clothmama

Ahhh of course - never seen it written like that but obvious now you have told me! Yes unfortunately our budget doest' stretch to your part of the world and not sure I could cope with the summer traffic either (I did some work on some campsites down there one year).

DMU it was the same in Aude - lidl was far cheaper for me than the markets for a lot of things, not mentioning the effort of dragging small kids around in scorching summer weather or freezing cold in the outdoors market I intend to mend my ways and make more use of markets adn find the ones that are good value genuine local ones if they exist in Brittany!

racaille

Crumbs, I had no idea they weren't everywhere! But I suppose, if I think about it, a lot of the fruit and veg is grown down here.....

Clothmama, it's only the Riviera that gets really choked with traffic. We get tourists around here of course but it's too rural to get really busy, as long as you avoid the main tourist traps such as Gordes, Lourmarin, Bonnieux etc.

And just to be clear - I couldn't afford to buy here either now! We were lucky to get an unloved house cheap years and years ago!

clothmama

Ahh see that sounds quite nice! Close to all the happenings but in the countryside (my idea of just right!). Sounds like the Carol Drinkwater (is theat her name?) type thing going on! I still get cross when I think of the apartment my dh was offered years ago in Nice, nice area for £30,000 equivalent! It was before I met him but my oh my we would be very well off now if he had bought it!

L'Acajou

Hi again clothmama, re:food prices, I don't think anything has gone up more than the rate of inflation (whatever that is!) over the last 2-3 years, it is just that I notice flour prices because I too have a bread machine, I am addicted to white toast, but it must be home-made bread! I have worn out two bread machines since we arrived, my last, expensive one was made redundant when I priced up a new bucket for it, as the non-stick was so worn I couldn't coax the loaf out, and was quoted £50 + for the new part . So I bought one at a brocante for €10 and it works beautifully.

As has been said, you can live well on not much money if you shop around and are creative. With four children, we have to! I do find that prices vary a lot between shops, and am thankful that we have plenty of "hard discount" shops around here!

dmu

I checked as a matter of interest:
- 2008, 2.8%
- 2009, 0.1%
- 2010, +/- 1.6% (official figures not yet issued)

which isn't high, but the ever-increasing price of petrol and all services (electricity, gas, insurance,...) doesn't seem to follow!