LOL sorry Andrew - would you like me to do a fag-and-booze run for you??? 
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Please, Simon, please keep it to yourself 
no seriously, there’s a booze and fag run the first saturday of every month and it leaves from almost infront of my tabac - it hurts seeing customers getting off the bus fully loaded, I know I won’t see them in my shop for a while 
we pray for snow and landslides over the winter 
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LOL too funny (sort of!) - I think you’ve possibly got your wish this year - the N20 up to Andorra has been closed loads - worst winter in at least 15 years - you’ll be glad to hear!!!
However, not so glad are our local comités des fetes - they normally pop up to Andorra to load up with the ridiculous but cheap 5L bottles (for onward decanting into smaller bottles!!!) of hard stuff - whisky, pastis, etc - even though they are way, way above the customs limits. Local reg cars never seem to get sopped as I guess the customs guys know we can pop over at will!! :-
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I subscribe to the magazine Todays Railways Europe and there was an article in last months edition which stated that if the SNCF employees agree to a change in their working contracts then the government will write off the 45€ billion debt.
SNCF is wholly owned by the French taxpayer, you could not make it up if you tried, how can they keep straight faces.
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Agreed Michael but…the fares are so cheap - Solidarité and all that cra*!!
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I love fish…! I don’t eat a lot of meat although my raw fed Border Collies do (and the beef chunks pour animaux in Super U look better quality than most stewing steak I ever saw in Asda…!) I look out for short date trays of sardines for them…put them in the freezer and then add a couple a day to their raw meal…Cost of living…??? My taxe fonciere and taxe d’habitation combined are much cheaper than my ex U.K. council tax and that was more by luck than judgement…my neighbours on one side are mostly cows and to be fair my tv licence here takes up half of my tdh…In the U.K. I refused to pay for a TV licence…Property prices…??? My home cost less than two years rent for a comparable or probably not even comparable property in UK…I think petrol here works out cheaper purely because of not having to sit for hours in queues of traffic…My nearest big but still relatively small town has a diversion in place at the minute but I can’t quite work out yet if any roadworks are taking place to address the quirks of a medieval town which attracts a lot of tourists during the summer season…All in all I love life in Brittany…I live frugally…am always on the lookout for a bargain but the joy of stepping out my back door every morning to silence except for birdsong is worth every penny…x
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Time for a recap to see how we’re doing…my challenge was…
And the current ‘league table’ consists of:
Alcohol (specifically Whiskey & Wine) - possibly cheaper than the UK granted (certainly not Spain) although I have found champagne to be cheaper in the UK than France!!
Property Taxes / Property - well that depends where you’ve moved from and to. My crofters cottage on the Isle of Skye was a pittance!!
Meat - personally I find red meat mostly inedible in France and therefore thoroughly recommend Bacon By The Box if you want to give your taste buds a reminder of the good stuff!
Parking - agreed, generally lots more off street parking available but the main car parks in Toulouse/ Paris cost a few bob.
Train Bus fares - they are pretty good value but the main companies are all massively in debt. Also, it can be cheaper to fly on the main commuter routes.
…that said I think the current leader has to be Train & Bus fares even though SNCF Réseau is 45€ billion in debt!
Any more offers…???
(I get the quality of life arguments but I’m trying to home in on the tangible things that are cheaper or better value in France)
Yep, just thought of one - coffee beans. Not the good stuff, but you can buy 1kg bags of coffee beans for under 5€ in Leclerc for instance, whereas in the UK you usually pay around £3 for 225g of fairly ordinary beans. The 5€/kg stuff is a bit rough but well good enough for everyday drinking. I usually take a couple of bags of beans back with me and give them to whoever I’m staying with, to make me a less expensive guest (and before anyone tells me, yes I know I’m probably buying sweepings from the roasting shop floor, but that’s OK with me)
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Firewood? A cord here seems much cheaper than in UK.
(Since I used to live in central London everything seems cheaper to us, apart from paint)
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Do you buy firewood by the corde in the UK? Whenever I mention cordes or stères in the UK, people look baffled.
Jane I too came from Central London and know that it if you were fairly hard up
there were ways of buying cheap or cheaper food.
Buy one get one free.
Being at the supermarket at a certain time in the evening and food was
marked down to almost nothing.
Not sure if that still happens?
There was North End Road market or Portobello where you could find cheap vegies and at
the end of the day boxes of vegies which were unsold were often left for the taking.
In my young days there were great cafes on Westbourne Grove and around were you
could eat hearty, tasty home cooked meals for affordable prices.
Thoughts of the past…but living in the here and now.
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I agree with Barbara, although my experience is way out of date and London has changed beyond recognition. But at that time it was a myth that day to day living was more expensive in London. There was a competitve edge and budget conscious customers went where they could get a good deal - it was important to a lot of people because rents were so high, Food/grocery/clothes/household equipment wise, I’m pretty sure I found it cheaper in London than when I moved away. Shopping at Harrod’s, Harvey Nix, F&M and the like is optional
East Street market and Camden market were my hang-outs…
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Property, I have a lovely house with 1800M2 garden for considerably less than in the UK. (Lancashire/Kent)
Water, bins, property taxes… so, so much cheaper here !
Eating out (occasionally) excellent local restaurant, run by a young Parisien couple, generally fully booked at lunchtimes,4 course meal, (fresh local produce where possible) with wine 13,50 per person !
Buying everyday household things on promotion, toilet paper, shampoo, washing powders etc; gives a big saving.
I haven’t set foot in the UK for over 18 years and don’t want to, the life here suits me just fine! Lack of stress, fresh air, good friends, rolling countryside, large garden, trees, space, space, space…can’t put a price on that !
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Off topic a little but our large apartment in W14 just to Holland Park
would have sold now for a fortune but we were getting tired of the
struggle to survive : running to catch buses, the dirty streets, working crazy
hours to pay the bills, the lack of garden space and living on a very busy road.
Yes just as Ann said we have everything on her list but our UK friends come to
France to meet our new French friends and our wonderful cat Family.
Ann - as already stated, I guess it all depends where you’ve moved from and to in respect of property prices and taxes?! I doubt those who’ve moved to the big French cities would agree - I know my family in Lyon pay extortionate local taxes.
We’ve got to be careful not to compare apples with pears - or quinces with kiwis… Lot’s of UK immigrants (and other?) in France sold relatively expensive UK properties to cash in / benefit from cheaper, possibly more rural properties on mainland Europe. Something they could just have easily achieved in the less populated areas of the UK.
As for your 13,50€ meal with wine - honestly that’s readily available throughout most of Europe (especially London!!), if not the world! It’s often quoted as something unique to France but it just isn’t. As you know, it’s cultural to eat a main meal at lunchtime in France - hence the busy restaurants and low prices - no brainer.
No argument with any of your highlighted benefits of your life in France - I’m simply trying to home in on what’s good, or better value for money than elsewhere…
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I was more talking about things like council tax…more for my 80sq m in central London than for our 400sq m here, my parking charges were horrific, car insurance higher, and service charges too. Those sorts of things.
Food is fairly equal since we’ve always eaten sensibly, and don’t eat meat.
No, but my mother lived in rural Cambridgeshire… (apparently 17% of air pollution in London is now down to people installing wood stoves…). And we would buy a stere at a time…
Yes parking in London was a nightmare and extremely exspensive.
Vegetables here in France are exspensive…and yes we could grow our own
but it does depend a little on what type of soil you have.
I don’t honestly think you can generalise on property taxes. I have a Taffy friend in mid Wales with a large detached house plus owns an entire hillside, prop-per beau-tiful it is, and pays lower council tax than I pay on a one-bed terrace house.
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