Living in Dordogne

But will they replace the two of you? That is always the open question.

Brian I really love my work and I love France.

When the time is right it will happen. .....a buyer will find his/her way here.

Very true Brian.

So many people in hospitality forget that a friendly greeting a bit of a chat and a welcome is worth far more than any promotions .

Your place is very special, but people make a place special not the décor or cuisine. That is why so many people get it wrong.

Well it is on the market but we really are not in a rush.

Signed up with one agent.

We have bookings for next year.

Where to next.....

probably stay in the region......It is very special.

And, by the way not trying to sell my place to you.

I have no idea what your budget would be but there are

places to buy near the river. I have not seen any to rent.

I understand thatyou have your place on the market Barbara Where too next?

Oliver Travels clos de Chinon.

I love what I do. But, as it happens we do not cook for everyone and I find great

pleasure in finding events and places for my clients which are, perhaps a little

different.

My 'dearly beloved' is too good a chef !

It is not possible to allow him to retire from the kitchen completely.He is not a

prima chefo model but he is pretty fussy about what he puts on a plate.....even if

it compromises the profits.

We are a team but I was the first to take up chefing.....and a very strange situation lead

me away from my role at the stove to the front of the house.

My life in London was amazing.....wonderful.

Sorry Barbara I can't for the life of me find the reply from you saying the name of your place.

I did look briefly at it and it looked wonderful! and the write ups were very very good. You are way beyond what I would provide as having done one restaurant I know what I tie cooking for folks is plus If I even mentioned doing a restaurant or evening meals my dearly beloved would be on the next plane out, she was not brought up as I was with a family background in catering so she gets no pleasure out of it.

Sorry to intervene, but the language bit is very important. If people live on top of a large town or city they can get away without having French - just, at that. If people go rural as we are and try to get on with neighbours, many of whom use dialects, local ways of using French or hereabouts a fair bit of Occitan mixed in then they are scuppered (to use a politer word than I would usually). We speak several languages between us in this household so have Europe open to us wider than the people who ask why we speak other languages when everybody knows a bit of English. The answer is that they do not, they just imagine they do. Failing that they speak loud or even shout then understand nothing they get back. Seems like a wonderful tactic to me, hmmmm!

Lucky man

Hi again Tim - yep I’m bilingual French, pretty good Spanish and my English is a work in progress! :slight_smile:

Simon may I ask do you speak French?

Simon .

You say that it is significantly cheaper in Spain to live and I saw a stat that said around 18%.

Here we pay 2.50 Euros for a glass of wine ,3.50 a kilo chicken pork chops around five a Kilo. Electricity around 100 Euros a month Farmed bream/Bass in Supermarket 7.50.

Thanks Barbara

Ah yes, increasing numbers of Russians and Chinese 'investing' here. Chinese own over 100 vineyards, a Russian has just bought a château and another didn't go to the Russian wanting it because he would not have been able to have exclusive hunting rights.

Same old problem, all the mediterranean coastal areas of Spain and Portugal have been settled by the old, lame, and cheap and in many ways dysfunctional of England Germany and Holland over the last 40years now the Russians have moved in it is rapidly becoming a sunny slum

Barbara - Portugal offers very advantageous tax schemes for those who have not been resident there for the last 5 years.

The tax advantages last for 10 years from date of residency and apply to pension, employment and capital (unearned) income amongst other things. Preferential tax rates range from 0% to 20% depending on income source and qualifying criteria. Loads of info on line for your friend.

These proactive measures were introduced by Portugal to encourage investment / expenditure in their country following the collapse of their financial institutions back in 2008/9.

Property is not quite as cheap in the cheaper places as France, but salaries are only a bit lower, prices lower, taxes much lower and a UK pension, state and/or private, will go further, a French pension even better. Unless they are going 30 years before, as our Portuguese friend Júlia said, don't bother. Even with a good university post she does not have high expectations. But if they already have a pension when they go then they are in the order of 20% better off in real terms with a UK one and a bit over 25% better off with French. Forget the tourist places, even 10km away from them houses and land are low. Where we lived in the Algarve, a silly little place without tourists, even today property is very cheap. Except to Faro, travel is limited, getting to Lisboa a pain in the neck, so inconvenient for us. Pity, we would have the house we lived in an extension of and the six hectares of farmland for about what we paid here and some of the best beaches under half an hour away, plus the lovely hills and forest the same. However, I would probably no longer be here because I would not have had the medical services...

Anyway, that is a distraction from Tim's question.

Surely people who are of retirement age who leave France can not achieve

a better pension in Portugual? Perhaps I am not understanding the situation.

A friend of ours, an artist/teacher is talking about buying a very cheap house

in Portugual and carrying on with art courses and seasonal window painting.

But will she find lots of arty pals or will she be lonely and even poorer!

In the tourist spots she would be fine but the property is not give away in

those spots? I wonder is the grass always greener on the other side.

Not disputing that, but then we were earning the year we spent there, indeed I had an exceptional year.