I think perhaps you summed up your personna thus --------------------------------- Perhaps I am 'irascible' - or just bloody-mindedly British (and I have no intention of changing that!). ------------------
OK so the national July 14th jollies should be avoided, I go to the Rememberance Day service each year, and am invited back to the Polyvante for a glass of wine afterwards, where, if anything, a respect is shown to me because I have attended "THEIR" service, but as I point out to them, many died during the wars of freedom and to respect the dead at any war memorial is a point of duty.
Perhaps you are right in saying it could be the area you live in and perhaps the disappointment of not making "loads of money" with your Gites could be another factor.But you still haven't defined what you consider---interation ---- you say you speak to -- have dinner with --- dine in ---- you obviously don't use the "I only speak English" card and you have to put ignorance down the person, not the culture or the country.
P.S. For us , distance is not a problem as long as the ambience and the food is good.
Ohhh yes.
P.P.S. I voted to JOIN the EUROPEAN FREE TRADE AREA" but not to become a member of a disorganised rabble of federal unionists..
Andy, you've obviously gone to great lengths to integrate and I can't undeerstand why it hasn't worked unless you're in an area of france where there are a lot of brits, dutch, belgians etc. If that's teh case then it isn't the first time I've heard of the locals being like that. I'm fortunate in that my OH is a local and so are my kids and I'm the "integrated outsider" - but no problems with that! No not all of france is as hostile as that but I've seen it first hand when I was teaching in Brittany.
Reply to several of above - pace to our friend from up North (you obviously don't do irony!). I don't read the Daily Mail, I do read le Monde and watch French TV News. We do go to local (ie French) restaurants and bars - though the nearest one is now 10 km away.
I have been saying 'bonjour' to all and sundry since I first arrived - I still get strange looks from some people when I do so, as if it is unacceptable behaviour. We have French people to dinner - even for Christmas - and likewise visit them. Oh, and yes - I can and do speak French.
We don't go to brocantes in France, just as we never went to car boot sales in the UK. Neither of us is yet old enough for the OAP Xmas do, we and other 'Brits' (and Dutch as well) are usually shunned at the July 14th bash and not allowed to mix (and I mean not allowed to - at least the maire objected to the rudeness shown to about 20 of us when we were told to go and sit elsewhere). Other local events are publicised only by word of mouth - you find out about them after they have happened.
Perhaps I am 'irascible' - or just bloody-mindedly British (and I have no intention of changing that!). But now even the OH, with her French citizenship, is sick and tired of this commune, for much the same reasons as self. So perhaps my experiences (and feelings) a remore a reflection of this particular part of France - I do hope so, actually.
I knew I would stir things up by being honest!
Oh - and just to return to the main point of this thread (the EU) - 'don't blame me, I voted against joining in the first place!'
At worst ll that can happen is that we withdraw from the EEC, all that will mean is that we don't have a seat, along with twenty six other non English speaking nations sitting around a table trying to scrounge as much of the fiscal pie as we can.
I am by no means an educated man but surely, if we lose a certain amount of trade with the remaining member states they in turn will lose the market of the U.K. which ,I would imagine, being the credit driven country we are, will lose far more.
Can you HONESTLY imagine the likes of Germanys car industry turning round and saying ---- PAHHHH those Brits across the channel do not deserve our fine cars --- or the FRENCH saying --- we will no longer send wine to th UK as they are philistines and don't appreciate the finer things in life, no of course you can't.
There appear to be many people that subscribe to this forum who think they are more intelligent, worldly wise , intellectual, than us poor fikko's, they write as if they are speaking at a lecture or are addressing a governmental hearing their diatribe is that of those that know ---- let me allow you into a little secret ---- NOBODY BLOODY KNOWS whats going to happen in the future, its all supposistion, predicitons etc etc.
Lets get back to real world and try and let nature take its course. It has ALL happened before in my lifetime and I have no doubt whatsoever it will happen again before I die -- and I am seventy two.
I thought the mony python wold have been enuf ... I should have turned the [snark off].
The UK ( imo) won't withdraw from the EU, it might disengage a little more and watch from the sidelines outside the Eurozone, but in the end the trouble-making free-trade Atlanticist nuttters will become increasingly irrelevant.
