In reply to Tim. No it’s fine if balanced. But keeping up with the French news Local and National is important and watching subtitled French programmes helps with language learning. But I will hold my hand up and say I at times change the language to watch a film or series in English if the “version originale” is English. The local news at 7pm also gives events happening in the area for those who like to venture out. For Stella I agree with you but the “greasy spoons” still provide good, honest unpretentious food at a fair price.
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Simply not true Geof.
We moved from a village in Norfolk that has a medical centre, dentist, two pubs, a sports centre, two cafes, a Tesco’s and countless other shops and services all within a 20 minute bus ride of Norwich.
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For SuePJ I apologise profusely no mention of you was made or thought of. I can see why you might think it was as I just hit reply after your last post. As you can see I do not yet have the simplest of skills to answer directly to you.
Sorry David, I’ve deleted it. I was having a “moment”! 
Norwich… Norfolk… no wonder your part of CMaritime compares unfavourably.
Even so… this is definitely home, now… but Norfolk was always a contender in the past, as we have such family connections/memories of that area.
I think it’s great that we come to France for different reasons. For me, if it was about the menu de jour and cheap wine I would have gone back to the UK years ago. 
What keeps me here and is balm to my soul is the space, the peace, the stunning countryside, living somewhere where the sea is two hours to the west and the mountains are two hours to the south, that I’m living in a ridiculous money pit that is 350 years old and is spacious and beautiful. That I go into our Leclerc’s at lunchtime and it’s virtually empty. That we have virtually no pollution and that the cranes fly directly overhead. That our farmer neighbour took 6 years before one day he climbed down from his tractor to talk. And that yes, we are 50 minutes from a superb Michelin restaurant that serves nouvelle cuisine and the dishes and different tastes are absolutely sublime.
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We live in C Maritime and enjoy life here. Should we consider some form of therapy?
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Perhaps imstead you should be offering it for others who feel marooned here?
OMH yes! Went up to Paris for a few days a bit ago. First night Ethiopian, second night Japanese, and third night a great chinese in Belleville.
Seriously thinking it would be worth driving to where Imtiaz is selling his Goan food to eat it in a layby!
However, my international cooking skills are pretty good now, and we take it in turns to rustle up special nights.
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This thread simply highlights what we all know to be true…
we’re all different 
and thank heavens for that… or life might be so dull…
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Exactly Stella, just because people move back to the UK that doesn’t mean they’re failures or can’t adjust, more that they want to do something different.
You will always be foreign: you may speak our language very very well but possibly not get all the implicit things, whether they are to do with language or culture or behaviour etc and that fact might just be the final straw for people getting older and wanting a cosier life. And why should you like everyone and everything, people living in the countries in which they grew up frequently don’t, so what, that is normal. Naturally people get fed up, I can understand it.
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Yes but Norfolk 
I have Aunts in Saxthorpe and Itteringham 
I love Norfolk (well, the bits I know best… ) 
for me it seems the bit of England which is least changed…
and Cromer Crabs… yum yum
Couldn’t agree more. I lived and worked in Brazil in the seventies and was bilingual - I presented to senior management in Portuguese but I would never moderate focus groups. I always got Brazilian moderators to do it for me because however well I spoke Portuguese and however well I understood the culture there were always nuances I missed or just didn’t appreciate.
Hmm…
I no longer feel English and (as Vero says) I’ll never be truly French… so I’ll settle for International… 
… (wow, I almost feel exotic now… )
(of course, a small part of me is French thanks to Grandma… but the rest is just a mish-mash… 
)
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A village “that has a medical centre, dentist, two pubs, a sports centre, two cafes, a Tesco’s and countless other shops and services” sounds like a pretty big ‘village’ to me!
But this is just anecdotal. Equally… Our small village here in France - population less than 1,000 - has 3 good restaurants (which by the way all offer vegetarian choices), a nice bar that also serves some ‘fast’ food, a pizza take-away, a garage, a hairdresser, 2 banks, a grocer, a small supermarket, a brocante, a craft shop, a pharmacy, a doctors and a dentist.
Come to think of it - it would suit your friends down to the ground Tim! And this is the real point. France is so diverse that most people can find what they want without looking to another country - especially the UK. There might be a little local utopia in the Norwich area, though it could be overrun by attracting all the Brits we hear complain frequently about the last pub, shop, etc, in their own village closing!
That is almost the ‘Remain’ Brexit argument - ‘why would anyone want to leave the EU?’ 
You’ll just have to accept that not everyone loves the country in the way you do and that some people would rather move back to the familiarity of the UK than see if a different part of France would suit them better than the rural life they have now, if you want to call it a ‘failure to adjust’ then that’s up to you.
Humans have a tendency to bond in tribes. One could say exactly the same thing about men and women, or town and country. I am a London urbanite, and worked for a countryside organisation for 10 years that sent me off to rural towns and villages. I am English born, and a native english speaker, but was no more alert to nuances or had any better understanding of their culture than I do here….
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Well of course! You’ve misunderstood Tim. People like different countries (and localities) for all sorts of different reasons, and it’s entirely up to them. Obviously, some people would rather live in the UK. And I absolutely accept that in your area some people feel they have ‘nothing to do’ for social life, and no doctors, etc, in walking distance, and would therefore like to move.
What I don’t agree with is your argument that because they are dissatisfied with facilities where they live here, they have to go back to the UK; that there are no villages anywhere in rural France that could possibly offer what they want, so they have to go to another country to find it.
And my own experience is precisely the opposite. I was born and brought up in a rural village (in Cambridgeshire actually - I know Norfolk well) and after living in cities in my 20s and 30s, lived in various other rural areas of England until we moved to France. Family and friends still do so. Nowhere in the UK have we come across a village the size I live in here with as good services - indeed our own experience, and that of lots of other people judging from letters to the press, etc, is that lack of facilities of all kinds and social isolation are huge problems in rural UK.
If I’m out and about at lunchtime I look for which restaurants have a bunch of cars outside Monday-Wednesday. Most will have some custom Thurs-Fri, even a lot Fri, but if I see cars bunched there anytime Mon-Wed then I know this is a place regulars make a point of stopping.
Never failed me yet as a way of identifying a good place. Tested in Italy and France! Probably works in the UK as well.
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