dennerlymum

Yes hubby does work for airbus , although he chose to leave airbus uk proper 4 years ago and move to france as a contractor; since then he has never looked back - shorter hours, more pay and a family life at last.

As for the burbs of toulouse being awful , i beg to differ. We live in Mondonville, once a village, now effectively part of the suburbs. It is truly beautiful with a huge forest 550m from our house, lots to see and do close by (and lovely view of the planes taking off from the airport! - there had to be a downside)

I love the countryside too and this is a great compromise.

Yes I agree it may be difficult to get work without french in foix etc but I did say toulouse, which i agree is an atypical example.

michele

Ka Ora!

Well if you like living 435,000 Neighbours it's not an issue. I would be inclined to say that most people that move to France from England are not after city life, But the benefits that living in the countryside has to offer the cheaper house's better lifestyle etc. We live in Ariege we chose it because it's pretty we could start for once with No Rent or Mortgage, just the bills that we choose to incur. Don't get me wrong I spend a lot of time in Toulouse although these days it's either in the Neurology or Cardiology Dept's in Rangueil hospital, but whenever I want to buy something that I cant wait for to be delivered, Toulouse it is. You also shifted with a Person having a very good pretty secure Job which most don't. When you move here getting a job at that level for 99% of people is Extremely hard to nigh on impossible. Learning French for countryside dwellers is a must, you can wing it to begin with but for long term survival a broader knowledge is needed. Always come with a worst conditions possible plan if you expect it to take a year to find work bank on it taking two or three. Save accordingly.


It all gets done, I just need a computer that's hard wired with Greenside access.

stanage2

It all gets done, I just need a computer that's hard wired with Greenside access.[/QUOTE]


Must be with the help of SIR L.BARRATT

onetwo

[QUOTE=Ka Ora!;6804198]Law has changed on Schooling Saturday has been dropped and Wednesday enforced for all, Not the Afternoon though.


Hi Ka ora. I take it by this you do mean all levels not just college and up? I say this because my boys are in PS and MS and most definitely have Wednesdays off! We are near Quimper in Brittany. Maybe some regions are sticking to the Wednesday off rule for little ones........

dennerlymum

yes, us too. In fact the government has reduced the weekly hours at school for elementary school children this year. This has had a wide variety of impacts in the toulouse region; my son's school has opted for every wednesday off; my daughter's old school has wed am most weeks like last year, but ends at 3.30pm twice a week etc etc; everyone i speak to seems to have a different solution.
We have not had sat school in my region for ages, but the no wednesday idea is new from sept.
at college, my daughter has wed pm off and no saturday.
michele

Ka Ora!

[quote=onetwo;6807523] The big thing has been the dropping of the Sat Morning, but this is all just a Slow Phase in of a Strait five day week. This is to come in line with the rest of Europe. We will know when it's a Five day week, that will be when all the students start striking. Currently has little impact on younger children but I would advise you to get hold of a copy of the new Holiday Roster for your area as the lost days have been taken out of the holidays.

http://www.frenchentree.com/fe-educa...icle.asp?ID=80

L'Acajou

Hi
Here in the Centre our primary school stopped the Saturday mornings in 2004 they weren't in every Saturday anyway and as new arrivals we went every Saturday just in case because we didn't know if school was on or not!!

Our primary doesn't open on Wednesdays, never has whilst we have been here. My eldest has just started college (yr 6), she goes 4 days per week but will go Wednesdays (just mornings I think) from next September.

As I understand it there are three "zones" in France, so that might explain the variation.

