Hello, hope you don’t mind my butting in but you seem like a nice crowd and it’s pouring with rain here in London. We’re waiting for health result before we go to our house in SW France. One of the issues I have with living in France permanently is what to do during winter, but you all, perforce, seem to have access to inner resources and it’s impressive to see how you back each other up and supply a very good, positive range of advice when one of you is low. There’s no doubt for me that sunshine plays a big part in my well-being so I sympathise with AnnaJayne having a bad day.
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Thanks. I hope you get your flight. Snow sports are good for winter in SW France. I was working there the other winter.
There’s loads to do, time is big in France but there is loads to do.
Thanks everyone who helped me through the gloomy day.
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Well quite often it might be cold, but crisp and sunny in winter. And we go to to big cities for weekends, Paris, Rome, Geneva, Berlin, as well as rural activities. No way would I go back to miserable grey UK winters!
That sounds wonderful Jane. I hate winters here too - always have. Tupperware box skies. The travel possibilities over in France excite me - driving to Corsica, visiting the Costa Brava, Montpellier, hiking in the Pyrennees, days on the French coast - all without setting foot in an airport.
Annajayne - you have jumped off this sinking ship HMS Little Britain. That would raise my spirits.
Practising French on Alexa was mentioned. I’ve been having some fun dictating in French on my MacBook.
Yes it does cheer me up, but, my business has been battered by the virus situation just before I apply for my residency card, worrying.
Everyone’s business has been battered by Covid19 so you won’t be the only one - remember the online portal for the CDS is only three bits of paper and its last years Impots statement - pre Covid - that is the proof they request. Nowt you can do and worrying is a pointless activity when its out of your control
Thanks.
What to do during winter? What a strange question. I do the sort of things that I’ve done all my life. I’ve never understood why people think life shuts down during the winter months, it doesn’t. Last year I even went to see the Russian National Ballet perform Swan Lake only 50km from my home in the depths of rural France. I also went sailing on November 30th and enjoyed outdoor activities throughout including going to a great classic car meet on New Years Day. When the weather is bad I’d much rather be reading in front of my woodburner in my stone house than in the characterless centrally heated houses I’ve lived in in the past. Mind you I was brought up and have lived in the countryside for most of my life, the question that many people actually mean to ask is, when I no longer live in a large town with everything at my fingertips what will I do in the winter if I live in the countryside? That question has nothing to do with living in France, people who move to rural England often face the same problem.
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[quote=“GailR, post:41, topic:30431”]
One of the issues I have with living in France permanently is what to do during winter,
Some of us go trundling off to work every day…
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Whilst I realise that winters may be shorter in France etc. there still remains, for me, the lack of just going out and seeing/doing something as I can do in London. I therefore think that I may not be suited to the country life - our house is in the depths of the countryside in SW France - and I resist spending winter there. Plus we don’t have central heating etc. although I’d insist on a TV were we to move there, albeit as an experiment to begin with. It’s really impressive to see how you all live well there and I’d love to emulate you!
You could always move to Paris. At the moment you are comparing chalk and cheese. Living in London has always been very near the bottom of my to do list.
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It’s because we’re super busy all winter knitting our own clogs out of yoghurt and carving salad servers out of soap for sale on the markets in summer.
We produce our own electricity, instead of a sofa or chairs we have cunning contraptions to sit on with pedals and attached dynamos, and for heat in our houses we keep a few cows to snuggle with. nothing beats a lovely warm towel (sling it over the back of a handy cow) when you get out of the shower (which will be warm too, if someone pedals enough).
We ally kindness to animals and thrift by using actual hens for pillows, lovely and cosy, no need to pluck them, with the added benefit of getting your breakfast egg in bed, and whoever has the cock has a built-in alarm clock - now there’s luxury!
Sometimes we’ll see a car go by, or maybe a train, and we’ll marvel at the amazingness of modern technology and wonder at the hustle and bustle, but the city (eg St Troupaumé-sur-Flaque) is not for the likes of us…
Scott of the Antarctic, Amundsen without the pony-eating, Shackleton, those are our role-models in the long dark winters, it takes a special sort of person indeed, to cope 
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I think you sound switched on and aware of what you might not like which is half the battle! Maybe you would be happier in a fair sized town or on the edge of one? And definitely…do not sign up to spend winter anywhere without adequate heating! Miserable!
Frankly, if your house is not suitably heated for winter occupation… then I would agree with you that it will not be suitable.
Too many folk will buy a property in an area they have enjoyed throughout summer months… then complain when they find that Winter does exist and the property is not equipped to cope… and neither are they.
We tried different areas of France… and different seasons… for years before settling.
It was great fun and well worth the wait.
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It sounds to me, Gail, that you’ve made the classic mistake of equating the perfect holiday destination with the perfect place to live all year round. I think you may have found that’s not the case. It’s easy to forget that France has dark winter months when you have only seen it in the Summer and that’s why it’s important to visit your potential new home in all seasons.
Having said that, rural France still has nearby towns which will have shops, theatres, cinemas, bars, restaurants and interesting places to visit. There’s also the potential to start new hobbies and do all those things you’ve been putting off due to lack of time.
Izzy x
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Awesome, perfect description of life in France.
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So this evening as well as having lost the laptop, my phone broke, the bit you plug the charger into gave up. Cheap phone, no insurance, found old one with cracked screen, but wow, what a disaster patch!
PS, I adore London but not sure I could live there, rural France is paradise and awesome. We are all different.
I was born and bred in central London. Both my sisters are still there, and our WhatsApp group swaps images of orchids on high mountain pastures with those from art exhibitions and street food. So I’d agree with others that it sounds as if you might not be suited to the deep rural idyll. I love visiting them, and they love visiting me - but none of us want to swap houses!
You could garden anyway, get cold and wet and muddy and then luxuriate getting warm, clean and dry! Begin a large colourful work of art, let it all out somehow until you are inspired again! Go for a long walk? sending happy vibes…
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