dmu

Although the OP is under 60 and fit now, he should imagine himself in 10-15 years' time when he'll be starting to consult more regularly. We're "in the sticks", 5 km from the nearest Doctor, Dentist and small-time Clinique and 45 km from the nearest Hospital, and, with OH in poor health, rather regret living so far away from healthcare services. As the OP will be on his own, he should consider how he'd cope if he's too "rural".
Not everyone has a golf club handy, but our Commune and nearby town have plenty of clubs and associations to join in order to meet people with the same interests.
P.S. Just seen your last post. "Smallholdings" should also be researched, esp. if you hope to sell your produce. You can obviously raise animals (within limits) and grow food for your personal consumption, but Bureaucracy rears its ugly head as soon as you exceed the number of animals involved and/or you sell your products.... As mentioned in other threads, even the sale of fresh eggs could be denounced by the neighbours if you aren't registered with some Organisation or other.....
Oooops, the P.S. is directed to the OP, not Cyrian!

grumpygit

You are just about reading my mind Cyrian :-)

And to a point I am already doing that, a longer spell would be a a good idea and I have good cover in the UK where I can trust someone to keep keep things ticking over, and anyway getting back to the UK in emergency is cheap enough. One example is that I came back from a break in Kefalonia last week and on the way to the airport I have 2 customers phoning on bank holiday on the way to the airport to go.

My mate lives just about on the coast in Normandy which these days is expensive, but just going a few miles in land the prices plummet, wonderful looking places, and to me being within 20 miles of all that empty coastline is just fine by me, I can even see the advantages of that. I cannot remember exactly but there was this great folk music festival in July in this really lively little town and there were more of them, and the joy for me is not knowing all of them anyway and discovering something new for the rest of my life.

I will give you an example of my likes of the French, this music festival had this one drunk guy who was p*****g everyone off, only one I saw that day. The locals and local big wigs soon dealt with it and did not put up with it, now if that was the UK, and more so Friday night, it's just put up with now. Yes I could give you a list of my French annoyances, but my praises list at the moment is far longer.

cyrian

You said that 2 customers phoned you on a bank holiday.
In France, if you make phonecalls or work on the internet then it is considered working and if you annoy any neighbours and
they know that you are "working" then they will denounce you to the taxman.
You would need to make it clear to everyone that you are on holiday and certainly not working.
You also need to check broadband speeds and availability because there are many internet black holes in rural France.
If you do a forum search for "broadband" or "internet" then you will find previous discussions.
HTH

dmu

... and not only to the taxman. The URSSAF will come down on you to make sure you're paying your "côtisations" (contributions) for healthcare, pension, etc..., in some way. If your UK company agrees to pay these côtisations, then all well and good, but they are crippling... (I speak from experience with a French business structure, and also having been denounced (wrongly) for having employed a handyman on the black.
If we're pointing out all the pitfalls or issues, we're being realistic and they should be considered/researched before taking the plunge.

grumpygit

Gawd Blimey, its a wonder any of you want to live in France if it is so full of problems
I am sure a move to France is littered with problems, tax, business, different culture and regulations etc, would anyone not know that, and more so like me if you know and stay with people that actually live in France.
Just for now though, and I did state that in my OP I want to know the good and bad places in Normandy and Brittany, the pros and cons of actually living in certain places. Then I will one by one deal with every issue that arises, thanks.

cyrian

Hi GG
France has probably no more problems than anywhere else but it has a different system and culture.
We are just trying to point out some areas that you should address to see if your proposal will work for you.
It is quite normal on the forum for other topics to arise that you may have to consider before going much further down the process.
We all chose the areas we live in because we like it and it is unlikely that you will get unbiased opinion for or against.
You need to go and look at selected areas and then ask for positive or negative points about each location.
I love Normandy and Brittany but I chose not to buy a property there because I prefer Touraine.
My reasons were:
a) climate - usually warmer and better than the Channel coast.
b) transport - good air; rail and road links.
c) Good food and wine area.
d) We weren't looking for a Brit enclave - which isn't difficult in Normandy or Brittany either.

My apologies to those who live in those areas. I have spent a fair amount of time in both and enjoyed every minute.
HTH

EuroTrash

Well, I also narrowed my search down to Brittany or Normandy, after spending many months exploring France by motorhome to see which areas felt "right".

I work from home so in a sense I could have lived anywhere as long as I had a good adsl connection, but in fact I didn't want to be cut off out in the sticks; I wanted to be convenient for places where I could do a certain amount of networking, arrange meetings etc. But I didn't want to be in a big city because I'm not a big city person. I fell in love with Saint Malo and decided to rent a little place intra muros, but renting turned out so complicated, and I didn't want to buy a place because I wasn't 100% sure that the love affair would last (could I live with it being crowded with tourists in summer, how dead would it feel in winter) that I gave up on that idea. Next I fell in love with a little 16th century half timbered cottage in a small town in Basse Normandie, and that's where I still live. The location ticks all my boxes with the big plus of having a centre de télétravail where I rent office space when I'm working on a big project and which was also a life saver once when my internet at home went down. It happens to suit me perfectly, but my priorities probably aren't the same as most people's and they don't, for instance, include owning lots of land.

