I also think Carol, it depends on your local mairie and committee. Where we are is still quite busy in the winter, most of the restaurants didn't close until late November early December, and at least one was back open in January (ok, only on Fridays and Saturdays). We also had the winter repas du village, and in early January we had a major music night called Rambalh with over 50 musicians from all over Languedoc, and the next week a circus (no animals), in a big heated tent. We also played petanque until late November with a barbeque each week. All this in a village of 650 souls.
Gotta laugh Emrys. We have two pharmacies in the town down the road. One is closed for three weeks for the holiday. One of the women there speaks excellent English, now all of the old codgers (I qualify for that too though) are complaining about that one being closed and having to go to the other. I heard one in the queue saying to his friend, 'bl**dy winter will soon be on us, none of the restaurants around here is warm, always draughty because the doors don't close properly and try buying a decent hot water bottle...'. I wanted to say that we have one of those children's teddy bear bottles at home but no draught excluders to take out of an evening. I resisted doing it. there they were in a heat wave speculating about how tough the winter... Yes, your friend should make an off-season documentary, if only to amuse us who live here and don't moan.
Emrys...you are correct! OH and I both thinking of writing a book on why the rest return....more go back to Blighty than stay....and I am sure you are right. There is little awareness that France is open for tourists May to September....in the Languedoc we stretch that to end of October...the Dordogne...summer ends in August....and you might as well go to sleep for 7 or 8 months...because nothing, and I mean nothing, is going to happen! thats what I miss about the UK...where winter is pretty much for 10 months of the year so of course life continues....lots happen in the winter as well as the summer!
Hit the nail on the head Carol she dropped on lucky and its gone to her head, sick to death of hearing Dubai this Dubai that, the Bahamas are so much better than France,i'm afraid she's a shop till you drop girl and most of it tat, my son deals with most european countrys and out of all the French are the most difficult along with the Dutch so he tells me, i feel thats a rather blinkered view of a country
hmmm...not sure that is about liking France...sounds like you have a not overly charming daughter in law! always sad to end up having your kids marry partners who are really trying. My sons dont like France too much, they may enjoy the countryside, chateau's and views, but they both find the French mentality difficult to deal with...poor customer services etc...they both work in areas where customer services are imperative. Also at their age I can appreciate they enjoy a little more 'happening' places...and that doesnt always mean spending money. One son lives in London as that is where he and his partner work, but they are on a very tight budget, but they enjoy the buzz of a major city; museums, exhibititions, cinema, pretty normal I think in younger people...I certainly loved the buzz..and still miss it!
Same situation here my son is over at the moment with his family they dislike France with a vengeance no idea why though his wife is very materialistic, I am constantly told the shopping is so much better in Dubai she sees no value in a beautiful sunset or the birds singing, if she were colour blind or deaf she would still recognise the green of bank notes and hear the chink of money, a trip to Carcassonne left her bored and irritable she actually dropped a 10€ note on the floor, as my wife bent to pick it up she muttered don’t bother turned and walk away, sad to see someone so cold my daughter is the opposite she wants the house sees beauty in the world and spending £20k on a shopping trip in the molls of Dubai would leave her feeling empty, her words not mine
I have virtually no family links in Uk but many friends who are scattered from Wilsden Green
to Liverpool and from Croydon, Motspur Park, Oxfordshire and along to across to Soho and Essex. And in
other countries.
When I was in UK I would meet up with some of my friends almost every week.
If I went back who would I choose to be close to?
Sav our Cypriot friend would play jazz with J after a leuisurely meal at his place or ours.
Now he comes here....When he can ...mainly in the walnut season.
But his other half hates giving up her salsa or sarock classes and her very young garndchild.
When we are together here we all have a great time enjoying everything about our friendhsip, the past
the present and even the future.
Since we have been here we have met many people and continue to make more friends.
Come October there will be a welcome prcession of guests...not just for a day but a cluster of
days when we can all enjoy this region together.
And more friends from Uk have and are landing here to spend time liiving here.
Is it forever.
Is anything forever?
I must look at that word more closely.
