cyrian

IMHO If you are coming to an existing job with the employer worrying about the business set-up and paying their share of social charges and helping with a settling-in package to deal with the bureaucracy for you OR if you are retired and have enough money not to worry about changing exchange rates then you are well placed to move to France.
Not speaking french well enough to deal with bureaucracy and having children in tow makes a move more complicated.
It is possible to come to France and set up a business - many have done it - but also many have tried and failed.
Many members of the forum have french spouses who can deal with any problems for them.
Others have studied french to a high level before they come - and others just wing it.

EuroTrash

Three months.
But if you spend more than 6 months in France during a calendar year, and especially if you work while you're here, then like it or not you will have met the criteria for residence.

dmu

You don't say how old your children are, but you would have 4 different Curricula to teach, in French to boot, including French Grammar/Literature, French History and all other subjects in French, plus a second language (in addition to English) in Collège (Secondary School).
From what I read on the forum, if you stay in France more than 6 months (183 days?), you're considered resident here, with all that that implies.
In reply to your other post (I've forgotten how to multi-quote), I came to France with a job lined up, and speaking French. Unfortunately France has gone downhill since then, and any odd moan is justified! But I stayed on, as I married a Frenchman!

chocciecake

Yes, re the homeschooling, if the system is like that, better to send the kids to school where they will learn the language quick smart anyway.
The advantage of home ed in the UK is that there is no specific curriculum you have to teach the children-so it can be tailored to the kids needs and interests.
if you lose that ability, there's no point really!

When we moved to Wales, the kids went to a welsh school and became fluent in a year, which was great!

Tweedpipe

I must admit that young kids pick up a new language so easily, which can be rewarding. Our son was educated for just the one year in the UK (Bristol to be precise), and naturally learnt Bristoleeze......
However it's not served any great purpose in today's wide-wide world, except perhaps to disguise what we're saying when others are within earshot. A little like cockney-ryming slang.

JWL

Fair enough. But I left the UK over 20 years ago and it definitely went downhill since then. Since I left...? ...corrolations...?

JWL

Nicked off? Haven't heard that since a lad in Noocassel. I thought that was a Geordie expression. Didn't know the Aussies also had the golden tongue...

petitefrancaise

I'm assuming your husband already has some kind of business set up in the UK? There's no reason why he can't keep the company there and work from France. It requires careful planning with an accountant who knows what they are doing (I know a VERY good guy in Toulouse), but done right you keep the money in the company in the UK (much more favourable business environment) use that to buy all manner of necessary things for the business and take a smallish salary from the company which would be your french income and subject to french taxes and social security payments... Or roughly that.
Good luck finding a chateau to do up in Midi Pyrenees!

Personally, I'd head to the spanish side of the pyrenees.....

dmu

In France there IS a specific curriculum, the culminating point being the Bac. But meanwhile the pupils are taught to analyse, think things out and argue - they aren't robots always learning by rote.
If you do decide on France and a ruin in the countryside to renovate, I'll be Devil's Advocate again and point out that you won't have much time to work on that, as, with 4 children in a rural area, you'll be spending all your time taxiing them around on Wednesday afternoons and at weekends for out-of-school activities and a social life. It was bad enough for us with 2 children, even at Primaire ages and worse when they were teenagers, but with 4, needing transport to 4 different destinations at once.... You'd do best to locate in a town where their friends will be within walking distance!

cardi

Italy!!
That is a different level of bureaucratic mayhem altogether.

lostinfrance69

Hi chocciecake

I'm in Lyon and have met two footloose families like yours in the last few years - I think there is a bit of a centre for animation work around here? In both cases the husband was an animator, working on a short term contract (3-6 months), the wife was caring for / homeschooling the kids (one had three, the other had four). They were a mix of US / Kiwi / Brit couples. Neither of them put the kids in school here: one family were committed to homeschooling (for religious reasons) and for the other it was too short to be worthwhile.

Neither of them found it particularly easy being here I think. It's hard to find short-term, furnished rentals so one family ended up miles out of the city and very isolated, the other ended up on the 6th floor, no lift, with 4 kids - one in a pushchair.

Because homeschooling is so rare here and because French life runs on such a rigid schedule they were absolutely on their own during the school week. Unlike in the UK things like libraries, swimming pools and other sports facilities are not commonly open to the public during school hours: they are either closed or being used by associations, school lessons etc. (very few schools in Lyon have their own gyms or sports fields, they use local authority ones). Then on Wednesday afternoon, after school and Saturdays everything is absolutely mobbed because that's when French children do their 'activities': these tend to have to be signed up for in advance and a whole year's worth of sessions paid for... So the kids were very isolated and basically made no French friends.

Post-Brexit I personally wouldn't be investing in any property that a French person isn't willing to buy: all those lovingly restored, stone-built farmhouses in the arse end of nowhere are going to be increasingly difficult to sell in the future I suspect. French people don't want them and the pool of well-off Brit retirees that tend to buy these properties may well shrink drastically in the next few years (just MHO). Personally, I'd go for a 3-4 bedroom modern house in a sizeable town with good schools if you want to be able to sell up in week rather than years... but I digress!

HTH, at least you know that you wont be the first to do this in France and you sound as if you are well-used to taking things as they come. Bon courage!

EuroTrash

I don't have kids but lostinfrance has fleshed out my instinctive reaction which is: but going to school is not only about learning facts, it's also about making friends, learning to interact with your peers and with other adults, and developing into a little person in your own right outside of the family circle. I don't see how all that side of things is catered for in the context of homeschooling.

lostinfrance69

Just to clarify, I'm not against homeschooling per se at all, I just think in the French context it would be very hard to replicate how it works in the UK or the US - where there are homeschooling groups for families to meet up with, where sports and other public facilities are available during the day etc, and where it's fairly normal for people / older children to do qualifications at night school etc. Actually, that's another thing that really doesn't happen here, doing the equivalent of GCSEs at college or evening classes.

EuroTrash

Well that answers my question, I didn't know that existed.

chocciecake

Haha!
Yes, it's an aussie expression too!
Saying "nick off " to someone is also a nicer way off saying piss off or F off too! lol!

We also say "reckon" a lot which makes people laugh!