I didn’t come to France to teach English. If the French want to learn my language I’ll help if they ask but I feel no obligation. My native language is English but I am not English. Like many people, British and French, you make the mistake of referring to everyone from the UK as English. Many, like me, are British, i.e. a mix of four nationalities - Scottish, Welsh, Irish and English. My remark about people in the area where I live speaking little English was not a criticism, merely a comment. I agree, they have no obligation to speak English. My Dutch neighbour has made the same kind of comment about the lack of local knowledge of his language. He also made it as a comment, not a complaint. You have not read what I wrote very accurately. I live in a rural area by choice, because I have spent most of my life in British rural areas. I would not choose to live in a French town any more than I would choose to live in a British one. The description ‘one of the worst areas’ came from other people, some French, some British. I can’t agree or disagree with them as I have lived in only two departments, 23 and 87. If you read Vero’s posts you will find that she makes more derogatory remarks of the rural French than I have. Why not lecture her instead? As you say, your ability with English is not very good. In your last sentence you say ‘you’re explanation’ instead of ‘your explanation’. Surely you are familiar enough with your own language to know that ‘you’re’ is the shortened form of ‘you are’ and that ‘your’ is the correct word to use. I do not write in response to your demand for an explanation. I write only to point out your errors of reading what others have written and, in making those errors, of coming to incorrect and foolish conclusions.
Not clear what I’m wrong about but it doesn’t really matter. The assumptions started on Vero’s part and I responded.
I’ll say it again. I would love to leave France tomorrow if it was possible. Sadly it isn’t so I’ll have to put up with being here until I can change things.
I have to say I know a few likeable and sensible beings here:
2 Dutch neighbours
2 British neighbours
3 French neighbours
My cats
My geese
My chickens
and not necessarily in that order.
My dog should come top of the list - like me he’s British born
OMG a typo! How can I live with that! Mind you I do feel for people who are forced to live somewhere that is not to their liking so good luck in your search for your perfect location as you’re obviously not happy where you are, are you. I suggest you try Département 27.
That made me laugh out loud vero - you’ve nailed it and I stand corrected except I’d also add ‘L’amor Est Dans Le Pré’ to the list of tv programmes - certainly around these parts!! However…I still think there is an element of ostrich syndrome and ‘what doesn’t affect us doesn’t exist’ collective denial.
I have a secret weakness for that wedding programme where three brides to be utterly slate the fourth one’s dress, reception, groom…
It was @vero 's background - that’s all! I’m really sorry to hear that you are so unhappy where you are. I think that is true of an awful lot of people and I’ve always noticed that people will tell you how ‘wonderful’ their area is without really believing it. We live in a much more urban part of France but there is still a big lack of ‘Guardian readers’ as far as I’m concerned. Dax is full of old people and 17 year old chats pushing prams whilst smoking. Sort of like Croydon without Superdrug.
Re assumptions, my assumptions were as follows:
- You don’t live in a city, you live rurally.
- You are of an age where most people have retired.
- You are not a native (=local) of where you live.
- You speak French, but not fluently.
- You don’t have that much in common with the majority of people around you.
So which are factually wrong?
I often watch the last few minutes of that one but have never felt strong enough to watch it the whole way through!
I agree. I live in the Creuse and had cancer six months after arriving here. My treatment was rapid but they made a lot of errors. I did not find them rude but found them pretty much not interested. My French was not brilliant then but now its fine and I still find the same problem; although I do avoid doctors and hospitals as much as possible. Also, a friend died of cancer and during his last weeks he was abandoned in a room where they did not even move his pillows for him when asked, the food was appalling and they kept a lot of info from him. That was at La Châtre Hospital. I would not like to be terminally ill here, there are hardly any hospices and end of life care seems zero.
The main reason we would return though is the change in social events. During the past two years we have seen a massive drop off of all events within the region and whereas before it was choosing where to go of a weekend, now we are often stuck with just going out for a meal. I have no idea what has caused the change.
Hello Jayne,
Sounds like you’ve had a rough time of it. I’ve heard similar stories from other people who live in various departments. I lived in 23 for my first year in France but had no medical treatment while there. I moved to 86 and had reasonable treatment at Montmorillon hospital after a heart attack in 2007. I had a few days in CHU Poitiers in 2013 because I’d had a low platelet problem for three years. I was given no treatment and the problem remains the same. The doctor for that ward was one of the most unskilled and unpleasant I have ever met. The nursing ability was very amateurish. Several people who were sent to the same hospital for various medical problems found much the same. I had been told there is a difference from one department to another and I found this is true. In February of this year I was given an appointment to see a surgeon for a double mastectomy for breast cancer. His manner was atrocious so I went to my GP and asked if I could go to another hospital. She rang around and booked me into CHU Limoges. It was like a different world. The surgeon and all other staff were brilliant, genuinely caring as well as very professional. I can’t give an opinion about any other hospitals but I can highly recommend CHU Limoges, especially the Mere & Enfant section. That was where my mastectomy op was done. It was followed by radiography treatment at the main part of CHU Limoges. That was very satisfactory, too.
