Been in France on and off for a couple of decades after living in a few other places before that.
Early 2000’s I bought an apartment on the Med in the Var. Loved it for a holiday, but decided to relocate to the Basque country. Bought some land and built a house.
I run my own fitness-based business from home. So I’m pretty lucky.
I’m interested in reading about other people’s experiences, not just in France, but life in general.
I’m a bit further north than you. Moved to France in 2020. First to the Médoc and then, in January of this year, to Charente-Maritime.
…although this isn’t my first rodeo. I lived in Alpes-Maritimes for a few years at the turn of the century, and also spent a year as a stagiaire in Paris in the mid-90s.
Despite that, I’ve still got a strong accent when I speak French Think I’m too old to lose it now.
You probably have a better accent than I do! Which is… shall we say mixed.
So you built too! Worst experience of my life. Would never, ever put myself through that duck crap ever again. I’d rather sleep on a bed of boiling glass!
Seriously though, most horrible period of my life.
Maybe not to everybody but I studied Modern Greek for a while at university (and have been to Greece quite a few times) so I recognised your first name and family name as being Greek.
We had a lot of holidays on different Greek islands until we found Languedoc Roussillon. We haven’t been back since but I have very fond memories. Except retsina maybe.
Yes, the islands can be a bit hit and miss to be honest.
I prefer the islands around Croatia. Exquisite.
My favourite island is the Isle of Wight! Seriously, I have no idea why Brits bother going to Greece when you could go there. It’s my favourite place in the world!
My SIL lives on the IoW. Whenever I’ve had to go there my main impression is that’s it’s a pile of mud sliding into the sea and inhabited either by xenophobic inbreeds or thise waiting for god.
Well I enjoyed the basic language tuition, but what I didn’t quite take on board when I started the course ( which was combined with Ancient History & Archaeology, and was supposed to include a third year at the University of Ioannina) was that the University of Birmingham’s definition of “Modern Greek” meant “everything from Byzantine hymns onwards”. So the first couple of years we studied the Greek equivalents of Chaucer and Shakespeare.
So I ended up dropping Modern Greek and switching to just Ancient History & Archaeology. I had to repeat a year, but I felt more comfortable doing that and ended up with a decent 2:1 degree.
I would have liked having a year in Ioannina though.
This was in the late 70s so my knowledge of Greek has sadly dwindled to basic tourist level since then.
I don’t know the IoW well but this sounds unfair to me, sorry. I thought it was an interesting mix of different landscapes and microclimates in a small area.
Think I’m too old to lose it now.
