Ha ha, great piece Brian and some wise words, perhaps the "I'm/we're here for good" is because it's the first time since I can remember where I've got family around me (OH's obviously which obviously makes it home for her - she was born just up the road), the kids are born here, have their cousins up the road etc. etc. but yes I have to be honest, if push came to shove, I'd be the first to start swimming whilst towing the family in a little boat behind me (yes even at my ripe old age...!) The kids would adapt to anything, you're right, but like you, I wouldn't want to put them through that and have them end up like me "l'homme sans racine" to quote a Gérard de Palmas song, especially as I finally feel like I'm putting some down!
Would be great to see you in the tabac one day, coffee, apéro, you name it, a presto ;-)
Andrew, reverse the numbers for our ages. My girls are nine and 11, the older doesn't remember England but has a vague memory of the year in Portugal. The five years in Wales is vivid still. But then they both remember riding an elephant in Thailand when they were three (was her birthday that day) and just five respectively. They have spent time back and forth to Ticino and having had my bro-in-law here and hearing Italian for a week are comfortable with the lingo. Bear in mind the older is Down Syndrome with speech problems, barely reads and writes but basically has all other culture tools. My message is not the content about my children as if they are unique, but using them to show the diversity and flexibility children possess, but adults too if they put a mind to it. If, and bearing the AE post in mind, it all goes wrong and anybody with sense heads for the borders, can you say with certainty that you will stay whatever? Your children would adapt, you have already done it enough to do it again (despite your monumentally great age) and your OH would too because the 'sink or swim' bit is for our kids. Yes or yes?
What we have in common 100% is that we do not want to and if it comes to it then it is last resort, but never say never. In my silly head, I imagine my OH will want some cigarette papers one day, I'll jump in my car and drive three and a half hours to your shop for the rizlas for the buzz, scrounge a quick coffee and do it all over to go home and my evil fate with her indoors. But here, specifically here, unless...
The difference Andrew with the friends I spoke of and you....is that both parents were English and the kids originally had time in the UK and could remember it. Your children I think are really all French...so the UK means nothing. Having moved to rural Hampshire at the age of 23 I assumed I was more of a country girl.. but as I get older I am happier on the edge of a town or city....best of both worlds! we love Italy...but it was the red tape and iffy practices that made up plump for France...in many ways more similar to the UK.
My paternal grandma was Italian and I feel a sort of connection with all things Italian (esp the food, as a veggie life is a lot easier!!!) but I can imagine that it could be a nightmare to live there...wonder if there is a SIN (= SFN) to help the ex-pats over there!!?? :-s Also lived the London life then later with my OH we've lived in many cities in Europe so now I'm happy to have my horsey life here....I do wonder though when I can no longer enjoy the 'outdoors' lifestyle....if I might be tempted back to brighter lights...
Thank you Deborah, confirms my earlier response about equivalence/EQF except that it is EEA, so slightly wider than just EU, thus including my Swiss wife.
For what its worth, I am a nurse, and I work as a nurse here in France. I qualified in the uk and they are obliged to recognise my nursing training as it is in the EU.
There are a few hoops to jump through to get registered and a PIN number here, but once I had those, I was inundated with job offers! They are very short of nurses here, and I was told I could pick and choose; hospital, maison de retrait......I could specify my hours, speciality.
They are a bit more reticent about my midwifery qualifications, though as the training here is a bit different.
En plus, nursing here in France is MUCH nicer than the UK!
Ref moving to Canada - my son (a builder) was recruited in UK at a Canadian govt job fair to move to the Rockies and “build” Kelowna - a lovely lake-side city with every sports pursuit you can think of. He settled into his new Canadian company very well but was tied to that company (as his sponsors) for two years. After two years he tried to get his residency permit and he was put thro a bureaucratic hell for two further years of Canadian govt incompetence - at the end of which they lost all his paperwork and they demanded he started the process all over again. After 4 years of bureaucratic nonsense he gave up and came back to UK. His partner also found it very difficult to find full-time work until she had been there for two years; she also suffered the same nonsense when trying to get her residency permit.
Mine was nearly Italy (my "first love") too, Sharon but the bureaucracy is even worse than in france - you have to use a notaire when you buy a car or motorbike for example! I had friends and contacts in both countries, a degree in both languages but then came to France to do a maîtrise and from there on France took over the top spot. As for your kids wanting to go back - I can well understand that, it's your dream/project not theirs. Our situation's the reverse - my kids and OH can only do a week in the UK before wanting to come home and if I tried to drag them off to the UK in 15/20 years time I'm sure they'd complain! Still as you say, it's only a day's drive away or a cheap flight ;-)
Carol, I did London when i was in my late teens, it was great (I'd grown up in rural oxfordshire!) and I really enjoyed it but now at 46 and with young kids it's not what I'm looking for, far from that - Rodez or Albi is about as much as I can handle, Toulouse or Montpellier is a day trip with us all desperate to "get out" well before the end of the day! My gran grew up in London and could never really get used to living in Hertfordshire which for me was already way too densly populated... We're all different ;-)
We belong to several Anglo French groups, many of our friends are, like us, in our fifties and sixties. Out of10 plus couples...not one of them has a child who has stayed in France....they have all departed for the UK, the US or Australia...and the cities of course. I am a Londoner born and bred....and funnily my dad moved to Sussex when he was in his late 50s and spent the remainder of his life wishing he could return to London...guess we all hanker for different things. We will always keep our apartment in the Languedoc..we never tire of going there, but I miss the buzz of city life...