I hope things will be better for you if you need hospital treatment again.
Best Regards,
Di Childs
It is apparent that not all people who pass their exams to become doctors and nurses are bright
enough to be good at the performance level. Perhaps the training is not completely adequate. Or
possibly their hearts are not in the job. Nursing requires compassion and without that essential factor
everything a medial person learns is almost useless.
A patient needs to believe that they will get better…that is part of the recovery course.
So perhaps the lack of doctors or time available to see patients needs looking at more
closely. It could be related to selecting medical staff more carefully and being far more stringent
on the entire process.But I am featuring UK here in my conversation as it is the country where I
saw the wonderful team falling apart on many occasions, in different hospitals and at various levels.
I would like to add …that apart from liking France for all the reasons previously mentioned
I feel betrayed by Uk and some of my beguiled friends who can only see half of what is going
on around them and blocking out their memories of history and how they have totally misunderstood
how us as ex patriots from uk have saved their country money by leaving!
Many of us who are intitled to health cover etc from Uk are opting to pay our own way here in France
by paying cotistations and other taxes.
But at the end of the day we will possibly be finding ourselves in trouble when this Brexit situation
matures.
“Too many pols”
I hear this coming from uK from a friend in London and my cousin in Lincolnshire.
Have many of my friends in London lost their memory!
Or don they not learn about world war 2?
Not to worry about my cousin reading this as she has not a clue about France…what it looks
like or the culture …she has never been abroad in her life!
The simple solution to most things is to leave if you need change.
So at this moment in time I will say that I plan to stay here in France.
Absolutely NOT!
40 years ago, I lived in Cheltenham. It too has changed. Then I lived in Burnley 30 years ago, and in the last 30 years has changed. Nothing stands still you see. If you live in an area while the changes are happening, you don’t notice them, but we view the past through a time warp, as it was when we left. When we go back expecting everything to be exactly the same as it was 40 years ago, you are bound to be shocked lol
Why should we be shocked!
And, of course there are changes…and there are changes!
I was misdiagnosed with breast cancer, but before we found that out I was sent by my French GP to an onchologist.
He said that I would have to wait a few more days to see her but that she was nice and I would like her.
Which was all true.
It turned out that that the radiologist had a history of getting it wrong 50% of the time!
We are very lucky here in the Clunysois as we have several social circles. There are the professional retirees, most of them are from Lyon, the farmers (I come from a farming family) and the Brits and the neighbours.
The neighbours have been really helpful to enable us to take a real holiday. One neighbour coming to sleep in our house with her dog, another taking our dog for its walk at 8pm, because the first neighbour does not like walking in the dark. Also the other neighbour who came to look after the chickens.
Obviously, we help them when they need it.
I wouldn’t ‘return’ voluntarily. Of course, we may all be forced to. I am 73, and I have spent only ten years of my life in the UK. I didn’t even go to school there.
Hi all,
Well here’s my list of why i wont be returning in the foreseeable future…
Weather…cannot abide the wetness and the lack of a predictably good Summer…no point in having a nice garden if one cannot enjoy it and hold dry barbecues…
No emotional attachments to any particular place to live in in the UK. I am familiar with a lot of the Uk’ geography, but despite having a good nucleus of friends in SW London and Surrey and family spread out across the UK, I felt/feel strongly about doing something different with the later part of my life and my plan to come to France has been a long held one, that I am very glad I have realised.
Astronomical house prices…After I finally managed to sell up, 3 months later the prices for a similar house in my road had gone up by another £50.000 and they continue on that rapid, upwards trajectory…crazy prices. The government need to treat this as a National Emergency and allow much more prefabricated housing to alleviate some of the pressure and make 35% of all developments ‘affordable’ part rent part buy etc.
Too crowded, …a quote from the Guardian no less (I know some of you have a problem with the DM)…
The UK population is growing unusually fast, too. At the present rate of progress, the Office for National Statistics expects it to swell by 4.6 million during the 2010s – “the biggest growth in the last 50 years”. In 2014, the latest year for which figures are available, the UK had almost 65 million inhabitants, its greatest ever total. It is predicted to be home to more people than France by 2030 and more people than Germany by 2047, which would make this much smaller land mass the most populous country in Europe.
It’s not all about numbers either, it’s a feeling of a loss of identity and culture…
It is not untenable to have voted for Brexit as being the best thing for the UK, especially as there ae so many existing problems within the EU, which means it may not even survive, certainly not in it’s current form (look at the number of referrendums looming in other EU countries)…and the Stratfor decade forecast,…
Despite being on a tight budget here and living in an old house that needs work, I really enjoy being here in the SW.
The sunny weather and the quality of light when I throw open the shutters, the space that i have to rattle around in, inside and out. The fact that I am mortgage free and my time is all my own.
French healthcare, having sampled it in hospital here and just at the docteurs surgery, I feel there s no comparison and if I do succumb like one in three of us are supposed to to some form of cancer, I know where I would rather be.
The culture, language and the friends that I have started to make here in my local, make things more of a challenge and more interesting and there is s much more to do and explore. my cats love it here too.
Well said…my point of view exactly, Paul.