gordon-bocquet

Late reply from a new contruibutor - sadly agree your boyfriend will find it extremely difficult to vfind work even with all the required permits. Its just like that here - there is little work, they dont really life strangers and you will probably find it an uphill battle.
It is estimated that only 2% of Brits ever find permant work in France and they are in estate agengy, B & B (dont bother now). Better, as advised, go to Australia!!

onlyonebrenda

See my last reply on the French life thread re how one English builder is getting on over here. Can't be bothered to write it all again! Oh and welcome.

RedMonsk

Hi, I have read your great postings on the 'French life' thread. I also am very interested to find out tradesman can do in France. My husband is a carpenter (cabinet maker actually) who has done lots of work in the past for English Heritage, so I'm sure he will be more than capable to undertake renovation work in France.

I do worry about him getting work though. As mentioned previously, my mum lives in the Gironde area, so we would like to live in reasonable reach of her. My mum seems to think that hubby wouldn't struggle too much to find work, but a lot of the postings on this forum seem to contradict this.

We hope to be mortgage free and have some left over to renovate the place we buy, but obviously our funds won't last forever, so some work will come in very handy!

I went out yesterday and bought a French CD language course, a dictionary and a book called 'How to renovate a house in France'. We intend to make every effort to integrate into french life!

I have looked at several issues of the French News newspaper and haven't noticed many carpenters advertise in the '33' area, so I'm hopeful that an advert there might help. I will also ensure we introduce ourselves to the Maire and maybe email a few French holiday home agencies.

If anyone else has any helpful tips ........

onlyonebrenda

Flexibility, integrity and an awareness that if you are asked to do something 'free' you may get nothing back but you may be rewarded most handsomely in kind, and with a 35 hour basic week you have the time to barter. People do do things'on the black' i.e. without obeying the rules but it is worth the effort to go through the official ropes. It wll be appreciated that you are making the effort and you will probably find people most kind and it isn't so onerous as everyone makes out. It's just that over the years we've become accustoled to our British syste,s and bureaucracy and know the ropes. Here we have to start from scratch. People don't advertise because everything is networking and word of mouth. You will be up against 'M LeBrun' who just happens to have been around since the year dot and have relatives/friends in every corner but if you are good you will build up your own network., particularly as Monsieur L will always be so busy that people may have to wait a year or more before he turns up. There are lots of menuiserie/ebenistes, woodworkers and, incidentally loads of wood, much of which ends up being burnt as logs for about 35€ p.c.m. There
is always room for a skilled craftsman but don't expect things to happen overnight. People are not flush and don't have money to burn but then when your quality of life improves by coming out here you won't find yourselves so in the grips of the spend, spend, spend society and you will get by if you are resourceful. Scared? Of course. Who said life was going to be easy? Who said you could dot all the 'i's and cross all the 't's before you came here? I don't know how or if it would work out for you but all I can say is 'Come on in, the water's fine.

RedMonsk

Hi Brenda

Thank you very much for your encouraging reply!

Yes, we are nervous, but very keen to make the move. The UK isn't what it used to be and we are very keen to give our children a better life - allowing them to be children for longer will be a good start!

We don't expect work to full in our laps, but hope that renovating our place and living frugally for a year or two will enable us to build up a list of contacts. My mother knows at least 3 British tradesman and they have all lived in France for 15 years - so it must be possible!

Monsieur Le Brun? Real or figurative? Or am I just being thick! Do you know La Gironde?

Nicky

onlyonebrenda

No I don't know Gironde. I'm in Perigord Vert.
Keep plugging away at the French lessons. Every bit of effort will repay itself a thousand times and don't get demoralised if it doesn't all come at once. Having your Mum in the area is a definite bonus as she will enable you to start networking work and businesswise. I came here on my own and started from scratch.
I was very sad to leave England but realised that the way things were going my house would need serious repairs which I couldn't afford and that the area was becoming more violent with the infiltration of drugs. I also felt that politically England was drifiting into totalitarianism which I found seriously scary and it was no longer the England I knew and loved. France may not be perfect but I am grateful.

RedMonsk

You obviously realised sooner than many what was to become of England!

We have been talking about moving out of the UK for a year now. We initially thought of France, but my husband worried that about the work situation and we then turned our attentions to NZ!

NZ would be easier in lots of ways - plenty of work and no language barrier. I'm sure we could have a great life in NZ, it's a beautiful country, but I couldn't quite shrug off the distance issues! Leaving all my family and friends behind! I'd probably only seem them every few years!

We also have an apartment in Bulgaria and even considered moving there! But learning Bulgarian would be a bigger challenger than French! The Cyrillic alphabet for starters, plus we don't know enough about their economy and education systems.

So here we are back to France! It will definitely help having my mum in France, she has been in Gironde for over a year now (with her partner) and absolutely loves it and having returned from a holiday there, I can see why! Her French is much better than mine, so I'm hoping she can help us with the rigmarole of buying a house, etc!!

