The ferocity of the thunderstorms 
and (not so relevant now) how cold it could get in the winter, and how much wood/electricity was needed to keep warm
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Our experience was rather different to most, largely because we bought an existing business - so we inherited and were talked through many of the ‘system’ issues that confronted people in the posts above - and this included things like utilities, tax (we took over the business’ accountants, etc) - even health since it was the business that gave us immediate access to the health service.
The area we had most difficulty with was actually schools (we came with 3 school-age children) - but I guess this is also pretty unusual? (However, it was also, in the end, incidentally, the best integration / language learning process of all - all our first friends were the kids’ teachers or their friends’ parents.)
Otherwise it was just the usual cultural adjustments often discussed here - the way France still works more by telephone than internet - the way it closes for lunch, and pretty often other fermetures exceptionnelles - etc…
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and fax machines…
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- Not taking it personally when a French person gives the ‘V’ sign when saying ‘deux’.
- Why unemployed people were marching through the streets demanding that the government give them a Christmas work bonus. They were already receiving 80% of their monthy salary in unemployment benefit at the time (1997), as opposed to the set 50 pounds a week for everybody in the UK.
- Why, when I phoned different Mairies they all had different answers to the same administrative question.
Number two is no longer relevant (but still amuses me), number one is quite important - I’ve always warned my hubby/kids never to do that in the UK! I think number 3 is probably redundant as most information is on internet these days.
Happy Sunday 
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all matters relating to tax
I may be amongst the most recent arrivals. I am positively soaked behind the ears. I arrived on Nov 2nd, 5 months ago. But I have had something of an initiation into non-Anglo-Saxon culture by the previous 5 years, in Spain. But there are significant differences between FR and ES and UK.
As in Spain, I find bureaucracy more complicated, arcane and, I must say, unnecessary and intrusive, than in UK. One of the big differences between FR and ES is that for things like a CdS or C.V. you have to accumulate the usual arm-fulls of ‘papeles’, in triplicate, stapled - or not stapled! [latest intermediate document request from C.V. application]
After a long wait in an office, when you finally get to hand over your dossier, it is checked over then and there and if there is no question of ‘lo siento - falta un papel’ [sorry - there’ a document missing] you leave with what you have applied for, in your hand.
It was the same with a request to park a skip on the street [about 15€] and a ‘Declaracion de Responsibilidad Typo II’ [1260€] a certificate permitting me to refurb my flat to the specs listed - nobody ever came to check. It was just a Town Hall money-grab. But at least a visit to an office resulted in leaving with what you went for.
This seems not the case in FR, by a long shot.
The paperwork associated with health care, in quantity and content, I find bewildering.
My dossier was checked over and ticked all the boxes at a vis avis at CPAM St Lo. That was on 9th Dec. Three days ago, 4 months to the day since, I received a letter from Le Mans, which seems to be a central digitising office, asking for a mug shot and a signature in a box. Word round this village pump is that the actual card will turn up in June - maybe.
The first 3 items on Nigel Roberts’s health care list - agreed.
And of course the fact that the French system is a misama of %s of %s in terms of payments and refunds. A 200% mutuel? I understand now why and how that works.
I am only sorry that for a country which comes very high in the list of countries by ‘National Insurance’ contributions, and where the political centre seems to be to the left of the same in UK, health care is not free at the point of delvery - it is in Spain, even tho’ some of the pharma companies have not been paid for years.
If the French approach results in a better funded healthcare, then I’m all for it. It all has to be paid for somehow. The UK systems are equally complex but the patients just don’t see it.
Actually putting your hand in your pocket to pay for healthcare should also make people more responsible, but of course with the mutuelle system (and most people being covered by their employer) it seems quite common for people here to feel they are entitled to anything they want…
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The fury of farmers and the actions they take to express it. I wonder if the residents of Toulouse were able to use the 100 tons of manure dumped there recently.
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Roger Munns, if you are selling anything, including a car, or a house, it is normal to ask for more than you want, knowing, and expecting, to be knocked down. I have never paid the asking price for anything, even, at car boots. I use Leboncoin, daily to buy things, and email, asking for the lowest price they will accept. Usually, then either pay, or walk away. I enjoy the haggling bit.
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very French…
Of course it has to be paid for. That is a sine qua non.
As for the complexity, the last people who should be burdened with admin ‘complexity’ are the patients. Let the wheels grind away unseen.
As it is, I am accumulating ‘docamenti’ to a degree I find amazing. Along with all the other ‘papeles’ associated with moving here, registering myself, my car etc, the ‘health care’ section of my ring binder is full and I will have to get one specially for that!
And is the FR system better? My UK clinic still has me on the books, tho’ they know I am in FR. I have been called by ‘my’ Dr and by a jab-centre inviting me for a jab - weeks ago. I’m not yet actually entitled to a jab here but the Dr at the clinic at Torigni has overlooked the co-morbidity conditions for my age group and booked me in for next Thurs.
