish. So said my Catalan friend.

A Bristish friend has owned a house in Spain for 3 years. He's come to realise that most of the Brit ex-pats where is are broke or heading that way. So he doesn't trust them, and tries to avoid giving any details about himself when he does talk to them.

I think most people don't realise that foreigners from different parts of their own countries have strange accents.My wife learnt French both at The Sorbonne and for several months with a family in the Loire department.When we went to the Pyrenees she found the accents quite difficult to understand,I suppose it's like going to Newcastle or Cornwall and speaking to someone with a strong local accent.

I never quite see the point of going abroad and seeking out a British community.I like to go for the fact that it's different not the same.

[R K]

Forget houses and food, this is all the reason your need........

[Bloo Loo]

Sunday lunch is all that keeps me here.

and sausages.

[Orbital]

France

You are very naive if you don't think France has its own problems. Or any where else for that matter. Every country has good and bad points. Just as I can point to some great places to live in the UK I can point to some shocking areas of France. And being a Brit abroad will bring with it a load of new problems that you have probably never experienced. Unless you emigrated to the UK in which case you probably have !

[LetsGetReadyToTumble]

Thanks for all the replies (well most of them).

Job wise, if I can plug into the internet, I'm earning a living, developing software for and American consortium.

I've been to France a number of times with a previous job, and every flight was full of Brits, and the one's I spoke to live in France, and non of them were chavs. I don't plan on living in a city and have heard of enclaves of decent British folk in more rural areas.

I'm trying to find a better life as I have seen the UK deteriorate over the last 30 years. Especially the weather. We've hardly had a decent beach type day down here in Cornwall for about 4 years now.

I do know that it imperative to speak French. They are very well educated in speaking English, and can speak it like natives when leaving school, but a lot of them put on an act that they cannot speak English.

Anyway, I believe that when in Rome, do as the Romans do.

[redwine]

Do you want to have French children? maybe, but I doubt it. .

Children my children are French born here there school is here there friends are here etc

Apart from going to England a few weeks a year to visit there grandparents they don't know that much about the UK

If i decided to move back to the UK i know that they would suffer the most children do not like to change countries

I don't know any ex-pats where i live or even any British coming to think of it judging by the what i have read on the British in France forums they never seem to talk about children

Anybody thinking about moving to France with children who are happy at school and there friends or a child's world do you really want to make them have to start a new life in a foreign country ?

[Smog]

Ditto redwine - my children are also more French than English and we rarely go back to the UK, in fact my 2 year-old son has never been, prefer to get the relatives to visit here, no real desire to drag the family over to the UK, it depresses me.

The kids get great schooling & have a much better quality of life than in the UK. The thought of bringing them up in an overpriced sh*thole on the outskirts of London horrifies me.

I'm the only Englishman in a town of 18000 people and in no way feel isolated, the nearest English friends I have are about 20 miles away.

The only thing I'd differ on is that I would move my kids from the UK to France now if I hadn't already, I know its an upheaval but the alternative is worse in my eyes.

[Potwalloper]

They are very well educated in speaking English, and can speak it like natives when leaving school, but a lot of them put on an act that they cannot speak English.

Oh stop it!

[whiterabbit]

Ditto redwine - my children are also more French than English and we rarely go back to the UK, in fact my 2 year-old son has never been, prefer to get the relatives to visit here, no real desire to drag the family over to the UK, it depresses me.

The kids get great schooling & have a much better quality of life than in the UK. The thought of bringing them up in an overpriced sh*thole on the outskirts of London horrifies me.

I'm the only Englishman in a town of 18000 people and in no way feel isolated, the nearest English friends I have are about 20 miles away.

The only thing I'd differ on is that I would move my kids from the UK to France now if I hadn't already, I know its an upheaval but the alternative is worse in my eyes.

Spot on post. Its still better to move with children and suffer initally than stay in the UK. Just be very prepared. If you are committed and don't give up then it will work (like anything).

[mpprh]

Apart from that you've got all the French rep tape to deal with, of which an excessive amount applies to most administrative tasks that you have undertake when living there (even the French get fed up with this). This includes getting your ID card (carte de sejour for foreigners), which is not only compulsory to carry but is required before you can do anything like rent a house or apply for a job.

and which was abolished for EU citizens in 2000 !

