Alastair - thanks so much - we’re on to the internet connection and the TV advice is invaluable… brilliant
I have to say we packed tools, our combined printer/fax/copier and blutak There’s an exhaustive list of things I WISH I’d brought but the ones I REALLY wish I’d brought are: syrup, treacle, dried fruits & nuts for baking, brillo pads, and (more) porridge & oatmeal - ooh - and icing sugar. Keep in CLOSE touch with friends and family and ENCOURAGE visitors so that they can bring u mercy packages - so far we’ve acquired paint, chinese ingredients, suet and 2 shower rails that way (& have only had 2 lots of visitors). Doesn’t matter how much you think ahead there’ll always be something! As for sausages - toulouse sausages are dishlish and with these and lard we do q. successful fryups. Aldi (if you’ll have one locally) are good for reasonably priced shampoo, toothpaste, deodorant etc and their loo roll is great. U don’t mention how much garden/land you’ll have but do pack ALL gardening implements incl pots etc and poss an idea to bring some seeds to start you off. Don’t forget all UK appliances can be used in France with either an adaptor or a quick change of plug, and you can buy convertor plugs for the UK phone jack in the Orange shops (poss elsewhere too). If you like sherry or use it for cooking bring some - I have yet to find any! How exciting!
Hi Grant, appreciate the quick reply and great info. Thanks
yes, exactly the same dish position is used as for Sky so you’ll have no problems swapping them over.
Hi Grant, thanks for the advice, sounds great just what we need!!! Have already got a french sat dish tuned to the sky satellite (Astra I think) so presumably this would run on the same system?? Cheers again…
Hi Maria, no phone point is required. Here’s an Amazon link to the 500gb version, lots of storage for your programs - Foxsat HDR 500GB Freesat HD Satellite Receiver’ by Humax http://amzn.to/ia3diW . Absolutely simple to set up, not technical. Just put in a valid UK postcode (selects regional news etc) and it does it all automatically. Sat dish may need to be larger than your UK one unless you already use an 80cm dish. The smaller uk may still work but to be honest they’re not expensive and the larger the dish the better your reception in bad/cloudy weather. These are the channels you’ll receive: http://www.freesat.co.uk/what-you-get/our-channels . Enjoy!
Hi, we have skyplus box but obviously cant record so very interested in the Humax Fox, have seen them on Amazon but do we need a telephone point as well, is it easy to set up and do you get all the freeview channels?? Presume as we already have the sat dish we could just plug in and go?? Cheers…
I think the supply of British food depends on the population of brits where you live. There are more brits in the south so the demand is greater. We live in Champagne-Ardenne and are the only brits for miles so anything British is classed as ‘Unusual’ food fortunatly the local produce is fantastic.
Crackers! (The edible kind, not your state of mind after you’ve been here for a while!)
I think the availability of British items greatly depends on where you live. A friend of mine who’s been living in Limoux said he could get most things in his supermarket, but here in Castanet (near Toulouse) he’s had to go further afield. Where my parents-in-law live in Picardy there is quite a good selection of foodstuffs, especially in the summertime and somewhere to the north/west of Toulouse there’s even apparently a British supermarket!
I’ve only seen Tuc biscuits and some very bland biscotte-type breakfast crackers here, so my mum brought us a selection in October which is now running out! Luckily we do like the Tucs though.
Absolutely agree, we have Humax Fox Sat. Excellent in every respect. We went for 8 way lnb (almost same price but may leave options open for later additions), good for 4 recording sat boxes or 8 just receiving ( if you have gites for example) as each recording (or watch one-record a diferent one ) requires two feeds from the dish. To watch only you can also get an HD FreeSat box for about £50 (Argos) also good for “secondary” viewing/gites etc
If you have room in the van (and they don’t mind) bring a good English builder, carpenter, electrician and plumber, they will be cheaper then the French ones and will get the job done in half the time. Your list of English essential food items will get shorter the longer you live here, but English bacon and sausages are a real treat, and you can get good English cheddar cheese here. It’s also worth keeping the empty packets of any useful medicines you like in the UK, you can then take it to the local pharmacy and ask if they have anything similar.