Andy, all I can say is, you must be a really irascible type not being able to integrate, or perhaps should you define the word integrate?
Integrate to me means going to brocantes, being invited to dine at the Repas de Noel for all the oldies in this commune, saying "bonjour" to all and sundry, stop and chat, (well I do my best) to neighbours I see when taking my dog for a walk, actually going for an aperitif when invited and reciprocating the offer. Going to a Moulle and fritte shindig, im other words doing that which the French do as an everyday event.
We often eat out, be it a plat du jour, or an evening do, we tend to go to restaurants we like, and getting to know the staff by simply being polite to them, they ALWAYS respond positively, and before you ask, five years ago I spoke not one word of French, but now, thanks to a good listening ear, I can get along quite well.
All I can say to you is , try extending yourself --- go to them --- don't expect them to come to you --- they wouldn't do that in the UK either -- and I am sure you'd be a smash in a local brit pub, running down all that is France and of couse us French lovers.
Fine thanks Andrew bit of a shitty xmas etc but hey ho thats life. Onwards and upwards.
aie, aie aie, hope things are OK with you John ;-)
No but my recent ex has just done that, and is back for a week next week then gone for good. The lure of Tescos proved to much! She had been here 7 years and never liked it so fair dos' went back you only have one shot so you may as well be where you are happy.
Shame it's not your cup of tea, can't be much fun if you don't want to be here. Uk and EU - all a storm in a tea cup with a lot of scare mongering from what I read on here and as Brian says - change where you get your info from and it'll change the way the situation looks. I don't have any UK/anglophone info at all, I live and work in France, family is French so everything comes from French media so I really know what's going on around me and not what someone back in Blighty wants to tell me is going on here in France (the two are so often sooo different - come across that when stagiaires learning English ahve tried to make out what's being said in the UK press about France and are shoked to say the least!)
Errr, your real point apart from British (less my lot north of Hadrian's Wall) xenophobia? Stop reading the Daily Mail and start reading Le Canard enchaîné as we do, or Le Monde Diplomatique, and get a new perspective on the world of which France is also a part.
According to certain political figures (no prizes for identifying them!) the failure of the Euro will mean the disintegration of Europe/the EU - and the way things are going, it therefore looks as though the idea of the UK (or the UK less that bit North of Hadrian's Wall!) leaving will be irrelevant.
Be that as it may, I am prepared to admit to being in a minority on this board who would welcome the move. It would give me another good reason to move back to the UK. Unfortunately the OH loves it here - so much so that she now has French citizenship. And yes - it took about 2 years, cost quite a bit in translations of documents etc, and I still wonder if there was any point. (And, by the way, we told them that we wanted the original documents back, so there was no problem; apparently you have to tell them at the outset).
So what is stopping me moving back (apart from the OH)? Only the need to sell the house - which is too large for most people (we bought it to run a B&B) and located in a dying commune - in order to have something to live on. Otherwise - nothing.
And why do I want to go back? Because after nearly 12 years I am still trying to integrate, stlll trying to cope with French xenophobia and still trying to find any social and cultural activity that is within an affordable travelling distance. But it is begininng to look as though I shall only be going back in an urn.
Is there anyone out there who feels like I do?
I had a request to leave my passport. On asking was told it should be ready anything between a week and three months from that day (!!!!) to which I made the point that I travel with work and anyway would be without a bona fide form of identification. I was told that they could demand it to which I responded that they could watch me walk out of the door. I got my way with lots of sulking and me holding my passport up in front of a nose next to the copy in my other hand, slapped the copy down and said "et faire vite" since they already knew I had children to collect.
Nice one Brian, I keep a scan of everything, from our livret de famille to my permis de conduire etc. and use copies where I can or show the original and get them to take a copy themselves (while I'm there in the office) and give me the original back. There so bloody anal about original certificates!
I do not do either. I copy them on my scanner and that is that, never had a problem yet. If in doubt I take the original to show them at arm's length.
When I looked that was my response too!
sorry missed something here, why/how is sarko insulting the british?