angelajenkins

Hi. I'm originally from Canada and my husband is British. We are currenly London wage slaves. 'Nous sommes en aime avec la France' and have the financial wherewithal and desire to move there. Problem is: while my French is CERTAINLY very sketchy, I speak enough to get the gist of the newspaper and buy food and have a relatively coherent chit-chat with 'les voisins', my husband, however, struggles with 'merci'.

Our goal is to be considerate, contributory members of whatever French community we move to. That said, I would like to choose an area in which there are significant numbers of English-speaking expats. Not because of a reluctance to assimilate but, rather, to allow my sociable and likeable husband to have the opportunity to make a circle of mates and be himself a little. He is VERY keen to learn French but, let's face it, the "old dog: new trick" factor is at play here and it does NOT come easily to him.

We both love France so much, but I'd REALLY love it if my husband could have a 'soft landing' into a neighbourhood where he could 'fit in' a bit.

I bow to the experience and counsel of the expat community.

Kind Regards,
Angela

Ka Ora!

Their are expats falling out the sky here every other person in intermarche is a brit and it does not really matter were in france you pick

val50

Look to see where the low cost airlines fly from UK - that is usually a indicator of where there are more English speaking people living. Where we are in Normandy, there are some towns like Honfleur, Bayeaux and La Haye du Puis that have a larger number of English homeowners, but many of them are holiday homes. Might be an idea to narrow down your search to a specific department, then go and visit. Speak to local estate agents and notaires as they will also be able to tell you who is buying where.

luigi06

Hi
The French have changed dramtically over the years, for as long as you can speak a few words, make the effort to talk in French and don' t harp on about how good it is back home, then you should manage without speaking fluent French.
Like the previous post, there are loads of ex pats, but you can try looking in towns and checking the town hall website. Some town in France (in Provence) even have English websites, and welcome evenings.
Have fun

herbie

There are pretty much British expats everywhere in France, except where we're about to move to!! From July, we will be in Puy de Dome and there are hardly any expats there. The local community were totally amazed we were moving there permanently. Lucky for us, it's not important but I guess you should avoid that area.

Ka Ora!

would you like to swap

herbie

Oh, why? Where are you? I'm not sure I'm familiar with the place 'I smell conspiracy And it's lemon scented'! Never heard of it!

Ka Ora!

Im in Ariege.

herbie

OK. Are there many expats there then? I've never been there.

Ka Ora!

More here than spain. and thats saying something. you cant swing a cat or a bit of wood for that matter with out hitting an English person so if your here duck

herbie

hehe! That surprises me. I always thought it was mainly the Dordogne that was flooded with expats.

gailj

Hi Angela,

I moved to my area (Region 36) Indre just over 5 years ago, and there were hardly any, if no Brits full time living here. Then all of a sudden within 2 years, the areas here and surrounding us, were flooded with holiday homers and permanent brits, so it seems, most areas have a large expat community. In fact, I have just come in after shopping and in the Supermarket, there seemed to be more Brits than French shopping!!! Area 23 is another very highly populated expat community and area 87 is fast catching up due to types of properties/land etc that are for sale in the area and these being close to Limoges where Ryanir and Flybee are flying to each day from various parts of the UK.
Do try and learn your French whilst in the UK as you will find it a great help.
Regards, Gail

onlyonebrenda

I would echo learn as much French as you can before you come here. Classes are hard to find in rural areas. It is disturbingly easy to get by with hardly speaking any French at all - apart from officialdom, but think ahead a bit. In twenty years' time if only one of you speaks French and drives and his or her health fails the other partner will be very isolated, forced to stay for at least a couple of years before their house sells here before returning to the UK, where they have lost contact with everyone and lost out on the housing market. The pain of learning French can save a lot of pain later.

Another word of warning, don't get carried away and buy a large property with a view to turning it into gîtes. The gîte market is overcrowded now.

I understand there are 30,000 British residents in the Dordogne and 10,000 Dutch. Think whether you want to be an area where there is a disproportionately large influx of tourists in the summer or whether you'd rather be in an area where there are British residents but very few tourists.

Incidentally health care here is excellent, and, in case this email sounds a bit pessimistic, I love it here and I'm having a ball!

sdale100

Hi,

For me it all depends if you want your social circle to be mostly british expats, or if you want to go a bit further into the deep end as soon as you get here.
From my experience, you are likely to make better french acquaintances who are willing to make an effort to speak in English with you while you're learning the lingo if you go to areas where they are not already inundated and "légèrement" fed up with the whole english invasion.
It's a difficult choice, but if you're looking for highly populated expat areas, you'll want be going anywhere that's halfway between a mountain and a beach (most of the south in other words).
If you go for the second option, you should head for anywhere between the "centre" and France's landlocked neighbours (except Spain of course).
Up here in the Nord Pas de Calais, where we are the closest region to England as the bird flies, we get tons of tourists and business travellers, but the number of residents is much lower than in some of the coastal or mountaineous regions. Are we led to believe the Brits don't like the cold and rain, hmmmm.

Steven

tommyauvergne

Herbie, watch out! There was an article in La Montagne the other week. Apparently April 2008 will see the return of Ryan Air to Clermont. Our quiet little corner of the globe may be getting a bit more crowded. Not sure if it's a good or bad thing yet.

By the way, hows the move coming along?