My friends do laugh, as we have proved indecisive in our choice of where to move to, but we are determined to do so soon. The younger the children are the better (they are 7 and 4) at the moment, whilst their brains are like sponges! My brain is like a rock, so it's going to be interesting to see how hard it is for me to pick up French!

Anyway, thank you for your kind replies and watch this space!

onlyonebrenda

France is very big compared to England. As someone put it, if all the peole who wanted to come from England to France (apparently nearly 80%) came to France there would still be plenty of room.
You have an advantage in that your Mum's presence has enabled you to suss out the area before buying. Workwise I would recommend forgetting any formal or posh approach and just be very flexible , entrepreneurial and prepared to turn your hand to anything. you're obviously very capable.
Maybe rent a place near your Mum and try it for a year while you look round.
I'd love to visit NZ and gather it's a great place to live but your English state pension would be pegged whereas in Europe it goes up when it goes up in England. ( Not a short term consideration maybe but a long term one) I also heard horror tales from friends of weather/conditions as it is very volcanic with earthquakes etc.
We've been flooded here this year - worst weather since 1943 - but we're ok.

Kate45

Hi Red Monsk and welcome ...good luck with all the decision making and the move. I understand indecision ....my list of regions to visit in september just gets bigger ...mostly based on school choices.
I'm sure your children will be fine they are a great age to make the move....and I bet your mum will love to have them around.My brain too is like a rock so yes it will be interesting to see how I go learning the language.
My children are all excited about the move ..they just wish I'd make up my mind about which bit of France.

Cheers have a great day

Kate

RedMonsk

Yes, it's important to pick the right village with regards to schooling. Apparently, a lot of the village schools are closing, but you can find out if they are likely to close.

I wish my children were excited about the move! My 7 year old son is not keen at all, which I'm not surprised about. He's a real homebody who likes having a familiar routine and I know he is worried about the language. I'm sure to expect lots of tears, but he's a clever boy and I'm sure he'll get there eventually! He didn't really enjoy his holiday with my mum, despite nanny having a pool, but a lot of that was down to the fact that daddy wasn't there!

My 4 year old daughter is a different matter entirely - born for the stage! She had a real go at speaking French and even did well with the inflections!! I'm sure it won't take her long to settle in - she is very confident (too confident sometimes!) unlike her brother.

Good luck with narrowing down your search. I had that problem when we were looking at NZ! Normandy wasn't it?

Nicky

onlyonebrenda

I live opposite a village school. I would never have dreamt of buying a house over the road from a school in England. Here I hear the children playing happily, not aggressively, and they are well supervised. They go on little visits with their teachers to places like the post office and are well behaved but perhaps not overstimulated. There is never any litter but then the French discourage eating between meals.
My friend has a ten year old daughter at a school in Thiviers. Her daughter has coped well and is popular. My friend was surprised to find that the school provided extra French lessons automatically for her. Although her daughter should now be going to the local senior school my friend has decided to enrolher in a senior school in Perigueux about 20 miles away as she feels she will have a better future if she goes there.

Kate45

Hi Nicky .....We will most probably head towards Montpellier but Toulouse is a possibility and OH threw Grenoble into the hat the other day as well....so my 2 weeks in France are going to be very busy.

4Kemps

Nicky,

That could have been me posting because we have been talking about moving away for a few years now but not hit upon the area we would like. I was drawn to Oz, hubby to Canada but, as you say, the distance-issue was too great a one for me. My mum has a place in Spain and we touched on moving there a couple of times but really, as much as I enjoy going there for holiday, it's not somewhere I actually want to live. But France - both of us feel we've hit the nail on the head.

It's us who want to search in the Normandy area - not too much of a distance from home (and so appeasing the grandparents!!!), and my family are in Portsmouth so just across the water. Our timeframe is about 2 years from now. We're planning on a camping holiday in the area next summer when we will be able to have a good look around and see what we like. We too would be selling up everything here and would have a nice bit of capital but know that it wouldn't last forever if we didn't have jobs or work of some kind. Hubby is a French Polisher/furniture restorer and I am looking to gain a TEFL certificate of some kind next year.

In 2 years our kids will be 6 and 4 and, from what I've heard, these are good ages for them to pick up the French language quickly. They have the BBC Muzzy DVDs right now and are picking up simple words without even knowing it. They love watching it.

I know there will people at home who won't understand what we are going to do (hubby's parents in particular) but we have to remain strong and make a decision based on what's best for us and the kids. I think Brenda's attitude is the right one - be flexible, enterprising and prepared to throw your hand in to anything.

Keep us posted - I love hearing of other people like us who are planning similar things.

And lets hope it all works out in the long-run.

Sharon

Kate45

Hello Sharon .....only 2 and a bit weeks now before I go to France for my visit...so much to do ...so little time
Cheers
Kate

4Kemps

Hi Kate, Wow! 2 weeks. How long are you spending in France? Really, really good luck with your research (if I don't get a chance to say that before you go). I'm so looking forward to being able to get over there and have a scout around.

Sharon