Well said Doreen.
Stop baiting her, you drunken bully! ;-)
I find Doreen that a firm thwack across the head with a baguette soon restores a smile on the part of the hôtesse de la caisse. Sad really that making faces, if you did it in UK might result in your finding yoursrlf athwart the Mrental Heailth Act.
Hi Catherine, I am kind of between the two. The area around Perigueux is usually dry-ish but last winter was an exception. I am about 50 minutes drive from there. The only real difference over toward Bordeaux is that apart from less 'open' country with the kind of agriculture and it being considerably flatter, when there are storms they are impressive closer to the coast. Impressive might even become scary at times. Summers are long and hot, winters have cold spells albeit it Perigueux although close is often much colder than here. What I would suggest is looking at a few agents' offers to suit taste and budget before aiming for an area and take it from there.
Thank you so much Elaine - I may soon be plying (read: inundating~) you with questions as you are nearer to my "destination!"
Hello Suzanne, thank you for the kind welcome. I am contemplating the area around Perigueux or perhaps around Bordeaux, nearer to the sea (wondering if it rains as much there?). Thanks for the suggestions...I found a group from the Bergerac area which is close enough, and also Americans In France.
:-D
Poor me, I thought it was the person who buried the smokers ;-)
Hi Mike, buraliste is indeed a tobacconist - I own and run a tabac in Carmaux (had enough of teaching and translating a couple of years ago) but you're so right to be cautious of internet translations - I've seen some real howlers! Fortunately, I live and work 100% € so my mortgage and business loans are what they are and don't vary (although I'd love for them to go down!)
In fact the visa application was in order to allow my wife to attend my son's wedding in England with me and our daughter. For that my wife had to make two visits to Paris with two interviews, one overnight stay in a hotel, originals of our marriage certificate, our joint bank account statements for three months, proof of may own identity, proof of our daughter's identity (which was registered at the British Embassy anyway, my tax records in France, detailed itinerary with day by day contact details, accommodation addresses/telephone numbers, original printed wedding invitation card, letter of confirmation from my son and some other stuff I've forgotten now. We had to pay for the ferry before we had the visa and only got the visa just a few days before departure. That was Olympic year and I believe many Chinese tourists were put through the same hoops and eventually gave up and went to buy their Gucci gear in Paris instead. Last year while we may have liked to visit the UK to meet friends and family we spent our much cheaper and hassle free holiday in France instead. This year we're having a staycation, but then all our UK friends think that because we live in France we are on holiday all the time!
Brits. never doubted their right to go to other countries, for slaves, spices, mineral resources. Nowadays it's sun, lifestyle and cheap property. No need to learn the language, just shout louder in English! Can't see why they need to be so hostile to people who are foolish enough to want to try their luck in the UK.......
il y en a...! mdr :-D
They wanted a restaurant serving "typical local dishes" like "Provençal food or Moules-frites or vegetarian food". On a Monday evening. In Dordogne
ROFLMAO !
Try and apply for a Visa for a non EU citizen at Paris! It's an obstacle test! Cheaper by far and much less hassle to travel elsewhere. Special orders of Theresa May.
Hello Tony, No to the first question, at a push I think we could say that France is a socialist state run by capitalists but in all honesty it's still a capitalist state that is just more socialist than the UK (for example) although others here can probably answer better regarding pure politics. As for the percentage of expats who return, I don't have any figures but understand it's high and gets higher the longer the period of time examined. Regarding their financial situation on return, well I don't the capital loss - so many seem to emigrate thinking it'll be cheaper, that the language will just come after a while and that work will be as easy to find abroad as in the UK/home country. Firstly the language barrier albeit huge for many, is only half the problem; the cultural barrier can be even bigger for many. Financial problem can also be put down to the renovation project that is supposed to make people money on the resale but in reality takes years to resell and often at a loss or worse.
