Why did you really come to France?

i AM sure that you have been asked this before but new members seem to arrive each day.


Why did you move to France?


And what brought you to your region?

We came to France in 2000 because of Tony Blair!

I was out of work (teacher aged 50+ - too expensive to employ and 'no qualifications' for anything else (they said). Wife (also teacher) on permanent sick leave re strss - got early retirement on health grounds. So brought our plans forward and moved to Charente to run a B&B.

All the background work, business plans etc - but the goalposts moved and we gave up the business in 2010. Dying village - and I (not wife - now French citizen) am dying to move back to UK. Anyone want to buy a house in a dead village?

And another!

how lovely

Interesting remarks.

Gosh I remember those holes and cracks in the road and the times I tripped and

almost fell over...suprising myself as I resited landing bottom first on the pavement.

Despite every speck of anti France which lands on the news desk there is an enchentement

which lives in the heart of the French countryside. I had to come here to prove to myself

that this new life was tangable.

i have 2 friends arriving from London who have been succesful and echanged contacts on their London

house and will be making their way to their water mill in 47 to enjoy the property which they

fell in love with more than a year ago.

Life was far from perfect in 2011 ....

The year did not pass without trouble and sadness.

But this is life.

On saturday I was at a pharmacy and posed a question to the woman who was

serving me. I needed to send a fax and wondered if she kn ew where I could

send one from....apart from the post office...which was closed. She asked if

was to France...I will do it for you she said...and so she did and insisted that

she did not want a payment.

Little suprises of kindness are always welcome.

Go for it! I am working on an over 100,000 word book. I have most of the text, I have good references from people who have read the work in its original form and some tentative positive responses from publishers. I hope one of them accepts then I'll dash for home. It is a rather specialised academic text and may sell a few hundred over a couple of years, but will eventually and quite quickly date and no longer sell. I have umpteen books as an editor or co-author, dozens upon dozens of journal articles but thus far in my long career never have I written an entire book alone, although I have written two doctoral theses. Same length as books but not published. Some people have many books in them, I have perhaps a couple and will try to do some fiction at some stage. Unless you hit big time there is no money in it, as I know from my pathetic shares of royalties, but there is soooooooooooooo much satisfaction. Go for it, just go for it and the very best of luck.

Thank you Sharon. I am happy to say that I am now 40,000 words into and hopefully going to get across the finish line soon!

Are you going to give it a try?

Robert write about France.

Write about in a way which no one has written before.

A place to find yourself???????????????????

Do not feel isollated get in touch with someone every day for a chat..

SOMEONE ON HERE....

Because Australia didn't want me,:(

Why here because before the permanent move I could get here in less than 12 hours by any means of transport so it was good for long weekends.

Simples realy

U2!

Yes,sure. I remember the omnipresence of soldiers, the 6pm curfew ,& seeing fires on the hills around the city that were not garden bonfires. Everything was more intense because you weren't sure what would happen tomorow.Maybe that was why they knew what was important in life and supported each other so much; I found some very inspiring people there.

Anyway I must get on with things, so, have a good day.

Oooof, being a specialist in child research and doing things like evaluations I am known to frequent UNICEF regional and country offices and attend a few conferences and the like, hence Gigiri. I also did a few lectures at Kenyatta for a Kenyan expert on children I just happened to know. Not a lot of shillings but plenty of nice students. I do not know Africa well, some countries sure, but it is not my natural 'patch'. I started in South America and somehow or other moved into SE Asia and E and Central Asia... For all of that Africa is great, just gets a bad press and has some very, very long wars that make life difficult for those of us working in our sector.

Thankyou! What did you do in Nairobi? I often miss Burundi - the colours, warmth of the people, terrific rainstorms in the evenings... maybe we'll go back to Africa one day.

Who is a nutter? Leave that to a few others on SFN, we probably do it better (if 'better' is an appropriate word here)! But seriously, we know a couple of similar composition except that the wife is Burundian in their case. The husband is French. Because we have (they and I, at least) worked in Nairobi and Gigiri particulary we found common ground quickly. They are good people who have fitted in. One daughter is my youngest's classmate and they are both in the local judo club at the same level and class. The family is totally integrated and so on and I would have to look hard to find the prejudices some of the people report on this site. So good for you (all)!

I'm a bit nervous about adding my reason because it often gets me labelled as a nutter but here goes;

In 97 I was teaching in Burundi, which was French speaking, and needed to buy some books in French for the school. But I didn't know anyone in France. When I was back in the UK that summer for a break I went to a christian convention & found that a French pastor from Amiens was sitting just behind me! So we got talking & he offered to put me up for a week or so to give me the time to 'go shopping'. Not only that, but he organised a barbecue to introduce me to some folk, and there I met the guy who is now my husband.

I didn't actually move to France until '98, because I stopped in Burundi in December but after praying felt I should marry him & make Amiens my home, not the UK. Another couple who are now our best friends offered to put me up rent free for 3 months for me to be sure about such a big decision, and by the end of that time I was, and I'd found work too.

'like'

My wife (a Brit) was tired of living in America and wanted international work. Geneva seemed like a good bet, but we preferred living in France, a culture we both know well. I was able to move easily because I am a freelance writer, with many connections in Switzerland. We chose the Annecy region rather than a suburb of Geneva because it has its own culture, the setting can't be beat, and we visited it and intuitively, immediately knew it was right.

hi Barbara I am new to SFN but not so new to France, we had a holiday home here so the decision to make the big move really wasn't that hard. We have been renovating a large village property here in Burgundy for what seems like an age, with the end result being 2 country gites to let out. Well that's the plan. Our daughter was 6 when we came and has worked her way up through the french school system and is doing really well. I know it seems like a dream to our friends back home, but it isn't always easy, as I'm sure other members will have found, but the rewards we find are great. The biggest thing for me is the isolation not quite being in the loop. So discovering SFN is brilliant.

;-D