I was reading yesterday that house prices are starting to fall rapidly in the UK so you might pick up a bargain for a lot less than anticipated. I had elderly english friends who became surrogate grandparents to my children and who, after serious illness had the realisation that their french dream could not carry on forever (they had been in France since 1985) so they sold up and moved back to be near family in 2016. Good job they did as they fell prey to more illness but had their children on hand to help and now sadly, both have passed. I dread to think what would have happened to them if death had visited them in France, one could not cope without the other and they had been married for 65 years. People back in the UK could not understand why I stayed here in 2011 but as I told them, where would I go?, where could I afford to buy and all my friends were in France, people just assumed I would “go back”, not on your nelly I said, better off here with my close family.
They are falling but from a very high base and as always certain parts of the country are cushioned from drastic falls due to continuing demand.
Our current plan is to move (one day!) but to somewhere smaller and more accessible to the UK rather than actually making the leap back across the channel. On recent visits to UK I”m really not sure I would re-adapt. And the thing that really puts me off is the state of the previously wonderful health service!
That has to be the biggest problem Jane, unless one can afford to pay privately each time. The one thing which increases with age is the need for healthcare. France isn’t perfect but it’s pretty good.
We’ve already got quotes for private healthcare insurance and given that we already pay nearly 200 euros a month for the two of us here the cost is similar. The biggest unknown is the continuity of treatment should you flip from the NHS to a private healthcare provider.
Listening to a programme on LBC the other day asking about the impact of the next Consultant’s strike. One caller said that her rdv for a knee replacement had to be cancelled . She phoned for the next available date with that consultant and was given a date in October….
…….2024 !
It is Peter, I would say excellent, how could I not now with our weekly visits up from 20 to 42 for my wife, but there are still gaps.
In January, 2022 our then doctor arranged a hearing test with a specialist at a clinic for June of that year.
When I got there they said he wasn’t there (but on holiday), I did not have a rdv anyway and no, I could not make another one. Then a hand wave which was the equivalent of ‘go away’.
In December of that year I had a rdv with a commercial hearing shop. The doc(?) first said I had a bouchon and poked a spike into my ear that cleared the bouchon and caused extreme pain. He then gave me the headphone test and the verdict was ‘see an ENT doctor’.
After many calls by phone and online I finally got a rdv with another specialist for December of this year.
As I wait for that the shop occasionally rings me to make sure I take the ordonnance to them when I get it.
I tell them to stop ringing me, I can’t hear you, that’s why I came to you in the first place. 
That’s gone too 
Still call it that though, s’my card, I can call it whatever I like. 
Many of my fellow RA sufferers make sure when booking a private specialist that they also have an NHS hospital clinic too. And get the ongoing care under the NHS. The issue with private insurance is that it won’t cover long term/chronic conditions unless there is a sudden flare or change, or long term post-op stuff either. And some long term drugs can’t be prescribed privately, only by NHS hospital specialists.
It is a bit of a gamble for some but I think we know what we are letting ourselves in for.
We hope the NHS will sort itself out soon as there has been so much discussion and critisism of late that it cannot be ignored any longer. When any service is provided free at the point of use, it does tend to become abused in time and sadly that is what has happened to the NHS,
Several members of my family (older) have had excellent treatment so have nothing to moan about, although that does not stop them sometimes, so we live in hope that it will improve with perhaps a new system altogether. It will take time and as long as politics are brought into it, unfortunately, that time will only increase.
You have it exactly Shiba. We have no-one here and only a couple of close friends who live a little distance away but not close enough to ‘pop in’ when passing.
We have been married over 60 years now and as you say, one could not manage without the other for different reasons, so to go back to our daughter and her children who are desperate for us to be back with them, is the right solution. Also we do not want to die here but want to be placed with our son in our local churchyard.
You were quite brave to stay here after your bereavment but if your closest friends and family are here, it was a no brainer. It is also a very nice place to be if you are settled.
It is the thought that you have someone close to you that will deal, without question, any problem you cannot solve yourself, that makes it the right thing to do.
When we moved definativly in the early 90’s,we already had the house for a few years so more or less knew what was what although we did not have internet let alone any sort of computer so had to do a lot of footslogging,crying, tantrums and exasperation but it ironed itself out eventually and we understand how things worked. At that time, the brits were beginning to arrive in big numbers and we got to know several couples, all retired and within 15 years all had gone back. Their main problem was keeping one foot either side of the channel and not committing to any one place which did the damage plus most of them could not grasp learning another language or even trying. Dying here leaves the remaining spouse quite in limbo especially the inheritance process which kicks in almost immediately and can get messy if children decide otherwise. The older you get, the more you miss seeing the grandchildren grow up I would imagine, its the other way round for me as I have seen them grown since foetus stage. Even I found my breton property too much and became a slave weekly to a cuople of hours grass mowing and no end of maintenance, that now is a distant memory and I never want to do that again and that was the problem with a lot of brits who came, they bought quantity over quality and became slaves too, one friend actually died in his garden from a heart attack of taking on too much, it was for show really to say he had money!
It sounds that you have done the right thing for your circumstances and that you are happy and settled here in France. I hope that it stays that way for you for a very long time to come.
I’ve just spoken to my daughter and would loved to have given her a hug and it that sort of thing that I miss and look forward to doing, so I do have something to look forward to and all the bad things that are going on in the UK will not get in the way of that.
Just reading through all the posts, some very interesting views/experiences. I’ve only been here for less than three years now, but having just come back from the UK, I’d certainly find it difficult to move back with such a difference in lifestyle and environment. Life here is so much slower and so much less commercialised, plus the population density and traffic is so much lower. I find it so much more relaxing, and being able to leave my front door and immediately be in beautiful countryside is priceless to me. And a short journey in the car takes you to so many very interesting places too - lots and lots to explore. I know everyone’s situation is different, but for me at least, I couldn’t imagine going back anytime soon.
Last time I said “we’ll never move from here” we were gone within 6 months… (but that was within the same country).
so I’ll never say never… but take each day as it comes… 
‘Our’ bit of France is a lot like ‘our’ bit of the UK, just in a slightly different kind of place, and the house is more like what I grew up in and a bit bigger than we have in Oxfordshire. We KNOW that we’ll leave the Oxfordshire house because it’s not going to be suitable in another 15 or so years, but the Cussy house isn’t really any better.
All any of us can do… is make the best/most of what we have every single day…
Tthat’s how we’ve lived our lives so far… and it suits us. 
When I lived in the UK my mother was several hours away. When I moved to France she was still several hours away…. In her last couple of years my sisters and I shared her care and we each had a similar’ish journey! Mine was just rather more expensive.
I don’t know many British families who are still together all in the same place -still very common in France.
See that’s the opposite for us, all bar OH’s brother live in the Norwich area whereas our kids are spread all over France - Paris, Bordeaux and Guadeloupe with only the youngest and our grandson close by.