Notaires in France are a legal state representative and the sooner expats realise this and don't confuse them with lawyers the better. They will keep back monies from anyone where the money is owned to the state - that's their job. on selling a business, the proceeds are kept for three months before being released to give those who are still owed money the chance to claim it - nothing to do with nationality, that's across the board. for the record, I've sold four houses here any the notaire has never held back any monies. She did with one purchase as the vendeurs hadn't cleared out all their stuff so we gave them a month and the monies were released once they'd finished (we're talking about lorry loads of stuff/junk - an artisan who dumped everything in the barns after each job and had promised that everything would be gone). The state has no intention of making foreigners broke but many foreigners simply assume that it's the same as in the UK or elsewhere and end up going broke within a system that they don't understand. They do accept foreigners, but prefer those who play by their rules, understand their rules and have something to offer (makes sense and must be the case in any country). Carmaux is being swamped by eastern europeans at the moment to fill up the hlm and keep the population above 10k so ensuring we keep the commissariat and other services - I'm sure you can imagine the effect as they don't fit any of the above, are on benefits and the crime rate has increased dramatically. The latest being a gang of bugarians doing the rounds of local farms who were caught red handed by a farmer who kept them onsite and called the gendarmes - turned out they'd already stollen from a whole host of other farms. Not having a go, just detailling a local situation!
Integrated perception - well I'm a capitalist buralist within the state controlled monopoly. Have taught in various institutions IUT, CCI, Lycée etc. did my bac+4 at uni here, OH and kids are french... difficult not to be, thankfully there's SFN to keep me clinging on to what's left of my english roots!
I could go on but intended to give a quick reply :-O and need to get back to work too!
à +
Strange question to Andrew. France is no more a communist state than it is the world centre for people swimming in pools of Heinz Baked Beans. It is also not even a socialist state really. It happens to be a fairly run of the mill free market state, call it capitalist if you like, with a few more and generally higher taxes like, let us say Switzerland or the Scandinavian nations, though not as high as them, plus the state owns or part owns a number of things that the short memories of UK citizens seem to omit were owned by the state there until relatively recently. France has not yet got round to flogging them off cheap to all comers. They may yet.
The gendarmes will naturally forcibly enter your home if you are having an obvious drug orgy with 200 dB music blasting out of every corner. Otherwise they will politely knock on your door...
Notaires can be a shifty lot but they are pussy cats compared a lot of English solicitors. Whilst they may hold back a bit of money in lieu of CGT or other taxes there are plenty of people, many of them French, who will try anything they can to avoid those bills. I believe it is a universal game that people play and not unique to France. The notaires simply have a duty to help the state recover what is owed to them.
Funnily enough, among our friends, 90% French at that, there is a perception that it is the Anglais who can be liars and cheats, but that does not mean all of them. They tend not to think the same of the Dutch and other foreigners living here. Perhaps it might just be a case of no smoke without fire... If you have looked at the 'white van' post you will see how many people have written 'get out' clauses to explain why they do not need to register vehicles or insure them here. No matter what the law is, they know better or hold themselves above it clearly. Perhaps that is not exclusive to UK people but it is an indictment that may well be more broadly noticed than they imagine.
I am married to an Italian Swiss. She speaks French perfectly, albeit she has an accent that people politely ask where it comes from. French people that is. Yet some English speaking people hear her accent and cannot understand her. She taught at a UK university at undergraduate and postgraduate level without anybody having any difficulty comprehending her, indeed has far more publications in English than any other language as well, thus showing great proficiency although she does make errors. However, it is exclusively people from across the Channel who have any difficulty understanding her. The same people are often found bellowing to each other in the local Intermarché and then we hear the errs and arrs when they are told the bill at the check out. Cashiers politely point to the small screen with the total but there are still people who appear to need to ask 'Do you speak English?'. Actually, the starting point should of course be 'Do you understand English?', but since the respondent is expected to burst into fluent, accent free Anglophony... Some of the same people will tell, if ever spoken to, that they have been here 15 or 20 years... Incredulity puts my reaction mildly. Admittedly my own French is rubbish, but there again whilst I was quite ill both my French and English hit the rocks and even in the latter I fought to grasp words and grammar and am still regaining it. It is, supposedly, my native tongue. I reverted back to childhood when I used yet another language entirely most of the time. The faces of some of these people when I burst into that language spontaneously and unwittingly absolutely shatters them because then they did not even have their reserve words, bonjour and merci, to fall back on!
Sure, the French are laid back and lateness is rife here, let us not forget that. However, given the masses of ex-pats in Spain and Portugal, plus those in Italy or Greece, it is ain't nothing compared to those countries. Then they are mild compared to countries I have worked in where people can be days rather than minutes late. I suppose uptight clock watchers need lateness to release the grumble factor. In all of my years in the UK I am uncertain how I ascertained the fact, but I noticed we are not exactly the most punctual people in the world either. The difference is that there one has the person arriving late huffing and puffing with the ready excuse whereas nobody bothers about that bit here.
