gilly17

Hi or hello, more british,
Here at royan this morning it wasn t much above freezing!
Bye for now

Faysie53

Hi, new member.........59, retired teacher and moved to Orleans a year ago, married to a French man. Would be delighted to meet up with other expats in the Orleans/Loiret region.

Ka Ora!

Welcome to the Forum

Faysie53

Thank you 👍

gilly17

Hello and welcome, sorry I live a bit too far away

Faysie53

No problem, nice of you to write. Hope you manage to find english speakers in your area.

Blackladder

Hello Gilly17,
Well, most of your rain got here in due course! We have had the wettest October since buying the house 3 yrs ago! Good for the garden after the last 2 dry years, but it does get you down after a week or two! Do you know much about Isle d'Oleron? We would love to just nip down there now that the tourists have left, and have thought about staying over somewhere for a weekend, any ideas?
Thanks a lot!
Blackie
PS hunters out in force today as usual, weds and suns are the usual rootin' tootin' and shootin' days here!

dmu

Saturdays and Public Holidays, too!

chrs1

Hi to all im a newbie to this site and would like to say hi from hertfordshire uk and im looking to move to france soon.

Chris :starsmile

Faysie53

Hi Chris. France is great but be prepared for lots of paper filling exercises !!!!
Good luck :0)

chrs1

Hi Faysie53 thanks for that info i have done a bit of research and found that there is a fair bit of paperwork and other stuff to be done.

Thanks chris

RichardP

Hello Chrs,

With no disrespect intended to anyone can I add my five eggs worth.

We moved to France six years ago soon after my wife and I retired, we had no knowledge of the language / customs/ ANYTHING, just the wish to live here.

Apart from using the internet to help find an area /house to live in, and an experience I had some 45 /50 years ago regarding France, we just jumped in at the deep end, and boy are we glad we did.

I live in the Charente, near Ruffec, its a rural area, quite calm and peaceful, and the RN10 runs darn near in a straight line to Calais, ( should we want to visit UK).

Apart from a few English friends we have tended to keep away from ex-pat gatherings as I didn't come over here to moan about all things French.

I find the local people charming,/ friendly/ somewhat shy/ but always polite, I think that is down to the point that we don't ask if they speak English, we try , somewhat laughable at times to speak in their tongue and they, I think, appreciate that we do try.

We have been invited many times to visit for an aperitif and have also invited them to us, we tend to attend most things that happen locally, brocantes / moulle & fritte nights/ even to the 'Repas de Noel? -- christmas dinner for the over 70s, ( well I am, my wife is still a youngster in her 60s).

I suppose what I am trying to say is ------ come here with an open mind, try and keep away from Brit Packs ---- just sit back and as they say ---- smell the roses.

chrs1

Hi RichardP thanks for your five eggs worth lol every bit of info is appreciated as i think its better to find out what everyone has to says although not always helpful im looking to move to france as have been a couple of times with my wife and she absolutely loved it would also be away from exat places i want to experience france for the lovely rual live and the peace thats why im moving from the uk my french is rubbish at mo though so i think i need to start learing.i would ideally like to carry on working as a plumber.

Thanks chris

RichardP

Reading what you have just said I suggest would put yourself between a rock and a hard place-------

If you want /have to work at whatever trade you have to register into the French way of doing things, which means all, or most of your paperwork will be in French, if you want to live AWAY from ex-pats then that woud put you at a distinct disadvantage -- with little or no language skills.

But living closer to a fairly large ex-pat community might just help you, but again perhaps yet more problems, a lot of work is done --"on the black ---cash in hand" which means, for house insurance things, if something goes wrong the insurance companies will demand to see proof of work carried out, for example, in France you are, if you have open fires as your heating system you are supposed to have your chimney cleaned once a year by a registered chimney sweep, if you have a house fire and have no "attestation" or proof of work carried out within a year, by a REGISTEED chimney sweep, they will not pay out, and that applies to most work carried out by non registerd artisans.

Here again, its just like the U.K. the cheapest quote nearly always gets the job, trouble is with that is, those that want the cheap job done also want perfection so if the slightest thing goes wrong you'll be harrassed left right and centre and they will expect you to rectify free of charge any "shortcuts" you might have done in order to make a small profit.

And at the moment its the same as in the U.k. -- a dog eat dog scenario --- with work being hard to find ---especially if you aren't fairly fluent in French. Sorry if i seem to be pouring cold water on your dreams but its better to learn whilst you are still ensconsed in the U.K. than it is on the bread line over here.

victoria08

Hi! I live in the US, but I figured why not to join you guys! I'll move to Versailles in less than a month, and I need help!!!!!