G-J-B

I moved to France because my partner's here, and my work is flexible so I'm learning as I go, but it's really not easy. I know quite a few people who say they speak a language, but really do not go far beyond rudimentary sentences. With all the paperwork, letters and procedures I've had to go through (and that excludes property), if I didn't have a French partner I think I could have given up in despair, or at the very least end up with a few fines for not paying certain taxes on time.
I've just returned from two weeks in the south west of France where the people are charming and friendly. Even strangers in the supermarket would come up and talk to you. I spent a few days in a small village near Tours on my return to Paris, and the locals are a miserable lot, who stare and talk about you - they're not at all welcoming to strangers and everyone keeps themselves to themselves. Then I returned to Paris - never have I seen such long, miserable faces - there's an abundance of rudeness and snobbishness here. My advice is learn the language first, and choose a location very carefully!

As regards to cost, I'm in a strange little bubble as Paris is not France. Also without going into details, I'm a pauper living in a bourgeois district, where people have second homes, sports car and big disposable incomes. When I came back from holidays we had a letter in our box from the appartment manager asking that we all get engraved name plates for our letterboxes. He also noticed I had a business name so has demanded that I get permission from everybody in the building to have permission to work here (despite my partner owns the place, I don't entertain clients, work from a computer and don't even so much as play music whilst I'm here). I'm hoping it's just a formality otherwise my livelihood is in the hands of others

I live just a couple of minutes walk from people like Carla Bruni, so you can probably imagine what the costs of local services are! Carrefour is about the cheapest place I can find for food, but it's a fairly long walk and I use public transport as little as I possibly can, partly because of cost and partly because I hate being crammed into a bus or train. I now spend at least 3 times more than I ever did in the UK for food alone. There's no Lidl except in the Paris suburbs, which is a shame as they have pretty good quality products at low prices. Fortunately I don't drive because fuel suffers from the same inflation as the UK, and the autorues can be very expensive if you need to cover long distances (national roads aren't practical as you're forever having to slow to 50 for each little town; the gendarmerie go out of their way to hide in cunning places and will often go for you even if you just a couple of km/h over the limit.
There's advantages and disadvantages, but I can't say my experience of France is a cheap and easy one. If I had a rent and mortgage to pay I'd have to give up and move back home.

Ka Ora!

Location Location Location that is something I would also say. Pick Carefully, here in the Mountains disputes are very common even amongst the French. You can always tell when someone has moved her recently by the way they are dressed, And it's always funny to see what effect living in the Mountainous region of the Midi Pyrenees has on them.

G-J-B

Ka Ora - I've tried to work out where you're based - somewhere near Perpignan perhaps? Dress reveals a lot. Here in Paris it's very "classic", so an unshaven scruff who doesn't wear designer names like myself probably stands out.
Me and the girlfriend have "winner" competitions in the regions of Auvergne and Ardeche where old ladies outcompete one another with bright flowery dresses. Down in the S.W. dress is much more casual and usually not too garish; I certainly felt more comfortable there, not that I really care too much what Parisians might think.
I wonder what the disputes might be up in the mountains? Cattle pinching, and scrumping fruit perhaps?

Ka Ora!

If it's worth arguing about here they fight about it. Ask the Oh if the Term Ariegeois means anything. It's a Department that has an attitude problem named after itself.

dmu

Maybe they've never got over the well-known pun: "il y avait une fois une marchande de foie de la ville de Foix, qui a dit "ma foi, c'est la dernière fois que je vends du foie dans la ville de Foix" " Dixit my OH, and a good spelling exercise in all French Primaires....
P.S. Hope this doesn't infringe the rule of all posts on the Forum having to be written in English!

stanage2

Half the forum will have the dictionaries out at this moment.

themoose

I say



It is a matter of location as Ko states. But the thing with the French is they live in the style of their surroundings. You will have to buy some designer clothes (high heels too maybe) if you want to mix in the rich areas of Paris. Ko will need a hunting jacket to go with his hat and those on the med will need shorts and short tempers.
But the reality is, dont be any of these things and you become known as an individual. As for the business aspect on the letter box....hope it goes well and that you get he seal of approval. If not fo S/W west the people are more chilled!

Ka Ora!

The only thing on my letter box is PAR LE PUB