Nick Cook

Hello Everyone

I am looking to move my family to France in the next couple of years and I am looking for some suggestions from the people in the know........ You lovely lot.

My twins are four and me and the wife are mid 30's. Think it's a good time for a change...

I want to put my family in a location so we have good links to Spain to visit the in-laws, who live just south of Valencia. We are looking for a sunny climate but not too far from the slopes to travel for Skiing holidays. Any suggestions?


Also if anyone has any links into the oil industry that would also be really helpful.

cyrian

Hi Welcome to the forum.
In your intro thread you talked about good links for travelling back to Heathrow.
France is not the most business friendly country and you would have to check your employment status while being tax resident in France.
If you do not set yourself up in the correct way regarding French laws on employment then they will pursue you for working "on the black".
What you are proposing employment wise is possible but you have to set it up properly.
You would also need to check your eligibility for the french healthcare system if you are not contributing into it.
It would be worth comparing France and Spain to see if things are more relaxed in Spain regarding bureaucracy.
Sorry, I live a long way from your proposed locations so can't help on that front.

dmu

Hi, and welcome to the forum from me, too!
I would have suggested somewhere in the Pyrénées Orientales to be near Spain and the mountains, but AFAIK no airlines go to Heathrow from the Languedoc-Roussillon airports (check Perpignan, Carcassonne, certainly not Béziers, Montpellier...). Maybe Toulouse?
As Cyrian says, if you're needing to fly to Heathrow for work, you must research your employment status and consequently your healthcare coverage.
Spain might be slightly less bureaucratic and one of your boxes (visits to in-laws) would be ticked.
If you prefer France all the same, your children would be at an ideal age for moving to a new country - they would go to Maternelle/Primaire and quickly pick up the language, make friends, and become "French" before you know it!
Do either of you speak French (or Spanish)? Important, particularly for your wife if you're often away from home....

EuroTrash

Well you're right, we are a lovely lot unfortunately none of us have a clue on how hard or easy it will be for a Brit to move to France to work here / commute back to the UK to work post Brexit. Info that would be correct at present, may well have been superseded in a couple of years' time. Things that made relatively easy by the freedom of movement directive, will no longer be so easy or even possible if the UK withdraws from FoM, which at present seems to be one of the famous "red lines".
So I don't think you can really start making meaningful plans until all this brexit rubbish is over one way or the other and the dust has settled.

Novocastrian

The dust settled on Hiroshima quite quickly, but it took two generations to recover.

south_bound

Marseille and Nice have direct flight options to Heathrow, with busier timetables from Nice - I know its getting a bit further from Spain which is one of your criteria. Depends on what sector of the oil industry you are involved in, there are a few companies based in Monaco eg. SBM but personally that lifestyle would not suit me (except the tax free status of course). When I looked while preparing our move a few years ago, most of the oil jobs in France with the likes of Total, Technip etc were in La Defence in Paris and I eventually found what I wanted in another industry. Sounds like you want to have contractor status which is great if you can work it between family and living in the south, and semi-commuting to the UK, but as above you would need to understand the implications regarding healthcare and taxes. I know a few people who are doing that but they quickly get tired of the travel and their "employers" are getting less keen on picking up the tab on the higher employment costs in France, leaving the "employee" to take up the slack. Without knowing your background, I would suggest finding the job opportunity first then working out how to fit the family lifestyle around that. And even wiithout the Brexit stuff, don't under-estimate the bureaucracy involved.

EuroTrash

+1

dmu

+1
I probably wrongly assumed that the link with Heathrow was necessary for commuting to the UK for work, hence the advice to research the OP's employment status.
If Heathrow is for "pleasure" and he's actually looking to work in France/Spain, then it's good advice to find work first and then relocate. The former Languedoc-Roussillon won't have opportunities in his field (and in fact is one of the regions with the highest unemployment rates)
Meanwhile the parents both have time to learn/improve their French/Spanish....

Nick Cook

Hello Everyone, Thank you for all of the replies. You have given me allot to get started with.

I keep on having different companies getting in touch with me regarding employment in property management... Does anyone have any experience in this area and are these schemes worth the investment? Around the £25k area. They do not fill me with confidence!

south_bound

What is this, an investment amount or salary being offered? If the former it is probably just for some sort of glorified training course after which best case you might be entitled to an option of a franchise, worst case you will be on your own. If the latter, is this really a salary, or just a potential commission earnings for meeting targets. You must have replies to some adverts to now be getting their publicity mailings. You need to look past the headline figures and promises and read the small print.