Oh, you’ve just upset the Scots and Welsh on SF!
Errrr Ben Nevis is only 1300 odd metres, it’s only just a mountain. Doesn’t mean it’s not beautiful dangerous technical and to be respected. Where I am right now there’s a hill/mountain within the city limits which is only about 50-60m lower.
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I have heard it said that industrialising a lot later the French retained a much stronger link to their provincial origins compared to the British. Maybe even today’s urban French are just one or two generations away from the farmyard. This has led to a better, healthier cuisine among other things. So a lot for us ex-pats to be thankful for!
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Same for us immigrants. 
I did read somewhere (though I forget where) that the industrialisation of food production during the war has a lot to answer for in the UK, but I have no idea how accurate that may be.
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@Welshgirl - what would your ONE thing be ?
I live close to Lodève and drove past the (pretty) new hospital this morning when visiting the weekly market and my husband had a scan there (booked the day before) about a month ago. I’ve been registered with my GP for quite a while but acknowledge that getting an appointment on the same day, unless it’s urgent, is unlikely. With reference to the dentist, I’d suggest you pop up the road to Le Caylar where a (pretty)new Pôle Santé has a couple of dentists I can vouch for.
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Rachel05……The general courtesy , that I have found others may disagree, in the streets and shops of saying bonjour etc. When I’ve been to uk in main people don’t acknowledge you and in the general shops it often seems to be an inconvenience to serve you. In the more remote areas of uk and the higher end shops just like here.
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I’m surprised you find that. I’ve been really impressed with helpfulness. Even though many of the big shops have significant self-serve tills it seems to me they are quick to come to one’s aid. And at the checkouts they help with packing (not here in France).
John Lewis is exceptional I know, but these days they have intercom ear pieces and they will call over a colleague if they are already attending to someone else and they can see someone is waiting to be served.
That hospital is very pretty but understaffed and is used to refer more serious cases to Montpellier. They do not provide GP services and we gave to go to Clermont to the hospital there where an emergency GP is available 3 nights a week 7 till 9.
I’ll see if the dentist is taking patients.
We must have just missed each other at the market.
SuePJ….. I was talking about the general high st shops rather than department stores. John Lewis and Waitrose’s I have always found to be excellent .
Where the greeting is invariably “Yaaooright?”
I don’t judge people by their accent but being brought up in London it was necessary to remind myself that regional UK accents are related only to place of birth.
The first 6 years of my life were spent with mum and no-one else, in outer London, so I spoke as she did, which was considered by schoolmates on moving to inner London a couple of years later, as speaking posh. Accents can be a problem.
Not having been brought up in France that problem doesn’t exist for me here. French speakers only sound like French speakers, no unwanted judgements involved. It was a realisation that came to me almost as soon as I arrived in France, and it came with a sense of relief. So, I’d miss that on going back to London.
Though there’s nothing particularly Gallic about that.
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Honestly, aside from all the wonderful things that make France, France, I would miss how far and wide and varied a country it offers for exploration. Not to mention taking a wild turning and discovering ourselves in Spain / Belgium / Italy / Germany / …
More than enough here for a lifetime 
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I just got off the phone with my dad, and alongside all the important stuff he felt the need to regale me with 10 minutes of how great the new cafe is in the Chichester JL is. I was sitting there in desperate need for coffee hearing at great length about how good the coffee was which I didn’t really appreciate, but I let the old sod ramble on! But yeah, I don’t know exactly when it opened, but it got the thumbs up from a man who is rarely enthusiastic about things like that so I’m passing the recommendation on!
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After three months back in the UK I miss the plants and flowers in my garden and sausages without rusks.
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…I’m going back to The Hague for a week this week. My heart is already sinking and I know from previous short work trips, after 3 days, I’m done and every hour I’m away from here, I loose 5% of my will to live and can’t wait to get back to the peace and tranquility and away from mayhem.
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I rarely go into JL in Chichester when in England, but my OH does like to frequent M&S which is almost next door so it might just become a refuge
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It’s worth it. The M&S has a cafe as well. Love the JL one.
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Suggestion (if you’ve never done it) visit the Panorama Mesdag, then walk from there to the beach at Scheveningen.
I think @MikeyPotts used to live there, or have I got that wrong?