… also agree with PAINT, but if you’re doing any work involving plastering walls you should bring “multifinnish” plaster. The traditional English pink wall plaster. Can’t get it here and is very cheap from places like Wickes. French seem to prefer just painting directly onto plasterboard with a special thin platerboard paint. Papadums, naan bread and indian spices if you cook curry, no curry houses outside of Paris, corned beef and baked beans, Lea & Perrings Worcestershire sauce (can get it here but more expensive than truffels) , amazon.co.uk deliver here and are much cheaper, even with delivery on many electrical items compared to amazon.fr (no idea why) Dyson 50% cheaper than in France … bon voyage!
And Next!
did you know M and S also deliver to France…plus a heap more…worth searching on the internet…quite a few deliver to Europe for a small amount.
I’ve recently found out that Littlewoods will deliver to France for just 5€, that is such a bargain if your kids are not French shape/sized.
I did most of my Christmas shopping with them and saved a fortune. For example Dr Maboul was on promo at 19 euros in Carrefour, in Littlewoods it was just 13 euros, that meant the rest of my shopping was delivered free including clothes, a fire engine and station and a scooter! And we fortunately escaped the on line shopping disaster that occurred with the arrival of the snow.
Loved all the advice, and I would second most of it (we’ve not had to paint anything yet, so I’m not sure about that one).
On my current list, after 5 months of living here, I have Ribena, jelly, lime juice cordial and notelets because they just don’t seem to exist here or not to the same quality; and ibuprofen, paracetamol, kids’ toothbrushes and kids’ vitamins because I’m a skinflint and feel that the prices of these goods are greatly inflated. My daughter is fast running out of reading material, too, so ditch the marmite, and go to the charity shops before you go!
I have to buy underwear this week, and although I had a good giggle about the previous comments on the subject, I am actually not looking forward to the challenge. . . . roll on the summer and a visit to M&S!
Good luck with the move!
- internet connection,
- freesatTV. we started off with a second hand sky satellite reciever from ebay, and a 20 quid card from sky ( using uk address).
We now use a Humax Fox sat free sat reciever (220 quid), which is like sky plus, without the subscription.
this is handy as as well as receiving UK tele, we can record everything sooooo easily, so a Film that starts at 9.00 in the uk, would be 10.00 here, which is a bit late for us oldies.
So we record it, and watch it at 9.00 the next day ( we also skip through the adds which is a dream)
To set it up you will need a dish (from local diy shed here in France), plus something called a 2 way or 4 way head ( ebay).
A local TV shop will align it for you for about 30 quid, et voila, UK TV, with a something like 100 hrs of TV recorded if you want.
IMHO, french TV, whilst good for your language skills, will not be most peoples entertainment of choice
Teresa,
Somebody mentioned a photocopier… I second that remark.
The answer to that one is of course getting yourself a multi-function printer/flat-bed scanner for the computer, which normally doubles as a photocopier.
If you don’t have one, get one in the UK, where they’re cheaper… and you’ll probably need it from Day One.
The note about electric plug adapters made sense, unless you’re good at changing electric plugs…
If you choose keeping your UK plugs, don’t forget to stock up on fuses for the British 13-Amp square pin plugs, since I don’t think the French size is the same…
As to things electric… light bulbs…
With the current mania about eco-bulbs, etc. a lot of what we thought were standard bulbs have abruptly disappeared from the market. So make sure to pack your entire collection of spare bulbs… and since they will be rated 240V, they’ll last a lot longer on the French 220/230V mains (our experience…).
This applies in particular if you have something like a ‘chandelier’ with ‘candle’-shaped bulbs… the new ‘eco’ replacements are horrible…
“Paint! Paint!” doesn’t ring a bell here… We had to repaint a lot of our place, but we had no problem finding local suppliers.
Tools? Yes, make sure your entire tool kit will be the first thing unloaded from the removal lorry. And, don’t forget the UK is still 'Imperial" while France is “metric”.
As to food… you’ll just have to learn to survive in France. Don’t put any into the removal lorry… it’ll probably get stuck in a dock strike (the French are just working on one), and any food will smell horribly once arriving at the final destination.
What I miss most are bacon steaks…
As to herbs (like coriander), no problem in finding those locally, and that includes seeds, etc. if you have a garden.
CJ
Blu tack - is yellow! It’s called ‘Patafix’ and made by UHU.
Thank you so much 
- I will be forever in your debt, I don’t care how small, there is just nothing over here to compare to them. So what else would you like to know about moving to France, I’ll answer anything for a creme egg? PM on it’s way!
Just remembered another thing that is quite handy for your removal lorry - English mustard powder!
Like the blog - am just starting one up about Life in Burgundy but finding if very hard to make it interesting.