Gorron is the town I was referring to we try and avoid it and if we do go to the supermarket we never speak in English. I am surprised by that percentage as it just seems it’s more but that’s because we can easily spot the Brits!
We had no idea Gorron even existed when we bought the house or that there were so many Brits here. For our first 2 weeks here we shopped in Fougeres as we had no idea of anywhere around here other than Mayenne, which is nice, Fougeres. As we had to buy somewhere quickly (Brexit) as other plans fell through, we wanted somewhere where we could get back to the UK fairly quickly as I had aging, parents. The houses we viewed were mainly on a Saturday afternoon/Sunday morning due to work so it was always a case of quick visits and we decided on 2 possible places that fitted in with what we needed to continue our business, both near Gorron.
We make a point of not mixing too much with Brits here if possible and have the policy, if we wouldn’t mix with you in the UK we won’t mix with you here. This is the reason I lurked on this site for so long and why I haven’t done a proper intro. We have had our fingers burnt too many times in the past 8 years, as we didn’t comply with how the British community here expected us to behave. As in constantly complaining, drinking in ‘Brit’ bars, slagging each other off behind their backs whilst pretending to be friends etc, etc.
We are lucky in a way as more Dutch and Belgians are moving here now, 1 or 2 Americans and it seems gay couples, a couple of which are our friends and very decent people, as seems the members on here.
I try to avoid discussions about British compared to French. However one thing I have noticed is that most of the Brits that we have encountered since we have been here, that we found disagreable, have returned to UK post Brexit.
This has been about the only Brexit bonus that I have been able to identify.
There are quite a few Brits around our area and we don’t associate with most of them - mainly because we are private people and don’t want to live out of anyone’s pocket. We just keep ourselves to ourselves. Sometimes we go for weeks without seeing anyone, including our next door French neighbours. As Stuart says, we wouldn’t have had them as friends in the UK so why have them as friends here.
Let’s face it, we came to France to live a quiet and peaceful life in the French style and don’t want some of the British ways and customs to influence that.
They are the sort of people that get the genuine British folk a bad name. That was an absolutely disgusting thing to say and I’m not sure I could have let it pass without saying something. Mind you himself would have held me back! I’ve never heard British people speak like that around here - thank goodness.
She was very upset by this and actually felt he’d get even more aggressive so just fled with her trolley. We assumed they did live here as it was nigh on impossible to travel at that time.
It made me so ashamed to be British when she told me, it’s one thing to want to say that but another thing to actually say it and call an assumed French person, in France, a peasant. I know we live in a rural area and many do work the land but she wasn’t and never does dress like an agricultural worker.
It certainly explained to me that attitudes like this from just a few Brits is exactly why the French are not fond of us here. I now, no longer get involved with any initial talks with French Tradespeople as I don’t want being British putting them off doing work for us, because of her unusual French accent they ask where she’s from so talks always get off to a good start
When we lived in France we did have what I would call casual acquaintances with other Anglophones. Although I spoke fairly fluent French, my wife didn’t so in depth conversations with the neighbours and other French people was not very satisfying. Thus, occasionally meeting other Brits satisfied this need. However, it was always clear to us that most of those Brits were kept at arms length and we knew they were unlikely to be friends if we lived in the UK.
I do think we are just a little unlucky, years ago we had to get some paperwork officially translated and the only certified translator was about 60kms away. He asked where we lived, had never heard of the place so we said, near Gorron and he said, ah yes, I know it well. The local Gendarme are good clients, I’ve been there often as a translator.
I came across this from 6 years back and I think not much has changed from @UKfloatedaway (I’m sorry to have hijacked and mixed up the the original post by the way…perhaps to do in my head for the desire to have something English (sausages and bacon) where it can be had locally…I’ll, maybe not bacon..
That’s one of my pet hates too and I do ask about it whenever I can to people we’ve met who haven’t registered their car here, as JohnH mentioned about any possible accidents, our ex insurance company, AXA informed me that their insurance could be invalid in case of an accident. But they, the car owners, don’t seem to care.
A couple of months ago I approached a man in the yard at a Brico who’s van was on UK plates but had a sign on it saying ‘window , door replacement’ and a French phone number. We had a problem with a door and his suggestion was, I can bring you a new one over from the UK. I asked about duty/VAT etc and he said he never declares it and is never stopped. He then went on to tell me about all the other prohibited items he brings over. Needless to say, I never contacted him about a quote.
Wow…we used to have this quite a bit in The Hague with loads of Polish and Bulgarian and Luxemburg plated cars with their owners clearly living in NL but failing to pay the money and change to NL plates and get NL insurance after the obligatory period (6 months I think). This caused a lot of resentment amongst the indigenous Dutchies who felt obligated to report the infractions to the PoPo. (Perhaps a bit of racism chucked in too but mainly to do with tax evasion and insurance liabilities)…who ever thought that English people would do the same…
We had friends from the Netherlands living in Niekirk (sp?) who regularly drove to Poland and Latvia for business. He bought a Polish registered car that he used all the time so that he didn’t get speeding fines when doing long journeys.
Lots of foreign plated vehicles around me in London, many over here working long term. Of course there are good ones like my neighbours who have done everything correctly. (Just to add balance)
The innovation centre manager where I worked 25 years ago was French and brought a car over. She was trying to register it in the UK and required certain documents from France to do so. I have lasting memories of waiting to speak with her while she was on the phone and her voice was getting angrier with every minute. Eventually she slammed down the receiver, turned to me and declared “Ohh, she was soo… FRENCH!”.
Anne-Sophie was special, and we really missed her when she returned to France.
Not sure if l am responding to your query but just in case, here’s what to do if you relocate and bring your vehicle with you. Loads of people knowingly flout the law and end up paying some hefty fines.
Of course, still does not relate to Sausages and Bacon
we try and avoid it and if we do go to the supermarket we never speak in English. I am surprised by that percentage as it just seems it’s more but that’s because we can easily spot the Brits!