AngelsEyes

Hi Guys, Were currently trying to decided if we should move from our rural Northumberland self build home to either France or New Zealand. Were looking for a more sustainable family life with plenty of land for animals, veg and space for our two boys 11 and 8 to romp around.

I quite like the idea of the french lifestyle more family orientated and more layed back. However i'm a bit worried how my sons will make friends our 11 year old is on the autistic spectrum and he finds it hard to concentrate in a UK school so we've started homeschooling him. However I think for socialising he should go to school in whichever country we decided to move to.

Also worried about making friends myself as I am not a french speaker. We do intend to start to get french lessons after new year however as were probably going to either build or renovate talking to authorities without being fluent may be tricky.

My husband is mad crazy for classic VW's and Audi's is there any car scene in France there certainly is lots of racing tracks in NZ

New Zealand seems lovely and my mother in law lives there but i'm very concerned about the recent earthquakes in the area we had thought about living.

Either way we would want to open either a B&B or cafe/restaurant. We'll have approx £400,000 to spend it's looking like our money can buy us more in France.

Any ideas which would be the better bet.

Thanks in advance for your replies.

petitefrancaise

New Zealand.
Easier to have a business
Speaks English
Autism care in France is problematic and good schooling can be hard to sort (depends on level of autism) but it's always a fight to get the extra care. I have friends living this, it's hard and they all speak french.

BEVS

The business visa for NZ is not for the faint hearted and comes with stringent conditions. If the OP wants a cafe etc as a secondary line of work that will be OK. Primarily the OP will need to look to what visa eligibility they may have.

As lots of you know, I intended for us to live in France . Mr BEVS being dyslexic was one of the reasons we did not make that full time move.

dmu

Hi, and welcome to the forum!
For everything highlighted in red, France would not be the better bet.
Why France?
I can add to pf's comments that homeschooling does exist in France, but following the French Curriculum and with regular inspections to ensure that the child is at an adequate level. 11 is a bad age for any foreign child to arrive in France without speaking French and without French culture. Your son would find it very difficult to cope and he'd have no friends to confide in.
As for self-building/renovating, French standards are very different from those in the UK and you wouldn't be able to sign off your own work without retraining in all the trades concerned.
There are strict health and safety regulations concerning cafés/restaurants.
Not to mention not being able to communicate with the Authorities concerning all the issues.
Research, research, research, is the keyword.
We can go into more details on the above issues, but they are too numerous to overcome at once and you wouldn't be able to concentrate 100% on your elder son's welfare. Your younger son wouldn't have any problems integrating in a French Primaire - he'd pick up the language in no time and would have time to absorb French culture before going up to Collège.
But again, I wonder, why France?

EuroTrash

More research into the practicalities is needed, I think. I don't know about NZ but I see several pitfalls waiting for you in France.

For instance if you're going to build or renovate here, you need to have a plan for earning some kind of income until you get your business up and running because there is a minimum income requirement for becoming legally residence in France unless you're a pensioner. In fact it was only yesterday that Marine le Pen announced that if she wins the election France will not provide free education to any families who are here illegally ie who don't meet the criteria and have not been paying in to the system.

B&B/café restaurant, do these things go hand in hand with a laid back lifestyle, not sure most restaurant owners in France would describe their lifestyle as laid back.

What's wrong with Northumberland, why do you want to move?

dmu

I've just read your NZ thread and reply #15 is too optimistic as far as France is concerned.
They suggest that your children would easily learn French. OK for the younger one, as he'd be master of French grammatical analysis by the time he'd finish Primaire, but the elder one would be thrown in at the deep end in Collège where they study and analyse French literature in a big way, and he wouldn't have the same knowledge as his class-mates, let alone follow all the other lessons in French. Even in English, he'd have problems translating in both directions to the teacher's satisfaction.
There are countless "artistic" job-seekers in France and at best, your son might become what is known as an "intermittent du spectacle", having obtained a "Bac L option cinéma/théâtre", for example, followed by a Cinema/Drama School. One of my daughters was such an intermittente (theatre) for a while, but left Paris to live in Germany where there are more opportunities to perform, but she earns her living teaching English and French in German nursery schools.
"More prospects"? For your elder son and your OH's business, I wouldn't take this statement for Gospel....
Sorry to be a wet blanket, but, as stated, autistic French children aren't really catered for here and this would be my top priority over all the other factors.

AngelsEyes

He's on the autisic spetcrum like Aspergers doesn't get social queues too well but he's a super bright boy with loads going for him. He picks things up really quickly and he's getting better the older he gets. He doesn't really need care as such

dmu

[QUOTE=AngelsEyes;12125244]He's on the autisic spetcrum like Aspergers doesn't get social queues too well but he's a super bright boy with loads going for him. He picks things up really quickly and he's getting better the older he gets. He doesn't really need care as such[/QUOTE