Peter

Edited August 15, 2009 by mpprh

[mpprh]

Forget houses and food, this is all the reason your need........

You haven't seen my mother in law !

Peter

[non frog]

and which was abolished for EU citizens in 2000 !

..

Tu fait quoi Pierre? You know that the truth has no place in such a debate

[mpprh]

Duplicated in error

Edited August 15, 2009 by mpprh

[mpprh]

What a strange thread. Some posters seem to be using wacky baccy !

I left UK in 1990, and France is my 4th country.

So :

* The French are almost as bad as the Brits when it comes to speaking foreign languages. In my area, virtually no one speaks (or understands) English. To put this into perspective, I speak French with a local English teacher because I can't understand her !

This is generally held throughout Europe e.g. Most Walloons only speak French whilst most Flemish speak Flemish, German, French and English.

*We have a curious political situation. The relatively new right wing Sarkozy government still has policies that are much further to the left than the so called socialist UK government. On the other hand Sarkozy determines policy and drives change whereas in UK that is left to Joanna Lumley.

*The French tax system may theoretically have higher rates of tax, but there are a lot of allowances. Also, the % tax actually raised compared to the theoretical tax due is one of the lowest in Europe. So, the poor pay very little tax, and most of the rich pay very little tax ! The higher IT rates in France need to be considered against the the higher property, fuel,alcohol & tobacco taxes in UK (And have you noticed how expensive trains are now in UK ?).

*France still believes it is a world power of course, but the French don't get involved in the Afghan & Iraq type of adventures so loved by British socialist prime ministers supporting US republican loonies.

*The so called British ghettos are few. Mostly, they are in villages that have been abandoned by the former French farm labourers (in favour of newbuild box near a city with factories). These villages tend to be remote and have few facilities. They used to be within a days drive of the channel ports, but increasingly they are near airports with low cost flights.

*The med coastal area gets 300 days of sunshine each year. It can be hot (yesterday 37C in Nimes) up to the low 40'sC which is more bearable because it tends to be low humidity. It doesn't rain for long periods, but when it does it can be very wet ! A winters day can be 20C.

*The atlantic coast is more like UK. Humid westerly winds result in more days of rain if not more inches. High temps are more uncomfortable because of the humidity. A winters day can be -15C !

*"The Euro will collapse" - Sir Alan Walters 1981

*French banks have adopted a rather sensible policy of only providing mortgages to those who can repay them.

*The French government tries to live within its means. France did not experience the UK artificial boom which raised taxes to pay for promises and whims. And France escaped the bust. Again !

*In the final analysis, the rest of the world does not do rural British pubs !

My village in autumn :

Peter

[redwine]

*French banks have adopted a rather sensible policy of only providing mortgages to those who can repay them.

The French banks have there problems the goverment was lending them money not so long a ago

The bad three are

Caisse D' Epargne

Banque Populaire

Natixis

They made a net loss of 2 billion 622 million euros in 2008

The real bad one is Natixis the number 2 property financer in France

They were heavily involved in the US sub-prime market and they lost 450 million euros in the Madoff fraud

In 2008 they alone lost 2 Billion euros

Figures for May this year show that they have already lost 1.9 billion euros

A few months a go at there AGM the French riot police had to be called in as "shareholders " knew that there money was gone

This bank is now under investigation by the French fraud squad

[BigLog]

I lived abroad for 5 years, learnt the languages, integrated as much as I could (in fact hated to meet another English person!), but personally I found it too hard, and ended up returning to the UK (albeit in a much better location to the one I left and albeit for reasons other than the culture / language).

But here are my personal observations......

There are SO many things to consider when moving abroad, that I'd be surprised you'll have thought of them all (in fact I know you won't).

Firstly, take a look at your local knowledge in the UK. You're not even aware of it, because it's second nature to you.

Example (and in NONE of my examples am I trying to slag people/locations off). If I said "Wigan", immediately it conjures something up in your mind, no matter how small that conception is (about the area, the type of demography, the people who originate there, the nightclubs, the class of people, the accent etc etc you understand ??). If you were to bump into someone with an accent from 'up north', again, a zillion things / thoughts would pass through your mind (subconsciously). In another country, this cannot happen because you simply haven't lived there long enough. Ask yourself, will you be able to spot a rogue french plumber if one tried to rip you off ?? Or a crafty 'cockney' type frenchman ??