No problems here in the Clunysois, just the idiots who come out from the towns I. Their 4 x 4’s. Quad bikes and trail bikes and think it is if e to disturb our afternoons’ probably because their neighbours would lynch them if they did it at home.
sounds a bit like our family John...two kids living as expats....both intend for that to be permanent...never want to live in the UK..other son, works in London and probably will do for most of his working life...so wont move far away....and doesnt like France...he is on his first visit to us since we moved here 3 years ago! But OH and I have brothers, sisters, and I still have a mum....and at this stage in her life she wont travel..so I am back and forth like a shuttlecock!...in my late 50s and tearing around more than I was twenty years ago...
Thanks Carol and I will do x
Well lots of for and against and I realise France does not suite everyone, having a holiday home and coming for a few weeks a year is much different from being here permanently plus depending where you live or lived in the uk may have a bearing on your outlook after living in a large city in the uk being in the country could be like living on a desert island a colleague of mine hated being more than 5 miles out of the centre of Birmingham and the day I took him to Buxton over the moors he was terryfied.My son is here at the moment and has lived and worked in most countries of the world including Iraq and Afghanistan spending 5 years on Aruba in the Caribbean sounds like heaven but it got to be hell apparently, he dislikes France and would prefer to settle in Tenerife but my daughter will come to live here and is making plans, when I do eventually leave this world she will buy out the others and live here in the house
Jacqui, aye lass, that we are a'reet!
Jacqui I absolutely understand your choice....I have two lots of friends here....both in their late sixties who are selling up...they dont intend to move back to the UK now...but will rent. This will allow the remaining partner to move back to the UK with minimum difficulty when the time comes. This is following heart to hearts where they decided they wouldnt choose to continue living here alone. I wish you every bit of luck....and am sure you will find your own shangrila...take care and stay in touch..
Thanks Tracy and I will do x
Thanks Sheila. You Irish are just about as fey as us Scots! And if you happen to trip over that leprechaun, I'll send you my address xx
I worked in A and E in London at UCH and Brighton....but its usually alcohol, driving or drug related emergencies...the average citizen walking about minding their business is rarely affected by the idiots.
No John...doesnt always work that way....my OH and I planned to move to France for 20 years....we bought a holiday home here....then 5 years later when OH retired...we moved here...bought a house in the Dordogne... and within 6 months realised we had swapped a very good life in the UK with lots of friends and family.....for better weather...a larger house...but the important bit...friends and family couldnt be replaced...so our life was not better in the right way. 3 years on we are planning to move back...and are trying to sell the house...it has taught us a lot...mainly that the important things in life are people...not weather...not houses...not food or wine....you dont know till you try...and not everyone watches a tv programme and moves out without any idea. But its like everything....experience is all important....and frankly...I would rather see my kids for lunch on a regular monthly or fortnightly basis than every couple of months when we fly back...
I can accept nothing is for sure therefore never say never but I made my mind up back in 1980 that I was going to live in France one day, work, though I was almost transferred here by my company back in 1998 plus the usual family commitments stopped me until just before my retirement in 2010 i.e. redundancy at 62 luckily we had a house here already so sold up in the uk and said goodbye, in 30 years of coming to France my interest and love of France never wavered.
So many people have come to France on a whim or because they saw a TV program realised to late they cant get on with the 2 hr lunch or Sundays Mondays and bank holidays when the shops are shut, the uk was like that before the 1970s remember, miss their mates down the pub so return or the people with a plan come over buy a house live here for ten years and go home an extended holiday really France isn’t perfect we all know that but for me and my wife it ticks more boxes than the uk my children are 2 hours away by plane my wife goes back to see her daughter and granddaughter not a problem for us, go back to the UK ,no way
Hi Brian
I'm sure it isn't and wasn't talking for everybody, just myself, so excellent news for you that you feel the way you do.
Not true for all, our friends here are all French. We know a few Brits and Dutch but only in passing. Maybe it is where people are or the way you go about it. I am not sure. I feel as accepted as in the UK and certainly feel doors are more readily opened here than there.