Our plan was to split our time between France and the UK, initially at will and subsequently using the Schengen allowance.
Then we got a cat and realised that wouldn’t really work.
(We also realised that, to do what we planned - be fully committed to a church - splitting our time wouldn’t work. I doubt that’s a consideration for you, but it explains why we did what we did.)
We moved here définitivement 18 months ago. It was a wrench, after decades in the UK.
All of the things mentioned above were potential problems, but there’s nothing administratively that’s impossible, with a bit of effort and perseverance.
For most people the biggest challenge is finding friendships. Even that isn’t difficult if you locate yourself with an eye to the future - ie not in the countryside and not in a village or hamlet. (I’m sure people have made a success of doing that, but it adds a hurdle that we wanted to avoid.)
We found that, living in a town of 7 000, if we made the effort, it was fairly straightforward. Almost all of our friends are French; we always go to the market; I make terrible jokes; we speak to people even though my French was poor (now it’s improving), helped by Madame’s fluency.
Mr. Butcher laid it out very clearly. If France is of interest because houses are cheap and food seems exciting then that will get old quite fast. If you can see a solid reason to move that will make future life better than that in the UK then it may well work.
Ours is a second home, and we’re looking forward to spending longer out there soon when we retire, but presently have no intention of settling. However if Reform do some of the things they have suggested then I might well be forced to leave the UK and would be grateful for a place of refuge in continental Europe.
I should say that we bought after years of coming to France because we like the place and probably would have moved permanently earlier but for the fact that my wife’s job (UK property law) would not move at all and I would have had the devil’s own job of getting my qualifications recognised to work at the same level as I am in the UK. In fact I don’t think it would be possible.
So, for us, Brexit did not change much prospects-of-employment wise (i.e. we didn’t have any, Brexit or not) and moving for retirement had always been the logical choice.
But the world seems a different place than 2015, I can barely believe it is only eleven years but it was pre-Brexit, pre-Covid, pre-Trump and pre-Ukraine. A lot has changed and it has changed our assumptions and our assessment of what will work for us.
For me, I never wanted to live in France full-time, certainly never expected to have a job there. For what I do, qualifications are far less important than experience and understanding, although it wouldn’t surprise me that France had a requirement to be qualified with a degree or PhD obtained in a French institution. Many things HAVE changed, you’re absolutely right, but I’d still remain in the UK unless things went very badly - as I guess they might.
Ha - the second one ‘the grass’ - I loved this part -
“Anything else? “Yes, there is another expat couple in the village and they don’t declare that they are resident even though they live here more than 6 months of the year”.
Now this surprised me. How on earth could this be a problem for this couple? “Well”, said the lady “it’s irritating, it gives us Brits a bad reputation, we’re thinking of alerting the authorities”.
Shades of SF - except in reverse (I think?).
On your questioning - don’t be swayed. I can post a longer thesis but for the moment, take this to heart,
The last real job interview I had was probably 1997 and I also had an informal interview in 2010 to work as a consultant, but it’s been based around what I do and interaction with people starting and developing their businesses every since.
So many different stories, and so many different perspectives.
I’d suggest it helps if you aren’t very emotionally tied to the UK through family, particularly offspring. It’s also easier if you’ve previously lived in a third or fourth (etc.) country.
Personally I think the quality of life as a retiree in rural France is delightful, and while not wishing to discount some other posters’ opinions (and that of the wretched Samantha Davis woman in the current edition of The Connexion) life in rural France in winter can be very pleasant - some things shut down, but local people still do markets, restos and randos as well as everything else, so it can be very pleasant outside the tourist season.
Down here, we get it all the year round! Instead the onset of Spring is marked by the return of the Dutch maison secondaires.
And today visited Dutch maison secondaire close friends up in the Cantal whom we’ve not seen F2F for five months. Loved the drive up there on the twisty roads (in an automatic 4x4) through the hills and forests, and on the horizon snow glinting on the mountains. Up there, they’re a few weeks behind us in terms of the seasons, but socially it felt like full on Spring, with a six hour lunch and afterwards Madame drove me home at a steady 20kph while squinting into the low evening sun.
What’a your thinking if the temperature changes in F at the same time though? Madame Le P may juat possibly be ‘away’ by then- but unfortunately there is a successor that appeals to some.
A callow youth, who’s only just managed to keep his nose clean. I think his lack of experience will be his electoral downfall, that’s if he hasn’t already been sucked into the Le Penn scandal.
The thing is, though, none of us knows the future. As BillyButcher has pointed out, so much has changed in barely 10 or 11 years. But it will change again, everywhere.
A lot of it is in timing - can you wait long enough for the future to be different if you find you’re in a place where it’s not working? As some posters have said, having a financial way back [ or onward / out? ] can make sense,. But this will not be feasible for all.
I think JohnBoy kind of said know yourself and your needs is the most important in assessing whether a move next in either direction is going to work for you. That might cover you for about 5 years! The rest is a crap shoot if you choose to move. But importantly, it’s also a crap shoot if you stay put.
Which is why you need to identify the must haves and any must-not-haves, for you.
Yes by that I mean don’t keep going back every few months to stock up on food, clothing etc and to seek out medical stuff. I saw so many brits doing that back in Brittany in the mid to late 90’s they never fully took to living here full time and we used to work all over the peninsula so saw it through stranger’s eyes and not as friends etc. Because those folks kept returning, they could not immerse themselves into local life, learning some language and generally accepting things were more expensive here and totally different especially the bureaucracy they had to navigate each year with the fisc etc. It was as if they were in limbo, hence keeping one foot across the water all the time.
I agree there. Back in Brittany we never went to the local beach which you could walk to in 15mins because of the tourists so went inland to lakes or further round the tip where its very wild and not touristy. I loved taking my dog on deserted beaches in autumn to spring, feeling the different seasons coming in and preparing the log pile etc, stocking up with food and just generally living life to the full and even more before the children grew up and left home when we would have their friends round a lot. Down here it seems to be only two seasons, one very hot and dry and the other currently very windy with a lot of snow up high blowing it a bit chilly every so often. No primroses, bluebells, crocus, daffy in gardens etc which I miss
Another problem can be elderly parents in the UK with no one else to look after them which causes a lot of problems for folks giving up their UK life. I was lucky in the fact I have three siblings who dealt with both our parents when they needed it and my in-laws were already dead many years previously but the call of feeling guilty at not being there can be overpowering and this needs to be thought about and what the OP might have to do but saying that, it should not stop anyone making a new life for themselves, you just need to stop and consider all the pros and cons.
If there was Frexit too? I’m not sure, but our son lives in Switzerland right now, although that’s no more affordable than Austria. Italy would be more affordable. I don’t really expect to have to leave, having a British wife and British mother, but you never know.
