I’m probably moving to Germany fairly soon to look after my parents. If no constraints at all I don’t know where I’d live!
In a black forest gateau. 
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Not sure if the smal boat can be restored, Maybe then the one of this Italian fashion designer would be sufficient after gettin a decent new paint.
Hope you won’t also be moving to Survive Germany - you’re needed here!
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I personally don’t know a region in France where the food is not well prepared, which makes me wonder what region you are in.
Anyway, if South Africa were still under Nelson Mandela, we would still be very happy to be there.
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I’m definitely with you there. Going to southern Croatia this autumn, the first time for many years. The first time we went to Croatia was in late May 1991 in the north. Flew into and out of Ljubljana airport in Slovenia. We had absolutely no idea about the political situation, but it was a wonderful place to be at the time. Very much a party atmosphere, which went very sour only a few weeks later. We left via Ljubljana airport only a few weeks before it was bombed by the Yugoslav air force.
Loire valley 37350. Trying a new restaurant tomorrow, majority are terrible.
My childhood and early teen holiday memories were made in Queen Camel Somerset where my maternal grandparents lived and worked in their village Supply Stores village shop. Supermarkets were becoming popular but it this backwater local grocers were still king.
Like most if not all of us I worshipped my grandparents and adventures with them and their village were many.
I have spent the last 5 years researching my maternal ancestry which is firmly placed in Somerset and Dorset and predominantly in an around Queen Camel. My research has resulted in a 5 volume publication over some 3000 pages which I have called ‘The Camel Connection’.
We are still enjoying French life and the peace of the countryside where we currently live. Our house and garden are our world but as we get older its upkeep will get harder. If it becomes too much then the playground of my ancestors in the village of Queen Camel in Somerset would be my choice to see out my days.
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Mind you, you can still get a good steak more or less anywhere (but the electricity to cook it’s not guaranteed).
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Each to their own…
We don’t feel any loyalty or affection towards the UK and probably neither my wife nor I are ever going to again visit, let alone to live in the country. She’s not been there for seven years and it’s five since my last visit. Too run-down and depressing, but also there are other much closer and more interesting places to investigate.
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The electricity isn’t guaranteed, but the sunshine for generating your own electricity is… Provided your solar panels haven’t been stolen! 
I’ve only seen a very, very small part of SA. Each time I went it was with a South African friend of mine, and we stayed with his family or friends instead of staying in hotels. I like to think I experienced the true South Africa rather than a sanitised, tourist-friendly version.
I absolutely loved every minute of being there and it’s a truly incredible country… But I also saw the worst poverty I’ve ever experienced, and I feared for my life on multiple occasions.
My friend’s family have mostly emigrated to other countries or they are very elderly, so I’m not sure how many more trips we will do 
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Strasbourg. There are virtually no good restaurants now. Mediocre, mass produced fare that I suspect comes pre-prepared and just has to be stuck in a microwave. I get much better food in N Ireland these days.
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I might join you. Having just seen the headaches that the death of a good friend living here has created for her non-French-speaking family, I don’t think I could inflict that on my niece and nephew.
Also, my husband’s French isn’t great and I can’t see how he would cope here in old age if I died first. He’d never be able to deal with all the paperwork and digital stuff. He wouldn’t cope well with UK paperwork either but at least there would be no language barrier and family members could help him.
So Somerset here we come in a couple of years. Or maybe Norfolk.
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Indeed.
My loyalty is to a village and its surroundings that hapoens to be in the UK.
You are clearly an expert on the state of the UK having not been there for 5 years and from what I read of your past life the west country of Somerset and Dorset doesn’t feature.
This thread asks for places you might live other than France, it doesn’t ask people to criticise thier personal choice.
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Where was the criticism of your preference?
Maybe?
Your criticism of the country in which my prefered place happens to be.
You live in your preferred area of France as do we. On our travels around France we have witnessed run-down and depressing areas just as there are in every country but I dont hear your comment of them.
Perhaps your next ‘rando’ should feature one of them.
Calm down and don’t choke on your breakfast!
You were lucky. I didn’t have that sort of grandparents.
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Sadly I didn’t know my maternal grandparents. My paternal grandparents lived with us in their final couple of years. Granddad was the sweetest of men. Nana was not comfortable with small children so no worshipping there. But I would love to have known her once I had grownup - she was a fascinating woman - member of the Labour party in its early days, stood for local government, became a magistrate at a time when women didn’t do much of that sort of thing.