Pm sent
sounds like you need a ten-year plan… that takes the pressure off a little bit… 
We had a ten-year plan for our last home in UK… we were there 27 years and “the plan” never did get finished 'cos it evolved as time went by… 
We have been here nearly ten years and when I ask when one of my jobs is likely to happen, I am told that it is on the bottom of page three or something like that.
The mezzazine, which will be my craft area is having the oak flooring put down at last.
Getting upset is likely to be a permanent state of mind unless he takes a more pragmatic point of view.
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Lucky you. Would love to be going in your direction. Sounds like you need an extra heater just for the winter. It will warm up soon enough, March is just around the corner.
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Do you light your woodburner first thing ? I have ours working 12 hours a day minimum at the moment.
If your house has been empty a while it may well take a few weeks to warm through.
Also a paraffin heater is a great instant stop gap.
Ok. I will change the sentence. I cannot believe how racist some French can be.
As an ex-Police Officer, I have experienced more overt racism here than I experienced in Essex.
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It’s fair comment to speak of one’s own experiences… and much better than blanket statements.
Naturally, not everyone will have the same experiences…
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Paul just for the record - you’re not alone in your views or experiences. Sometimes, just sometimes, it’s a case of ‘Eyes Wide Shut’ - some people just find it easier that way!
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Mandy, belated good wishes for the future.
Happy motoring 
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Thanks Lily x
french are not like instagram, they don’t have filters
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Re: the French racism thing : talking to my neighbour at the weekend, a farmer’s daughter, with whom we share a common boundary, about a 2nd home in the hamlet possibly up for sale after a bereavement, and I quote “I don’t care who buys it, as long as they’re not arab.” She quickly reprised herself, but the words were already out. Kind of says it all, really. Endemic racism in some areas of rural France towards certain targeted populations is not unusual at all, unfortunately. I have encountered it frequently enough in the previous village I lived in, and before that also in the Beaujolais. For me, Mandy’s experience shows that both France and the UK have a similar, but different baseline. Not really different from other countries I have also lived in, although I would put Southern Bavaria up there pretty high on the “we don’t like any foreigners” list at the time. What Bavarians must think now with all of the non-German influx of migrants into the country must be quite edifying/shocking/terrifying. Anyway, I’m starting to ramble, so…
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Bavarians would like to cecede and get their ‘king’ back. He was mad as a hatter, but anybody would be better than paying into the koffers of a Federal Germany. Or being ruled by a ‘socialist’ party. Nothing to do with the influx of asylum seekers. Any non bavarian is an ‘arab’.
We are up in Scotland, and the non PC language is sometimes mind blowing.
But to some extend we all make judgements not based on experience, but on prejudice of some sort or another
Hi Jane, Timewalker passing by and noted this comment. I also noted that Wigan (in Lancashire as you know) also voted 68% for Nigel Farage in the recent General Election.
Friendly between themselves obviously, but towards ‘foreigners’? Somehow I doubt that.
Just for the record my brother also lives in Wigan!
Again no idea at what point in time I am this conversation, but as the issue doesn’t seem to be time specific, a couple of points occur to me.
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I don’t know of a single country in the world - or at least those 12 I have been involved in, where there aren’t people who dislike foreigners. This in turn is a widely interpreted term as often ‘foreigners’ are not necessarily from a different Nationality, but region, or even town or village. The North v South divide is rampant not only in the UK but many other places - Italy for example, Spain for another and so on.
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unrelated in some respects, but being suggested I answer other subjects in one reply.
Am I alone in being slightly puzzled as to why I see so many English having returned gleefully and in some relief, to the UK, plus others indicating their discontent and intentions to do the same, still being preoccupied with essentially a French expat site?
Not that I am against it, unless the comments turn into a laceration of France, I just wonder at the process. I left England many moons ago, and only comment on or in English letter columns on matters that impinge directly or indirectly on my life here.
However, and the comment is unavoidable isn’t it? Brexit must surely be a welcome thing to the returnees? A genuine ‘homecoming’ into the folds of Britishness (or at least Englishness)? Many experiences to confirm just how awful it is in France?
Huh?
Farage has never stood in Wigan.
The Brexit Party did not put candidates forward in 2017 and Wigan is a Labour seat - UKIP got about 6% of the vote there in the last GE.
The voting in Wigan in the EU election was 31.32% Brexit Party, 21.91 Labour, 17.15 Lib Dem, 12.48% Green and 7.55% Tory.
So, while the Brexit Party did get the largest share of the votes there is no way it was as big as you seem to be claiming.
They didn’t even have 68% voting for “Leave” in the referendum - although at 63.9% it was pretty high, in common with a lot of the North.
Oh, I must have been reading a different list to yours, but I stand corrected. I still wouldn’t drive my French Registered Skoda round that neck of the woods just the same.
I should have made my original post clearer by adding Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party, but as essentially it was a one-man, single hate Party I thought that might have been obvious.
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