To have an experience - why France? Because Italy is too far away to drive to from the UK!!! My OH will not fly - so coming down to the Languedoc is the furthest he can manage by car. All the reasons you've mentioned and the other embellishments of a less stressed lifestyle have rung true for us - but guess what? Our children don't want to stay here (apart from the youngest) they want that frenetic pace and who can blame them at their age (late teens/mid 20's) - Carol you must be forever young!!! xx
Why France? It was either that or the UK. No contest really. And moving to Kenya, where we'd really have liked to retire, just wasn't possible. Well, it probably was but we didn't have the courage to take the plunge, I guess.
Seconded, Ben ;-) and now it wouldn't be fair to take the children away from their family here and take them and OH off to a foreign land (UK) apart from a week's "holiday" there every couple of years. But will also agree to various other comments on weather, culture, lifestyle etc.
Agreed with my fellow Canadian poster. Life is just simpler. Once you are willing to separate needs from wants, France is hard to beat. Warts, Hollande and all.Croissant and an Espresso for 1.85 Euros at local market. At the YYC Farmers' market the same set me back 5.50 Euros
I feel a bit humbled when reading all those higher esoteric, way of life, retiring etc. arguments.... For me it's the French women, over the years narrowed down to one :-) As they say, home is where your heart is......
We lived on the west coast of British Columbia, near Vancouver and it is very expensive to live.
Canada is a great place to start a business, a fabulous place to raise your children as they have top notch schools, but the rain gets depressing, 50% rain, and mostly heavy.
Average price of a home in $750,000, average family income $55,000/year, not enough to make payments on that house. And even if you can, then you are house poor, unless you grow pot. Which I have kids, and is totally out of the question... I figure most people have hefty credit card bills.
Why France? I can live on a fraction of the income we made in Canada. 1/4 about: granted we only have one car, walk everywhere and we make meals from scratch.
Life is slow, life back home was mach speed. We will live longer, just not in designer clothes with a Starbucks in our hand. I can live with that.
Well where to begin.. Ireland i guess where it is oh so Damp,constant rain and everybody is so depressed right now it's hard to keep your chin up,did i mention the Damp. We moved to France eighteen months ago and haven't looked back.We have two boys ,Killian is going on six and Thor is going on eight and they already have picked up their second language,i wish i knew how because my french needs a lot to be desired.At school they are given extra reading and writing lessons to help them along ,such thoughtfulness on the schools part is greatly appreciated by Elise and I. Elise is Norwegian and lived in Ireland for seventeen years before we moved to France so we were both 110 percent up for the move.But what really attracted us here? to be honest i knew very little about Southern France before we took the plunge.Sure i had been to Paris a few times and loved it and had been on the Spanish mediteranian coast before and loved the Sun Sea and Sand.Spain didn't do it for us though,a little primitive we thought.Lets rent for a year we thought just to be sure we like southern France and it will give us time to find a house of our own and so thats what we did. A year in Causses et Veyran near Beziers convinced us it was the right move .We are based near Narbonne now in the Corbieres and have settled into our new home nicely.Walking to the patisserie in the morning for fresh pain starts my day of nicely and as mentioned already in the tread it's a Bonjour from everyone you meet and a bon journee as you leave with your fresh pain and that beautiful smell of fresh bread in the air.School is only around the corner which is ever so handy as there is no driving involved and the boys already have friends that knock on the door after school to play,and how well behaved they are,such politeness is a rare thing these days and the French have it nailed.Thankfully the French cater well for children and a playground is never to far away.I think every village has an old man bench where they sit and pass their time talking about who knows what and there is always a bonjour or Ca Va? Then the village Fetes that happen in a big way during summer,yes I could get used to this way of life and I think I will ! Scenery to die for,rolling hills and stretching Vineyards,Chateau topped hills and clean air,I haven't taken a breath so deep since I was a kid on Nana's farm.Did you see the Hawk swoop past and the pretty flutter by ? L' Aperos with Wine and Cheese in the evening.Trying to play petonk and looking like a twat but getting a tres bien anyway.Summer days by the river or on the beach with the boys that seem to last forever,we don't get weather like this at home and the boys love it,that for me is what is most important,to see them outdoors all year round and rarely getting wet.I love the people here,they are so helpful,i had car trouble in Leon recently and complete strangers went out of their way to get me back on the road,how helpful and kind they are ! So if i didn't know why i was moving to France i can certainly say that i know now why i am staying.I don't know about you but i think its time for a glass of red, Sainte ;-)