Andrew said much of what I was thinking. I actually like the rhythmic nature of life here. Somehow it's reassuring. There's also the combination of climate and scenery that we have here that takes a lot of beating.
It's also nice to be that little bit unusual, being a foreigner. Unless of course you want to vote.
The one thing that has struck me is that in all the parts of France we have seen mostly rural in the SW family is still family they work and live together eat together something which is sadly being eroded in the UK
Two words: The people.
Open and friendly - shopping for distress purchases becomes a delight not a penance, even complaining about some service or purchase leaves me deflated with the open generosity.
But then, we did choose SW France. They don't like Parisiens either...
The weather, the food, the countryside all pale into insignificance compared with the people of Aquitaine.
regards,
Ian
Eye candy it certainly is and it’s good to hear that they have opened a fnac even if it isn’t in the originally planned town centre location. It’s also a lot quieter than Marseille, never mind NY! and safer than the quartier nord or the bronx. I still miss it, I had some excellent training rides in the area, did sainte victoire from one end to the other with friends, later went back for a friend’s wedding in Gréasque… fond memories and I admit to being a little bit envious of you even if life’s pretty good here in the Aveyron!
I like the fact that I am the equal of the Queen of England, and the President of France. As a Scotsman I know that I am anyone's equal, but here in France I do not have to make any assertions. I cannot help looking at my French neighbours with great envy. Their ancestors turned the established world upside down and suggested that nobility was a state of mind and not a matter of birth.
People who put more store in Cheese than they do in Politics are my kind of people. If my heart is not yet visible on my sleeve, can I just finish by saying that the French could not conceive of a TV show like Little England, nor furnish the sort of ex-pat who gives their homeland such a deplorable name.
Just goes to show it's all relative!! Coming from NYC the expense, crowds and safety issues of Aix seem like small potatoes! (by the way, a FNAC did open in the allees provencal section of Aix). But i do hear the 'anciens' say how much Aix has changed and not in a good way......
Still, it is eye candy, and that is why i like living in France :)
wow, that's a really beautiful photo.
The fact that when you want to do anything it’s nigh on impossible and the fact that the french are SO good at… errrrrrrr nothing!Oh… let’s not forget La Poste and SNCF?
I have a soft spot for aix as I was at uni there but the aixois can be sooo snooty (Parisiens of the south!). I think it’s still ranked as the second most expensive town in France after Paris and it wouldn’t quite fit with John’s nice safe France - when Fnac wanted to open in Aix the local mafia threatened to plant a bomb in the shop when it opened (they control the local ticket selling market and don’t want fnac to wipe out there business)… the fnac didn’t persue the project!
Aix-en-Provence is eye candy. Everywhere you look in this city one findds beautiful old world charm. New York (where I’m from) of course has a few nice places and impressive sights, but not what i would call “beautiful”. And certainly has some ugly, smelly, dangerous areas.
I guess you dont work for the UK tourist board Jeanette!
For me France just sort of works, I didnt come here for the culture, more for the fact that I dont worry if I left the door unlocked, that no one panics if my dog barks at them, they just tell her to go away with out panic in their voices.
Drier climate good for the arthritis, even in southern Brittany. British telly without a licence, status here is the size of you winter log pile not the engine in your Mercedes. That I could buy my pile (of stone) in the country and pay less council tax in a year than I paid a month in the UK. That I can wander through the local countryside and see no one, or if I do no one cares that I'm not on a path. Its not necessary to suffer the rounds of come to us for xmas and we must keep in touch this next year crap.
I only need to work part time hours to survive finacially so no stress or pressure. I like that no one tells me what I can and cant eat, drink, smoke etc, though I feel that's on its way.
Dislike not seeing the kids/grandkid as often as i would like.
Did I like the UK? yes loved it, lived in the country, travelled all over with work, would never surrender the passport for a french one and weetabix were cheaper.
... I don't like damp, I lived near St Brieuc for a while and every time I wanted to go out for a training ride it started raining ;-) and my bones can't stand damp at all but sometimes hot does get too hot, especially when it goes on for a long time and everyone gets irritable as you can't sleep...
Yes don't tell too many people about the rural peace and quiet Jeanette or you'll be surrounded before you know what's happened
due to the noted lack of male contribution to this thread I thought I'd put a few ideas into the ring:
- Driving to work with no traffic jams
- Child friendly life - the state pays for most of our childcare!