You might meet a woman over there who may be ticking all the right boxes, and again, because of your lack of experience / language deficiencies she may actually be a right slapper and because you're all cooey because she has a french accent you wouldn't have any idea at all !!

Do you understand what I'm trying to say ??

Television also. You'll see 'celebrities' on the box and have no idea who they are (they could be the most famous people in France and you wouldn't have a clue).

In a nutshell, you'll lose your identity as you're neither French, but at the same time bitter about England and that'll put you in never never land.

Oh, and another thing that comes to mind, is trust me, after a while, physically your mouth (NOT to forget your mind) will get fed up of trying to speak another language which is NOT your own 100% of the time (again, it's a MAJOR uphill struggle to command any 2nd language to anywhere near the command of your own native tongue - trust me, I know, I speak 4 and none of them can match my English because I haven't spent my lifetime learning the others).

Finally, you may know in England, how to 'play' the system. In France you'll be stumped big time, you'll be the most naive kid on the block.

But then again, if your a really chilled out kind of guy that won't find any of the above frustrating............

[non frog]

....

Oh, and another thing that comes to mind, is trust me, after a while, physically your mouth (NOT to forget your mind) will get fed up of trying to speak another language which is NOT your own 100% of the time (again, it's a MAJOR uphill struggle to command any 2nd language to anywhere near the command of your own native tongue - trust me, I know, I speak 4 and none of them can match my English because I haven't spent my lifetime learning the others).

...........

Our window blinds went wrong about 18 months ago and we found a nearby supplier to see if they would renovate them. The chap there was (as it happens) Bulgarian. I found his accent hard going but we communicated and had a laugh as well as managing to get him to come out and fix the blinds.

He went to get a colleague as he was "English" and that, he thought, would make it all easy. The guy was in fact Welsh but was a native English speaker, married to a French woman. It turned out he hadn't spoken English for 10 years and he really struggled to understand us - we ended up speaking French to each other until his memory came back.

I have never got fed up of speaking any language. When drunk I sometimes mix up languages and words and use Italian or Spanish words while speaking French or English or some other combination. Sometimes I forget English too and can only remember the French or Italian word. Equally I get frustrated that something - a concept - that I wish to convey cannot be expressed properly in the language I am using, either through my own deficiency (of which there are admittedly many) or the lack of the proper phraseology in the language.

If you really could speak other languages you would understand this. You think in the other language. Otherwise you are translating while you go (which shows you are very clever and quick witted) but you don't really "speak" the language. My German fits this description and its (admittedly) very annoying and at times you stop and go back to something else.

[BigLog]

If you really could speak other languages you would understand this. You think in the other language. Otherwise you are translating while you go (which shows you are very clever and quick witted) but you don't really "speak" the language. My German fits this description and its (admittedly) very annoying and at times you stop and go back to something else.

Not sure what you mean by this, but I'm taking it that you don't believe me ?? :angry:

I spoke awesome French (and I mean awesome) but 'knowing' a language is knowing it at MANY levels. Can you argue in French ?? Can you negotiate in French ?? Can you recite a poem in French ?? Can you appreciate a comedian's sense of humour in French ?? Can you read broadsheet French newspapers ?? Can you understand a teenage French 'yob' who slurs his words and talks 'slang' ??

These are just SOME of the things that I, with my 'awesome' French couldn't do 100% and that is VERY frustrating. Can you speak French with a neutral accent ?? I could, other Frenchmen would praise me endlessly, but pronouncing French perfectly (from the back of the throat - guttural sound's if I remember correctly) is not an easy task - most English people cannot do this.

And that's even before we go onto writing anything (CV, legal letter, letter of complaint, covering letter for a job whatever etc etc).

I'm genuinely not trying to put the OP off, just highlighting the sorts of obstacle's just the language itself will present.

[non frog]

....

I spoke awesome French (and I mean awesome) ....

Not sure what you mean by this but I take it you are showing off

My neighbour speaks awesome French and is a thick Algerian tw@t