Sorry, but you should give all personal info that you gave on the NZ form on the France forum, including the fact that your mother would ideally be coming with you.
Take a look in the Read-Me: Moving to France FAQs above, there are a lot of threads which will give you info on various issues, including Growing Old in France (esp. for someone who doesn't speak French).
Another aspect which hasn't been mentioned is your family healthcare insurance. Before you and/or your husband set up a business structure or contribute into the System as "inactifs", you would have to take out private healthcare coverage for 2 adults and 2 children. And for your mother, unless she's in receipt of a UK State Pension, in which case she would have the same coverage as your average French person, on the basis of the S1 form which the DWP Office would issue, i.e. about 70% reimbursed by the Social Security. At her age it would be advisable to take out a "Mutuelle" (top-up insurance) which reimburses the other 30%. From experience with family, and reading other threads on the forum, a hospital stay is no doddle for the older expat who doesn't speak French. Even consultations and medical treatment can be stressful, as not all Doctors and medical staff speak English. You have to look ahead and envisage your parent in 15 or so years time....
Once again, I'm sorry to sound so pessimistic, but I'm realistic and you should be aware of what to expect, esp. concerning your elder son, your mother, and your business prospects.
Fore-warned is fore-armed!

AngelsEyes

Hi dmu,

Thanks for your feedback and I understand regarding healthcare it's the same situation in New Zealand regarding insurance. But your point is taken regarding hospital staff in France. We have mentioned starting a food business in either country. I mean that would be an ideal senario I have ran a cafe for 3 years in the UK in the small rural village we live in. at the time we were building a house an the cafe had to pay to make it worth while. We have built up enough equity so we would be mortgage free in France and depending on our choice of home we could have money in the bank so the business would not be so much of a desperately in need of cash enterprise. I will think about your comments about my mum tho.

EuroTrash

I'm still not clear on what you are hoping to find in either NZ or rural France that you can't find in rural Northumberland. Rural Northumberland suggest you already have land, and animals, and the opportunity for a laid back lifestyle. You could probably eventually get the same in France, the downsides would be the stress of a language barrier and a whole set of new rules and regulations and tax and healthcare systems and a different culture to get to grips with, so what do you see as the upsides that would make it all worthwhile?

It's do-able, but you need to be sure that for you personally it is worth doing. Land and houses are cheap here but overall, France is not a cheap place to live.

AngelsEyes

No we don't have land an we live in a village not on the outskirts. We live in a village where the local manor is owned by a hedge fund guy and all of his gamekeepers take over the local pub and for my husband who doesn't agree with their ethics (not regarding hunting regarding the hedge fund thing) it's made it really hard for us to integrate. We have a large enough mortgage to make things tight every mth so we will be selling this house regardless but to replace it with something with more land in the UK would see us with a mortgage again also the weather and midges are terrible. My son has no friends here and I haven't met anyone who I would class as a true friend. So we figured why not try another country somewhere we can get the land and sunshine. We don't want to move to another UK we want a whole change of lifestyle.

grannybunz

Hi and welcome.

Where are you in Northumberland? The land of my birth. If you are anywherear Slaley give the vicar a call, she owns a house in France and I am sure would be happy to chat with you.

As for your autistic son and home educating. As has been said, not easy here. There is provision in urban areas but out in the countryside any child with any problem can struggle, as can the parents. I was a special needs co-ordinater in a previous life and I know about the problems of very rural locations, Northumberland in particular. I can't see it being any eaier in France - though i suppose it depends on where you are thinking of relocating especially if neither of you is fluent in spoken and written French.

It COULD be an idylic life but it is fraught with difficulties, depends on how committed you are I suppose.

AngelsEyes

When we decide to do something usually we do it. My son is only being homeaducated because we knew we were moving and didn't want him settling into the school. In the UK these days the kids are so consumerist motivated and all about the tech. We are not so much in this family we felt him being at school was making him want to fit in by buying his way into friendships. Also he is a very good artist and the secondary catchment school he had started didn't cater for that so we have tutors in English and maths and a specialist art teacher. He could go to school but we didn't feel that the particular catchment school was catering to his creative needs. Were near Hexham so yes Slaley is near us.

EuroTrash

That makes sense, I see where you're coming from now.

Have you spent much time in France, is there an area you know well and like? If not I think the first thing to do to visit different parts and see if you can find an area where you feel at home. For instance in some of the villages in the wine growing regions, if you're not wine producers yourself you will find it very hard to fit in. Some places are more Brit-friendly than others. In some regions the village populations are elderly because the families have all gone to live in the towns, so there would be no kids locally for your two to play with. If you stick a pin in the map, or pick a property that you like without getting to know the village and the area, you risk ending up in another place where you find it hard to integrate. You need to find somewhere that ticks all your boxes.

But definitely find out about running a business. It feels like a euro for you, a euro for the state, it's harder to make a profit or even stay in business here, than it is in the UK, and I'm saying that because I moved my UK business to France with me and had a couple of very difficult years, what worked in the UK did not work here so I had to do some serious rethinking and adapting.

AngelsEyes

Your right we had thought of just selling up and travelling for a year. But yes we know that from here that you can't change the location. So despite us having seen some lovely properties we really need to go and live it for a while before we make a decision. We've started trying to learn french at home but I don't think there is any substitute from getting out there and hearing the language all of the time. I say cafe or restaurant but it's possible we could end up doing something else we have a lot of skills between me and my husband.