David I’m not really that bothered to be fair and neither is my wife. When she decides to work she will check that out. My wife looks after my children and that’s more important than her work
1 Like
I just said she may in the next few years, I just wanted to know what peoples thoughts on places to live in Normandy. 
Thanks’ for being understanding
I said eventually let us get moved first we’re over in April to look at places.
@iclark95 please forgive us if we seem to be throwing too many ifs and buts at you.
Personally, I like to think that there are no Problems in Life just Challenges needing to be met as best I can …
but having experienced some very difficult times during my early years in France, I now fully appreciate that it is often useful to know what those challenges might be and plan accordingly if one can.
best of luck
1 Like
I have teaching qualifications but even pre Brexit they were pretty worthless in France. Moving a family to a new country is a big step, preparation is vital.
2 Likes
Sounds a bit old fashioned to French ears but each to each - even so it would be good for her to have some sort of occupation outside the home which will also help her integrate - far more of us are working mothers here than in the UK so she might find it a bit isolating not to, especially as you won’t be around most of the time. School hours aren’t like the UK so you can do both.
I looked after my 5 children too by the way, but always had a job and that’s normal here.
4 Likes
My wife will eventually become a teacher in France. I was only commenting on what you wrote.
She’ll need to succeed in the national competition for teachers which means fluent French. Look it all up on devenirenseignant.gouv.fr
https://www.devenirenseignant.gouv.fr
I should have put in the correct punctuation, it was a quote from the OP.
Yes sorry I realised after I answered.
1 Like
The only advice I would offer with regard to location, i.e. town vs country, is that if you, your spouse or your son have any kind of disability, then you will probably find rural life much harder. The level of support for any form of disability is in my experience lower in France generally than that provided in the UK, and even worse out in the sticks. Similarly, if your son is gifted, then a rural school is fairly likely (barring exceptional circumstances) to be unable to cater to his educational needs.
State education in France isn’t bad per se, although can be pretty variable depending on which collège/lycée your kids happen to end up in, but the system is geared to churning out masses of preformatted production-line qualifications and not at all to dealing with individual needs.
4 Likes
After 20 or so years in the Creuse (23) we moved to Manche (50) just under 2 years ago. Our nearest village is Sourdeval which is quite a lively place, and has a school. The bigger town of Vire in Calvados is about 15 mins away which has pretty much everything. We spent a bit of time looking around before we moved and decided this general area was what we wanted (house prices, amenities, distance to beaches, to ferry port etc) Whilst we knew there were some, we didn’t realise quite how many British immigrants there are in Normandy.
If you havent done so already, I’d recommend having a few holidays/breaks so you can travel about and suss out the region.
3 Likes
Sounds old-fashioned to my ears too. The only women around here who don’t work are mail order brides from Russia.
3 Likes
Yes, I understood that. It was simply to suggest that it could be a long process to become eligible so may want to push it up the priority list.
2 Likes
Having a dog works pretty well too - and much less hassle 
3 Likes
Hmm.
I’m always surprised by how much time you lovely ladies have to post on here. Don’t you have husbands and children to look after?
3 Likes
Says a man with a death-wish. 
6 Likes
Cheeky b*gger
2 Likes
That’s the reaction I got when as an archaeology student many years ago I got to meet Magnus Magnusson when he visited our dig in the Orkney Islands.
I had told him how much I enjoyed his “Life on Earth” series.
3 Likes
Chris, are you aware of the excellent archaeology progs on the Arte TV chaine that’s also available online - if you watch them in French with the French sub-titles option, they’re even better.
Just finished watching this one
https://www.arte.tv/fr/videos/108935-000-A/liban-les-secrets-du-royaume-de-byblos/
Find it fascinating how DNA analysis and 3D computer modelling have changed archaeology in recent decades.
1 Like