Which way of life do you prefer… and why?
I used to live in a large town st junien,with lots of shops but always the noise, and litter, but you could walk to everything.
I was ready for a change and 3 years ago bought in a little village,
Right now I’m dreading winter and miss the town , even though it was still dead on a evening. But at least bars, restaurants and you knew you were still alive,
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Do you live on your own Barrie…??? I do…(although I have two Border Collies who remind me every minute that I’m never alone…!)
I live fairly rural…18 houses in my hamlet…I’ve never eaten out yet and never visited a bar…there’s a 6 month window where I have visits from my family and then 6 months from November to April where I don’t see them and it’s just me and the dogs…so far I’ve not dreaded winter but admittedly I am fairly reclusive and I do have my Collies to keep me company…x 
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Yes live on my own,
I’m trying to have more visits to see my mum in the Uk as she’s on her own, at least I get a bit of life over there .
There’s nothing like a dog to get you out , you have to go fir a walk wether you want one or not, lol
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No neighbours?
I’m 100 m from the nearest house but you rarely see anyone, even though there’s about 25 houses,
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I totally get that…I live in a culdesac…my next door neighbours are elderly speak only French and are really kind…I have two more neighbours either side of the top of my lane…one couple top of my lane to the right helped me loads when I first arrived…speak only French …I have never met whoever lives top of my lane to the left…elderly too…I’ve only ever met their cat…I’m not the type to go knocking on doors to introduce myself…
Having lived in the centre of capital cities most of my life I’m now happy to have moved on. I still visit cities regularly but prefer the space and lack of pollution in our deep rural hamlet. However if I didn’t have enough money for transport and to go on trips when I wanted it could be very different. I woulnd’t want to be trapped here.
But we have more contact with people here than we did in a town. We also live on a lane sans issue (cul de sac doesn’t mean much in french apart from the obvious), but with a dog we chat quite a lot to neighbours.
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We have fruit trees in the garden so took cherries to our neighbours in May. It breaks the ice. We have had aperitifs with two of our neighbours. There is one English guy who my husband usually invites for a beer when I’m in the UK. There is only one set of neighbours who tend not to chat. Just a quick bonjour.
In the nearby village the café owners are quite friendly now they recognise us, I think our dog helps.
In the UK we have a house in an urban area and yet see far less of our neighbours except for hello. Two years ago when we bought the house I invited all the other 8 houses round for tea. The last two Christmases I have had them all round. They all enjoyed the get together but we have never had so much as a coffee with them. I don’t think it’s deliberate but it makes me realise we will have a much better social life in France.
The country is the only place to live.
Clean air and there is always something going on.
You have to learn to enjoy the simple things, birds, animals and insects.
When I wake up I have the most amazing view, when my daughter in Munich wakes up all she sees are tge flats across the road.
No comparison.
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My wife and I prefer rural life, for sentimental, historic and nostalgic reasons. My wife was born and grew up in rural Africa, although she has lived and worked and raised a family in Europe, and France has strong resonance with her African roots.
I have lived and worked in Africa and feel a similar resonance.
Neither of us has much appetite for social life in its modern northern hemisphere manifestations, but we enjoy chatting with neighbours, and drinking coffee with a teaspoon in a neighbours kitchen. Is this just a Normandy custom, I wonder ? I sometimes join my next-door neighbour for a board game, or to watch football on TV, or TV parlour games like Lettres et Chiffres, his favourite (he’s very good at it).
We don’t eat out, or very, very rarely. We aren’t quite sure about food unless we’ve seen it prepared and cooked. None of our neighbours seem to eat out. They eat from their gardens and keep chickens and pigs for their meat,and fish in local streams in season.
Neither of us are much attracted to city events, though my wife enjoys an occasional good hotel with a spa and massage facilities, and a bit of high-end shopping as a treat.
So it’s thumbs up for the slow but loamy rural life and thumbs down for the rat race.
Having lived within the M25 area for 45 years ( I know it’s not been around that long), country is the only place at the moment. In the middle of nowhere with no neighbours for over 1km in any direction and no traffic/noise, absolute tranquillity, and if no one in the gites I can rack the music up as loud as I like 
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I’ve known my neighbours for a very long time now and as their roots are centuries deep in the very local area it’s given me a good grounding in the local ways. I would say they treat me like family but in fact they are much closer to me than they are to any of their relations. I understand that I am very lucky because not only are they always there when I need them (and vice versa) my French but has improved to a level that I had never dreamed possible. I think that it has helped that we are very much the same age and have many things in common. One of those things is that we are all country dwellers as I too was born and brought up in rural areas and although I have lived and worked in several countries I have mainly avoided ever having to live in a town. Two of my children live and work in London and although I’m happy to visit a couple of days are enough.
Country for me. I lived “in town” in Kent and Dorset, and before that near LA. I always dreamed of living surrounded by green and wildlife instead of traffic noise, car alarms, sirens and breaking glass. Financially impossible in UK so France is my saviour in that respect.
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Bit of a loner so countryside is ideal for me. We did once rent a town house for a holiday here, and loved it. Having everything on your doorstep was a real change for us, but a novelty that we would quickly tire of if it was permanent.
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