The point I was trying to make was that early retirees are expected to show that they have an income of €800+ per month in order to to be eligible for PUMA but I think that provided you can show that you have enough capital to survive, they will accept that too.
They do. There is a formula that they use. I don’t know the details but some near neighbours who arrived earlier this year as early retirees said that that was what they’d done. All their capital is still in the UK.
Similar to yourselves! We bought a small cottage in Vienne in 2016 when we both became retired, we love France so we invested what we had and intended to spend time in France and our lovely house in Lincolnshire. We were devastated by the Brexit decision and carried on regardless. We have been Europeans for the past 40 years and like it. To cut a long story short we’re fed up with Brexit; with travelling and maintaining 2 homes already so we’ve decided that our home in Vienne is where we want to spend our last years.
We are just starting that journey for real, our UK home is on the market.
We wish you bon voyage!
We’d appreciate a simple “Essential to do list” of recommendations from you experienced residents.
We accept that France does things differently to UK and that it can be complex and time consuming so any help would be much appreciated.
Our French neighbours in Vienne are great and we already know plenty of Brits, resident & non resident .
They don’t yet know that we intend to reside and we hope for good support!
This site is a wonderful source of support and knowledge, thank you!
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Anna, I do know that they ask for 3 years worth of income tax return information and also details of all your bank accounts and any savings that you may have elsewhere and also if you receive any grant money from any other walks of life. So if you are farming, for example how much the government supply for subventions for your land. They are quite thorough in my experience (at least the MSA are) but once you have applied for the first time you are in the system and it seems less arduous. It is a yearly application. Make sure that you always keep photocopies of everything you send off if this is an avenue that one wishes to follow. As I would recomend for everything that you do administration wise in France.
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Sorry if I am a bit late in replying Nelli but I am going to play devil’s advocate here. You do not say if you speak French. You will really need to speak some French if you are looking for work. I also think you need to move to France pretty soon, certainly before the UK quits the EU. Brits have very little chance of being considered EU citizens after Brexit. I fear this means paying for health treatment etc. Unless you are already in the system, ie; working in France, paying into the health system, paying tax, etc… Those who are doing this are the only people I think will be safe after Brexit. Its not guaranted but I think they will continue to be treated as “natives”. As an added safeguard you could always take French citizenship. If we had stayed, that is what we would have done but your French needs to be good to take the test. Another safeguard - do you or your husband have an Irish parent or grandparent? If you do, get an Irish passport now and you will be home and dry. Hundreds are taking this route.
A few people have said to me that plenty of Brits moved to France before there was an EU. That is true - they were usually very wealthy English who went to live in the South of France with all their money. Difference case altogether.
Best of luck whatever you decide to do.
You need to live here for at least 5 years before you can apply for French citizenship, there isn’t time to do that before Brexit unless you’ve been here a while already…
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Trying to be a BIT hopeful Anna, I think it may take that long to exit??? But that is why I urge moving right now. Which I do think is a huge gamble and one I didn’t have the guts to face, so we left before the Exodus. We may be proved wrong but it such a “suck it and see situation” I would not like to call it.
Money is at the heart of this… enough money to live on… (no, not just survive)…and whatever figure you think you might need… double it just in case. If you really have enough money to support you both until 2025 when OH retires…fair enough. come over.
You will quickly learn French if you join the local French clubs and associations… and mixing in with the locals…and you will need those language skills if you do need to find work.
I am not saying steer clear of Brits, just keep them as a fall-back, from time to time, when you want to relax and chat…without considering verb endings etc. 
.
You already have your house… seems to me you need to do some serious sums…
good luck…
.
Well, to answer a few questions, yes, I do speak a reasonable level of French, just need to practise not looking like a deer in headlights and relax a bit more. I’m hoping that will improve with immersion.
Sadly, no Irish relatives within the proscribed degree or I’d have been on it already.
But thank you for all your kind words, help and encouragement. Depending on what Maybot has to say in a couple of weeks, I may even be over sooner rather than later!
Immersion is indeed the way to go… and if you speak French already… that is a bonus. 
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It’s 3 months and then you can apply. As long as you have bills for first 3 months to prove you’re living here and greater than €800 income you should be fine. We’ve just done it as early retirees as state pension a way off yet.
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Thank you - interesting additional information …
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Not really. She’s been on vacation after an “exhausting” election that got her party barely back into parliament.
She’s just announced her return for the Senate elections in September. Besides, where else could she go? Now she has a “brand name”; which without her party will come asunder. (Not to mention an EU court case that is chasing her in Strasbourg for “illicit contributions” to her party.)
And she has her father still sniping from the sidelines. Mr. Irascible will never give up because of “her betrayal”.
As the saying goes, “Two dorks do not make a Far Right” … ;^)
Anna Watson, I think your commentary on the basis of French respect for working people in all callings and at all levels of career development is absolutely brilliant. If only it could be printed, framed, and hung in a prominent position in all schools, colleges and universities in UK maybe it would help to change the odious culture of snobbery that prevails there, so well-depicted in your rocket-man/cleaner illustration.
I admit that this British mean-mindedness is the main reason I wanted to leave the UK. I don’t idealise France, but to me the social atmosphere here isn’t polluted by a fog of jealousy, one-upmanship, ostentation and scorn for ‘menials’ that seems to grow thicker year-on-year, breeding hopelessness for their future among the young, or cynicism, or crime, or a cocktail of all three.
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Working in France can be very difficult. I was a former bilingual PA, but in the rural area I live, the local companies preferred to employ French people who spoke some English, rather than taking me on. The simplest solution to get into the health system and to get the Carte Vitale is to start a small business, the easiest being doing B&B (if your home over here has at least 1 spare bedroom). You don’t have to do it all year, you don’t have to earn a fortunre (my first year I declared 500€), but once registered (you will have to do a course now, for which you have to pay), if you set up as a micro-entrepreneur on the “pay as you earn” system, ie declaring income quarterly and paying tax & social charges on what you earn, and 0 if you don’t earn, then you can apply for your carte vitale. You must earn something though as you will have your business shut down after 3 years of 0 returns. Bonne chance!
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My other half is Irish…we are paced.
But in order to apply to become an Irish Citizen you need
to prove that you live in Ireland for 3 years…or was it four.
Well I have never lived in Ireland …so that is out.
Better get moving on this side.
Or will Brexit ever happen.