I have had to put my hand in my pocket to an alarming degree. It came to the point where I decided not to pursue further consultations and treatment until my flat in Valencia sold and I am in funds. It did, last week. That brings some relief.
Looked at it from one angle this does make me ‘less responsible’ but perhaps not in the way you meant.
Quite so. When there was a break-in to boats ashore in my boatyard, one of my bertholders found his Avon dinghy had been stolen. These things are £650/700.
“Wretched… but your insurance will cover it, no?”
“I regard my insurance is there to pay for things I cannot afford. I pay for things I can”
So the good Dr, for so he was, paid for his new dinghy from his own pocket.
I’ve learned to use the thumb and first finger!
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Car burning in Montpellier over ‘failure of the government’ to provide buyers for the ocean of cheap wine that farmers had taken the EU bung to produce. The smoke from the cars could be seen when my friend collected me from the airport.
But the biscuit must go to the farmers protesting at the Channel ports about GB lamb imports, who kidnapped the visiting Ag Minister and kept him incarcerated against his will for a week! And as far as I recall, nobody was prosecuted for what, in the US, is a capital offence in some States.
I totally agree, I would rarely expect to pay full price on any 2nd hand thing - particularly on LBC or buying a house!
My only sure knowledge is my personal experience, and the health care I have received here has been superlative. Shortly after I arrived here my specialist prescribed a drug that I had not been allowed in the UK (£1,000 a month) which has been magical. The doctors are investigative terriers and hunt down causes which is hugely reassuring, and the physios actually do something rather than hand you a leaflet. And all the way through this pandemic I have had normal care, including nurses coming to the house to draw blood. Which few of my family and friends in the UK have had (before anyone shouts, yes a couple in a well-served postcode have been ok, but in general not).
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No particular issues.
We arrived ina very small rural village 23 years ago.My wife spoke good French (degree in French and business studies) I spoke very poor, just about passed, O level French and our 4 year old son was pitched into the village school speaking no French at all.
In those first few years we renovated a house while I did a weekly commute to London to work.
Being aware that there were significant cultural differences was important. Not being afraid to apologise for not knowing something, and in my case for speaking excrutiatingly poor French, smoothed the way.
Having a child at the village school was a great ice-breaker, as was predicting that France would win the 1998 World Cup.
It wasn’t easy but it fell into place and living in a village with virtually no Brits created a “hot house” environment and also forged significant friendships with our French neighbours.
I guess much of this was also founded on us having spent a few extended periods (2-3 months at a time) in France while we looked for somewhere we wanted to settle.
My arrival in the Ardennes was cushioned by three months in hotel but at the end of that time I had not found a place to stay. Eventually I took a house in an isolated small hamlet in desperation. I had not taken much notice of the Etat des Lieux and ended up paying for damage I had not caused. This was a lesson learned.
I had arrived in the Ardennes in my trusty Focus and was horrified to see minus 12 on the thermometer. Later I would find that my route to work included hills, which were impossible to climb in snow.
At the office, it was obligatory to kiss the women and shake hands with the men. The safety wear and instructions also took some getting used to for it was my first job in a factory. Eating in the canteen every day took its toll on my weight. Up to my arrival in France, I had always worn a suit to work. This was actively discouraged at my office because only the site director wore a suit.
We were lucky to find an excellent doctor and a friendly dentist. However the dentist had no notion of saving teeth - luckily I managed to get implants back in the UK. As a bonus, I went to visit the tax office and was amazed to get preferential treatment – bypassing the queue, because the tax advisor was an Anglophile and wanted to practice his English.
Our registration into the French health system would have tried the patience of a Saint such is the bureaucracy - perhaps we were unlucky but some of the questions asked were ludicrous.
Yes - the French health service is much, much better in my experience. I’m in a privileged position to judge as far as patients go because I’ve had the same illness here my Dad had in the UK - I spent a great deal of time there with him in half a dozen different hospitals - my experience here is only of one hospital and the other bits of the service around me - MT, labs, district nurses, pharmacies, etc.
Honestly, there is no comparison. The doctors and nurses are great in both, but everything else - including the time staff are able to take with you - is better in France. Not only the treatment I received but all the peripheral hospital stuff - the rooms, the food, the entertainment (if you have some French) - all far better in France.
I also broke my arm in the UK - when my son broke his arm here in France I drove him to the hospital, parked, free, 20 metres from the A&E door, within 5 minutes he was in X-ray, and in a couple of hours out in plaster. Which system is working best is simply not in question for me.
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But it is not permitted to criticise the NHS or concede that alternate methods may be better - did you not get the memo?
In parts I have no doubt, but it is clear the state of rural primary care is a) dire and b) often in the dark ages even where people can get registered with an MT.
At least the French government is not intent on dismantling the health service and selling it off to the highest bidder.
I reckon the NHS peaked about 2010 and it has been downhill since.
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