lissie

Good morning all,

My name is Lissie, thank you for accepting me on your forum .
I'm after some advice please . My partner, daughter and I are considering moving to the south west of France and buying a small property, our budget would be £40.000 hopefully with not much to do on the property. (We are not looking to sell the property). After years renting a flat in the south east of England and how ridiculously expensive it is to buy a property here . We've started looking elsewhere. My partner is polish and has grown up in rural Poland so the idea really appeals to him. But my 18 year daughter has another year at college but would like to come with us .. So we are using this time to really think carefully about what to do. Pros and Cons etc. I would like to use this time to brush up my schoolgirl French as well. Holidays in France in the past have consisted of renting a tiny room and swimming in the lakes .We don't go restaurants, cinema, shopping centres etc so wouldn't miss it. After reading a lot of positive and negative Expat stories I know you must do your research. So if anyone has any guidelines on where to start I would really appreciate it
Sorry it's a long post 😊 thank you again.

dmu

Hi, and welcome to the forum!
I'd advise you to wait until your daughter has finished her education in the UK, but what would she do in France afterwards? Likewise, how would you yourselves be making a living in a rural area? If you work from home, you'd have to set up a French business structure. If you aren't an Auto-Entrepreneur or the like or salaried, you'd have to take out private healthcare insurance from Day 1. After 3 months you would have to justify an adequate income (and healthcare already set up) for Résidence.
If you and your partner aren't legally bound, take a look in the "Partner Status" thread in the Read Me: Moving to France FAQs above, if you're intending to buy property. French Inheritance Laws aren't partner-friendly and the situation would be even more complicated if your partner isn't your daughter's father.... The Notaire will advise as to the best way of protecting you all.
I'm not sure what sort of property your sum will acquire, but be prepared to budget a lot of work on it!
That's taken care of the cons, the pros don't need to be listed!
Others will come along with advice, but I would advise you to wait, brush up your French (does your partner speak French?), spend time in all seasons in the area which attracts you (but as a potential resident, not as a tourist), and decide later whether rural SW France is for you....

cyrian

+1
Again, how do you intend to earn a living?
France has high unemployment and they tend to prefer to employ french nationals rather than foreigners.
I have a reasonable standard of French for day-to-day living but I find that it is very easy to mis-understand things in conversations or to be mis-understood because I don't pick up or use the subtleties of French grammar.
This can be a problem when you are dealing with tradesmen or buying a property or dealing with French bureaucracy.
Speaking from experience, simply brushing up on school French would leave you struggling.
However, others have done just that and there are Brits who have lived in France for years and school French is all they have.

Good luck with your dream.

lissie

Thank you for your replies, My partner works from home for as a clinical research scientist, Accountant .so that wouldn't be a problem . I didn't mean brush up� ���� I meant start learning now. I hope within a year or so I'd be able to speak some French as I have a good level of speaking a beast of a language (polish) . Yes I've heard it's better it to be married. And at 36 hadn't really thought about inheritance. So thank you again. My daughter may not even choose to come with us we are talking in a year or so time. It's just I've read so many negative expat stories where it didn't work out because they did do enough research before making a solid decision.

dmu

Your partner would have to set up a French business structure in order to be able to work from home. The good news is that he'd pay into a health insurance fund and have some healthcare coverage. It's advised to take out a Mutuelle (top-up insurance) if you work for yourself. Some one in the know will come along with info as to whether his health insurance would cover you and your daughter....
Before buying anything, check that the internet coverage is sufficient for professional purposes. In rural Hérault, it's very slow....
No one usually thinks of inheritance before reaching retirement age, but, however young you are, you must have the French mindset if you've got property in France when the time comes, which is why I mentioned it! It's one of the French quirks which potential expats aren't aware of... Wherever your daughter is, she will at one time have to cope with the issue (esp. if your partner isn't her father).
Hope all this is of some help! You've got time to prepare, and start learning French straight away, both of you!

lissie

Thank you � ���� great advice

lissie

Hello everyone, I hope you can help I'm looking at different areas in France to buy a cheap property to live in around £40.000 not for a year or so tho .My partner is thinking Brittany or Normandy. Am I right in thinking it's quite cold there? I'm after a bit of sunshine with woods, lakes etc
Any suggestions please ?
Thank you in advance

Novocastrian

Well, it rained a bit today, but the rest of the week looks great. We have woods but might be a bit short of lakes except in springtime when les marais are flooded.

HTH

Lurcher21

Sounds like the Limousin would fit the bill nicely.

petitefrancaise

you're kidding?
It's on a high plateau and rains a lot. Like every time I've been there. We used to go camping at lac de vassivière and came home to Toulouse for a warm up and to get dried out!

Lurcher21

No, not kidding at all. I have lived here for 15 years. You seem to have had bad luck. We have often holidayed right down on the France/Spain border, near Bayonne and Biarritz, and got washed out, not in a tent but in a big static mobile home. There are many little micro-climates in the Limousin, which is huge. We live in the Basse Marche area of the Limousin. Many Summer afternoons we are inside, keeping out of the incessant heat. 30 degrees is typical, but it can easily touch 40. The region does have an above average tally of rainfall, granted, but the statistics don't mention that a huge amount of that rainfall actually falls overnight in Summer, accompanied by ferocious thunderstorms. I stick by my statement that it would suit the requested needs of the OP.

EuroTrash

Limousin as a place for an 18-year-old, schooled in the UK with no French qualifications and presumably minimal work experience, to find her first job and get her career kick-started. Hmmm.... it's not where I'd pick. Until she does find that first job, she won't be classed as legally resident in France and she won't qualify for healthcare. And if she hasn't found that job before freedom of movement ends for Brits, her options will be pretty much closed off.

DayPerson

I agree with that, it's pretty hard to find any sort of jobs in the Limousin and I could not find employment there. It's not just the employment, there is simply nothing to occupy anyone under retirement age. I am in my 30s and got depressed living there. The highlight of the week was going shopping in one of the big towns and we had an annual oyster festival, but apart from a few firework evenings, nothing else for the rest of the summer.

I had to laugh at the rain comment. We moved from the Limousin to Shropshire last year and it rains a lot more here than it ever did in France. I can recall the odd thunderstorm but mainly it rained at night.