Re growing your own veg - it’s hard, unpredictable, wet, cold/hot work for much of the time…Yes there can be wonderful results but pests, rabbits, deer and birds can wipe out a crop in no time… Unless you’re used to doing it already, don’t rely on it for sustenance…!
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Thanks Sheila
No I haven’t seen that publication so maybe we don’t get it here (Gard region). I’m not very good at these forums ( fora? It sounds daft). I was actually trying to respond to a post from someone who was asking if it’s possible to live here for €4000 to €5000 pa. I don’t think that’s enough what with tax foncière and heating costs and petrol especially if you live somewhere relatively cold like South Brittany.
We hope to be able to frequent LIDL when they finish building it in 3 months!
And we have found a decent butcher at last. High quality very small portions is the way forward I think and it’s also the eco friendly and healthy option
Thanks for all advice, people.
Sally… the stuff I am talking about is the free publicity pamphlets from all the major chains and shops… that get stuffed through everyone’s letterbox… unless you have a Stop Pub sticker which tells the Postman NOT to deliver it to your place. Usually delivered to households once a week… worth talking to a neighbour about it, if you do not get it…
cheers
Oh right yes! I must start looking at those, thanks!
Thank you, so much, Helen - I was beginning to feel depressed at some of the figures being quoted in this thread! I bought my 3 bed house on a one-acre plot just north west of Limoges for about 50,000E (inc fees) in 2015, when the exchange rate was slightly better, and am planning on moving over in the next couple of months - as soon as my house in UK is sold. I expect lots of people on here would consider it ‘uninhabitable’! I’ll invest the capital from the sale of my house in an AV which will (hopefully) provide me with an income to satisfy the French authorities. Bearing in mind the cost of some things in France, I’ve thought ahead and bought these things in the UK and taken them over. I’m proud to say I can live off fresh air and lentils, and go shopping very infrequently; as you so rightly say, different people have different perceptions of what is ‘habitable’ and how much food/provisions they have to buy each week. I understand the Tax d’Habitation is going to be scrapped for the majority of homes, so that’ll save me over 500E a year. Vets bills are considerably cheaper at my local French vet than in England. I do agree with the comment about houses being hard to sell in France, and post-Brexit it won’t be any easier, and the lady who warned about the reality of ‘grow your own’ - I haven’t started my potager yet, but I do realise it’s going to be darned hard work!
Mick - I’d say “go for it” - but a cautionary note about wind turbines, which are springing up over France like mushrooms; if you don’t want to end up with one at the end of your garden, try to buy a house in a commune where a parc éolienne has already been refused! Bonne chance 
and Helen - thanks again, and I hope your partner can be with you soon. My mum has Alzheimer’s, so I have some understanding of the challenges you face. All the best Karen
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Having benifited, I can confirm, it’s excellent, absolutely amazing. 
@Stella A few weeks ago I would have agreed with you. However recently had and MRI and x-rays, with results explained to me at the time and the summary given to me as normal. However when I showed these to my specialist she was appalled that both had missed some critical things that were easily identifiable from the scans. And the MRI and x-rays were done in two different places with different radiologists/doctors, so not a case of just one radiologist slipping up. She said that she feels that the pressure to process people’s scans/x-rays and hand them back rapidly does lead to mistakes… so a good system, but by no means perfect.
Really sorry to hear that Jane!
How awful for you… to be lifted up then dropped with a crash…
Personally, in 20 years, I have never had anything misinterpreted… but my Family Doc likes to form his own opinion and I trust him implicitly. He never reads the reports, until after he has had a good look at the scans/x-rays or whatever… then he checks to see if “they” agree with him… 
I still feel that the French system works much better than the UK currently does. Having to wait weeks for x-ray results etc… delays treatment… and this could have… and has had… terrible results for some folk.
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You’re welcome and it’s very kind of you to say so …maths was never my strong point and incidentally the only subject I failed…I loved art and English language…I was the last year that took the 11 plus and ended up at an all girls school that turned comprehensive so all years below me were a mixture of girls and boys…I’m glad my parents moved out of the catchment area although where I was top of my class in French at my old school I “failed” my o’level French with a grade d o’level at my new school…,but…it’s never too late learn and although I’m not exactly learning by osmosis I’m thrilled at any conversation that I get the gist of and more importantly can reply to…lol…x
(((((( Hugs )))))) it would be so easy to get depressed by the numbers and so easy to believe that every one else has it all worked out and living some unattainable high life and that you/me/we are in a minority…it’s not the case…
Fresh air and lentils sound good to me and make up a huge part of my diet…I’ve no doubt that many would consider my home uninhabitable too but to me it’s perfect and I’m not in any hurry to conform to any one else’s pre conceived pre programmed fallacies of what it takes to be happy…
Wind turbines…I can see one in the distance from the bottom of my “field”…there is no further building allowed any closer…
There are so many cruel dis-eases out there but Alzheimer’s strikes me as particularly cruel…his mom has descended rapidly in a few short months from a bubbly optimistic loving supportive mother of seven to a shell that doesn’t know who they are…it’s breaking their hearts on a daily basis…sending love…xxx
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@Stella, @graham. I don’t think you can compare a health service that is 100% free at point of entry with another that certainly isn’t.
Back to the subject matter, having access to healthcare would be my number one priority if I was thinking of moving here.
Timothy…
With the NHS…I can understand the lack of Doctors able to review on the spot…
but I cannot fathom why it takes so long for the Family Doctor to receive the x-ray or whatever… and it has always been so… it is nothing new, nothing to do with today’s “overloaded” NHS.
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The systems are different Stella, try getting an eye test here and see how long you have to wait.
Ha ha… Timothy… I know what you mean… but there is a system in place which allows one to circumnavigate the Ophtalmo and go direct to any Optician who has the appropriate Eye-Testing facilities.
A simple ordnance from your Doc will do the trick and it is good for 2 or 3 years (I forget). Naturally, if there are major concerns about your eyes, your Doc will NOT go that route … but for a basic check-up/ change to lenses… it works.
But you still have get a RDV and pay to see your doctor first, in the UK you can get a RDV the same day by walking into Specsavers, which is best?
My father had cataracts and was told it would be 18 months before he could be operated on (UK)!
My mother was diagnosed with cataracts, 2 weeks later first lens replacement, 2 weeks after 2nd eye sorted (France) !
Which is best ?
I know nothing of Specsavers… Timothy…
and I suspect that you and I could amicably discuss Health Care in all its aspects until the cows come home… without either of us seeing eye-to-eye…
I can only say, with hand on heart, that OH would not be alive today if we had still been living in England. The Systems in both countries work differently, for whatever reason… but, when push comes to shove, I have found that it works better here.
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Me too Stella,
Both my mother and my ‘ex’ are alive today thanks to the health care received here in France. Nothing but praise for the system that went into full emergency mode in both cases.
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Karen, please make sure that you set up your AV before you leave UK.
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