Why do people come to live here? Probably to escape people like me who are a total pain in the tail end. Then they arrive to find that there are two kinds of 'Brit' who stand out. The ones like them and the ones like me, so they try to act as if they are different, perhaps even superior to their ilk and avoid the likes of yours truly. If they don't know me and bellow at me in that slow English that everybody in the world, and probably throughout the universe, will clearly understand in their view, I occasionally play a bit of a game. I look puzzled and as if I have no idea what they are on about then count how many seconds it is before they decide to abandon the attempt, as they turn away I may well then use the Sarf London accent of my younger years and respond to departing person: 'Eh mate, you wantid sumfink?'. Cruel, but watch them make rapid tracks away from me. Recently though I had one of those worst of all situations where somebody put his hand on my shoulder from behind and heard, 'I heard you speaking English, could you ask this lady what she means?'. I then broke into my most educated, correct English and told him 'Unhand me and behave in a civilised manner', then said 'Pardon' to the shop worker he was wishing to grill and strode away. Why? There was no 'please', 'good day' or any other polite entry into what he had to say, it was a demand. We are in France, the French do not do that so why should one tolerate anybody else doing it?
So, my view of this piece is that it is meant to prove a point that quite frankly escapes me. If people blunder unknowingly into France then they have set themselves up for a fall. If they find out first and do not like what they see and hear then they can go elsewhere or stay put. Sum ergo, what is the point? Even if you know, I am not sure I want to, so please don't tell me.
I must be like seaside rock, with "English" written all the way through. I only have to step inside a shop and someone is asking "Can I 'elp you?"
So it came as a surprise the first time I re-entered the UK in a French registered car and a grim-faced immigration officer demanded to know "What is the purpose of your visit to the United Kingdom?" I of course replied, "Actually I live there, old chap." and suddenly it was all smiles and "Sir." But I was shocked and ashamed to think of the first impression foreign visitors must receive.
Appearance? I just look like a middle-aged French person. Which is what I am.
I don't think they would have realised for a nano-second that I was taken aback at being addressed in English - I answered when I (thicko that I am) realised they were talking to me. Well practically shouting from their table in fact, because as I hadn't expected them to start asking me questions in English without saying hello or anything, I didn't answer at first. Once I did realise, I was my usual helpful self.
Appearance maybe. But things can be deceptive. Some of my posher French friends look more British than most Brits these days. I attempt no subterfuge, as most of my clothes and shoes are bought in the UK. I was once looking so British on the beach in Sicily that some journalist even wrote a piece about the apparition in the Spectator. Something about Anzio shorts and brogues.... no apologies offered. Maybe some Brit qualities have rubbed off on you. All in best possible taste of course.
The Gendarmes have to be invited in or have a warrant from the Préfet. The ONLY ones who can come into someone's house without one are the Douanes.
I think many people come here expecting the French state to change things & make exceptions for immigrants from the UK & elsewhere who are a bit 'I'm a bit of a VIP because I'm foreign' and are then surprised that er, no actually, we treat everyone the same bloody-minded way because we are not some 3rd world country pathetically grateful that starry-eyed rosé addicts with pounds in their pockets have come to live amongst us, we are just as hard-nosed & bureaucratic & picky as the Germans or the Swiss for lots of things, we just have this weird reputation for not being like them & living in holiday-land. It's all a bit of a shock to the system for people who discover the nitty gritty of life as a French person (d'adoption or not).
When you read the following anecdote, please remember I am French.
Just yesterday I was minding my own business reading Sud-Ouest at a terrace with my fag & espresso when I was interrupted IN ENGLISH (no Bonjour Madame, no Pardon, no Excusez moi) by some (actually perfectly nice) women who wanted tourist information - WHY in English? WHY??? It REALLY annoyed me they spoke to me in English without even trying Bonjour in French. & I am mrs nice tolerant little friend of all the world so just imagine what a bolshy person would feel like.
They wanted a restaurant serving "typical local dishes" like "Provençal food or Moules-frites or vegetarian food". On a Monday evening. In Dordogne.