Novocastrian

Oh, for heavens sake. It's a different language with different rules for pronunciation. Get used to it.

BTW, do you pronounce the g in "enough already!"?

dmu

Hi,
It isn't only in French that "i" is pronounced "eee".
There are plenty of words where the last "s" is pronounced, e.g. "iris", "anis", "as", "os", "us" to name but a few. You simply learn...
If the "n" were pronounced in "pain", then it would be written "panne". And why pronounce it anyway, since no French person does (except in the south where a hard "g" is even added).
If you look at English pronunciation from "their" point of view, a French person accepts that "I" isn't pronounced "eee", and what about the ten ways of pronouncing "ough" in English? They may justifiably grumble, but if they need to know, they just learn them...

Novocastrian

Un paing? Whey y'bugga, it's woarse than Geordie doon theyore.

dmu

yes, and "bieng", "demaing", ... but I don't imitate that pronunciation, I'd feel as though I were poking fun at them!

dennerlymum

I was completely scuppered by the Toulousain accent on my arrival in France; I've now got to grips with it only to move to the Gers.... I understand about one word in ten spoken by my plumber and I consider myself to have a reasonable level in french generally

Tweedpipe

You may find you have to brush up on your Occitan!
http://www.omniglot.com/books/language/occitan.htm

These may help too:-
http://www.freelang.net/online/occitan.php

http://lengadoc.chez.com/lexic_medieval.htm

Rather you than me though.
Good luck!

dennerlymum

Thanks for the links; our son had a taster term of Occitan last term at school, although we are hoping he will be allowed to study Spanish eventually! It seemed like a mix of Spanish and Latin...wierd!

dmu

They do Occitan lessons in our nearest Collège/Lycée. My daughers preferred the Latin option but friends with Occitan-speaking grandparents chose Occitan.

GJHem

Back to the original thread.......

We had visited various areas of FRance and all had their own attractions from north to south and west to east. Friends of ours bought in the Haute Vienne just outside Oradour-Sur-Vayres. Many visits later, we knew it was inevitable we would do the same. Why? The scenery, people, way of life, who knows? Mind you, that could be said for most, if not all, areas of France. In the end, and maybe because of familiarity and friends (the circle has widened somewhat) this too became our area of choice. We've bought just outside Saint-Mathieu and its still reasonably close enough for friends and family to fly out to via Limoges.

Still working in the UK, 2 years to go before retirement. By then the house will look like what we want it to look like and then we can concentrate on the garden and that area that the estate agents described as "being left to go back to nature" i.e. a bit of a wilderness.

Looking forward to going over in June and sitting in a local bar with locals and Expats alike watching France Vs England in the Euros and taking in Vide Greniers - so much better than UK boot fairs. French tat for sale as opposed to UK tat but usually in better surroundings.

kazzo

We originally planned on buying in the Charente, but ended up in the South of Deux Sevres - the house was right for us and the location was what we were looking for even if it was not quite in the department that we planned!
We are less than an hour from the coast, have 2 airports and the several TGV stations within an hour of our property which makes it accessible from the UK for family and friends (not necessarily what everyone wants, but it was important to us). We also wanted reasonable weather, which you certainly get here; the winters are milder than the UK and the summers hot enough for us!
We are still working in the UK and come to our French home every school holiday. Our neighbours - all French - are fantastic, they have even visited us in the UK (the first ever trip abroad for the farmer and his wife!) and we have few Ex pat friends near by. We haven't actively sought other English in the area but we can see this being a greater need once we actually live here. We can't wait to be out here permanently.... soon....

French-Class

My new partner lived in Brittany so how could I not move here.
The climate is just right, not too hot in the summer and the winters are not too cold.
Great links to the UK and a great base to tour the rest of France.

Ka Ora!

Welcome to the Forum.

Vanya

I'm sure you will be very happy in the Limousin: that's where I live when I am not working in Russia. It's very rural and property prices are cheap. Also some very goos bargains around because a lot of Brits have done expensive renovations and then found they want to move back. The rural parts are VERY rural and the towns quiet and provincial, with exceptions.

It has the advantage (at least as far a Bellac) that one can drive comfortably to the ports in a day.

Vanya