8 years, more like 4 you mean don't you ?

In early 2007 when we bought the £ was around 1.5:1 and diesel was 98c/lt or the equivalent to about £0.65p.

It's now what, €1.40 ish and with the £ at 1.14:1 that works out to about £1.22 !

We moved here 8 years and fuel "Having been through Petrol and Gasoil cars" was a lot cheaper I forget the exact price. We offset by tanking up in Andorra as often as possible last time we where are there it was 0.98 for a ltr of Gasoil a month ago.

To be honest it's the food shopping I notice it in more in 8 years we have gone from 40 Euros a week to 110/130 a week in food shopping. IMHO it's daylight robbery in French supermarkets at the moment and you go into the sticks and all prices are elevated over those in larger towns and cities

Can't argue with the food prices.

Gasoil was 1.09 in Andorra 3 weeks ago. A bit too far for me to go to fill up routinely though !

Even in the three/four years we have been here I have noticed an enormous increase in the price of everything; a simple example is the pack of 3 duck breast you can buy here... 3 years ago around 10.99 a pack now at least 17.99 unless I shop all around the houses and can sometimes find it for 12! With the increse in prices and the decrease in value of the pound we are really far worse off. Still, as they say and I repeat hopefully, it can only get better from here:

So moving on and being immersed in my French language course we are hoping to find a property in the coastal region of Aquitaine say within 50 km from the atlantic. Does anyone have any experience of this region ie climate property prices etc.

Unfortunately it will get worse! Gas prices will again increase by approx 5% from 1st April. That will represent an increase of 20% in just one year! Not surprising that many expats who planned their budget on a shoestring a year or two ago are now experiencing extreme hardship given the increase in utilities, fuel, and poor exchange rates. There must be many dreams of France turning into real nightmares.

we lost over 50,000 in the sale of our house due to an incapacity to pay a mortgage taken on when 'times were good'. However with a much much smaller mortgage our life is slowly looking up again!

So moving on and being immersed in my French language course, we are hoping to find a property in the coastal region of Aquitaine say within 50 km from the atlantic coast. Does anyone have any experience of this region ie climate property prices etc. we are hoping to have our house here in Australia sold and our affaires sorted out by August. We would then be looking to rent for a while until we get a feel for where we would like to live out our days.

We have just moved back from near Rainbow beach,the prices where cheaper 6-7 years ago and we got 2.5dollars to the pound,
we moved back to Auvergne region,brought a old hotel and i have converted it to a Charmbre d'hotes last year,when we returned we got 2 dollars to the pound,so we benefited from the rate,
I to was quoted a stupid amount for our furniture so i brought my own container,packed it myself,paid a transport company to take it to Brisbane then paid a shipping company to send it to felixstowe,then hired a lorry and picked it up myself,
total amount(including french ferry) 3000 pounds then i sold the container for 500 pounds:

You sound like a younger or more active guy then me. We are having other quotes from removalist so keep our fingers crossed. We understand Grace have a good reputation and their rep is coming tomorrow.

Hi i used OSSworld wide movers a lady called joanne
OSS World Wide Movers
30 Anton Road
Hemmant QLD 4174 Australia
tel: 61 7 3348 2500
fax: 61 7 3348 2522
e-mail: [email protected]

try Oss wide wide movers in Brisbane

Thank you for that.

dont get out of the boat

This is exactly what we want to do (although we'll ship direct into Le Harve and I'm not sure we can hire a big enough truck on a normal licence to move it ourselves when we get there?)
Thanks for the name and number for the company you used! Did they organise your transport from Rainbow or did you use a local company - we are going to be leaving from Hervey Bay so if you can recommend someone local that would be fab (what a small world!!). There is a guy in the Bay who sells containers I think for $2600 - does that sound on par with what you paid? Any other info you have would be fab! At the moment I've only had a quote on sending a huge box trailer (5m2) but we are not sure that will be enough! That is a guy in Marochydore who said he would do that for $1400 but they don't do all the arrival stuff just their office to the port.