- my mates at the cycling club who treat me as an adopted aveyronnais and when one of them turned to me when we were cycling across the Dordogne and said "c'est pas come chez nous ici!"
- quiet Sundays
- My French in-laws and their simplicity and acceptance and when I translated to my Dad what they were saying to him... "don't worry about him, he's part of our family now"
- like most others here: shops being closed at midday and a proper break for lunch
- in the middle of winter it not being dark at 4.30 and pissing down with rain all the time!
- being able to get to the mountains or the sea in a 2 or 3 hours and being able to completely change scenery in that time too practically change country.
- living comfortably but modestly in a great big house with barns and 18 acres which would be impossible (for us) in the UK - the same money gets you a 2 bed box on an estate in most of England.
- real seasons: down to -20° in winter and up to 40°in the summer (yes we touched 40 last summer when the record was broken by another village in the Aveyron at 41°) and the daily difference in temperature which is often over 20 degrees - freeze your _____ off in the morning but be in a t-shirt for a few hours in the afternoon!
- living another culture and having French kids who are only just coming out with the odd word in English despite my best efforts but I love their accents!!!
- although I've experienced the rat race here and done the 9 to 5 or more the 8h00 à 19h00 which can be just as hectic and binding as in the UK, on the whole it's far easier to escape the rat race here and find la belle vie.
I could go on for ages but I'll save you all from the boredom so there are a few just to prove that blokes like living in France too!
I am penning a book too on our experiences! Starting with getting into the removal van - lots about being an estate agent. I have shown it to Editor friend and she is willing to have a look at it - she likes my writing style so who knows! Good luck to you and thanks for all your help recently x
Catharine - we must get to Noz ensemble!
there is such diversity in France and the towns have retained their individuality by not letting in the big shops with the result that all the little ones are squeezed out.
I have been to a lot of major European cities but for me, there is nowhere like Paris. Just the thought of being there gives me a thrill. I have only been there three times in my life and all have been associated with LOVE in capital letters. Paris is just SO French and so much more besides. Last time I was there I was with my husband (third time for me and first for him!) and we climbed the Eiffel Tower. It was just before Christmas 2010 and someone had drawn a Penis in the snow (a very large penis) and everyone was laughing. Normally that is something that would horrify me but all nationalities were pointing and laughing and it seemed wrong to be sniffy about it. Also we walked the Champs Elysees with the lit up cabins and all the shop fronts decorated with such panache and sparkle. Paris is and always will be for me, utterly and completely magical.
I love the fact that the french are still really attached to the good things of life and certainly in Paris there are still so many specialist shops for everything rather than the UK high streets now more or less filled with all the same brands and the ubiquitous Tescos where ‘cheap’ rather than ‘quality’ reigns. I buy cheese in the cheese shop, fruit in the fruiterers or on the market, meat at the (rather excellent) butchers, bread at one of about 3 great bakeries near us…
We can live in Paris without a car and like this weekend, whenever we want to go away, there are affordable trains to wherever we want to go - yeah!!! Tonight we take a nightrain and tomorrow morning we will be waking up in Languedoc Roussillon, will open the blinds to watch the sea go by and see the vines start to push out their new green shoots, then the mountains will start to loom, when we’ll get off and go eat our breakfast on the beachfront…ahhhhh
Funny isn’t it how easy it is to gripe about France / the French - the bureaucracy, the lack of good service attitude, the national tendancy to complain … - but I had to think hard about what it is I love about the place. Et pourant, I’ve been living here for more than 15 years…
but here are a few thoughts for starters - the blue skies from my Paris window, the morning coffees at the bar downstairs and the people watching opportunities on my square, the fact that small shops still exist and I don’t have to buy everything from a supermarket, the trains, the motorways, the cheese, speaking franglais, the sense of freedom because you’re a foreigner, the empty spaces…
Hi Peta
Odd that it’s only women replying to your post - hope men love France too?!
I love the open spaces, the local appreciation of nature, the absence of ‘shopping’, and a respect for traditional values at home.
I love hearing toads croaking (VERY loudly) when it rains and watching the vineyards move from season to season in colours
of orange, lime green, cherry red and brown.
(And at this time of year we also love picking wild asparagus in the woods and making it into an omelette for lunch!)