Rural Brittany can be very rural indeed, and if you live in a farming community and you don't speak their language, both literally and figuratively, you might feel a bit isolated. There is also the Breton influence - the accent can be hard to understand, and in a very Breizh area you might find the culture confusing (you think you have moved to France but the Bretons don't like being seen as French). But there are plenty of larger villages and small towns, you don't have to go totally rural. The Bretons like to party and you will find local fest noz all over the place during the summer, along with larger festivals of various kinds. I love touring Brittany, I find the whole Celtic thing very evocative and there are lots of places that send shivers up my spine, I can't really explain why. Daft as it may sound, I wouldn't live there because I don't want the magic to wear off, I want to keep it as a special place that I visit from time to time.
On the whole, rural Normandy has for some reason always struck me as more user-friendly. This is a huge over-generalisation of course but you don't tend to drive through quite so much open countryside between villages as you do in Brittany. I find the countryside in my area (Orne/Calvados border) very pretty, with its apple orchards and green fields and cows. However if you want to be near Granville you will probably be looking at Manche. You may well find somewhere on the Cotentin peninsula that suits you, there are hundreds of small villages and as you say, away from the coast property isn't expensive. I know parts of it fairly well because I've spent several seasons working on a campsite at a little seaside resort near Coutance, and while I'm there I like to spend my days off touring in the camping car, especially around La Hague where there is some stunning scenery. I get the impression that it's quite a gentle pace of life, there seem to be a lot of local music festivals and events organised during the summer. I have to admit that in general I find parts of this area a little bland and I wouldn't choose to live there, but I can perfectly well understand that many people do.

Not sure if that will help you much - as you'll have gathered I don't tend to see things in terms of "pros" and "cons", I think I just soak a place up and then react to it on my own personal level. Places are what they are, they either they float your boat or they don't, and the only way to find out is to go there and see whether it ticks your personal boxes and whether it feels like home. When I was touring France I used to spend a day or two or several in a place and then move on, and I found that at the end of the trip, some places had left me cold and I had no interest in going back there, some places had stuck in my mind and I knew I would visit them again but I couldn't imagine living there, and just a few places I felt I had really connected with and they kept popping back into my head uninvited and tugging at me. If that makes any sense at all to anyone else.

grumpygit

That has helped lot, thanks.
Normandy is probably tipping it for me, but that's the idea of this post and talking to as many people as possible, I could be convinced otherwise. You are spot on about Brittany, well at least you concur with me :-) Brittany is a more rural and more of a distant throwback. I do want land and I would like a few livestock, but with me it's more of a health thing and good for the soul, but it's amazing what you can produce in an acre or less.

I can do isolation very well with the odd enjoyable visit to the rat race, and have done so for a good part of my life, Village I am in now is several miles from anything sizeable. Towns and cities I used to hate I now find so much to like about them now that I will travel into them just for the day and for a purpose, living in them is hell for me in the past. Funny you should also mention the Celtic thing, only this morning Peter Berresford The Celts arrived from Amazon, that's not just because of my interest in Normandy and Brittany though, but a part. I have family from Wexford, and there are so many similarities to those two places.

EuroTrash

Have to admit I don't know where Wexford is A lot of people say Cornwall is like Brittany but I don't know Cornwall at all apart from a couple of seaside holidays. But I do find Wales very very remiscent of parts of Brittany with its rugged cliffs and the general feel of the place, and also the language of course. I've noticed a lot of place names that they have in common although for the moment I can only think of Edern. And Cheers! or To your health! in Breton is "Yec'hed (health) mat (good)!" and the Welsh for health is basically the same word, iechyd.

I don't see much Celtic influence in Normandy, however; the historical heritage aspects hereabouts are of course mainly focused the Normandy Landings and Guillaume le Conquérant.

I think you should go for a cruise round the Cotentin, I have a feeling one of the villages up there might just suit you. It has to be said that there isn't a great deal of choice of big towns for when you hanker after the bright lights, but there's Coutances and Saint Lô and Cherbourg, and a bit further afield you have Avranches, Bayeux, Caen etc.

cyrian

Wexford is in Ireland

Moses2013

Ireland actually has a lot of links to Brittany, especially in our area near Galway. A lot of French people live and work here permanently, we have twin towns and there are regular exchange programmes.

Novocastrian

The regulars on this forum have a depth of knowledge on the realities of living in France, especially with respect to business structures and health care issues as one gets older.It pays to heed them, but it doesn't pay to be put off if you know what you're getting into.

I'd recommend some sort of transition arrangement while you make your mind up for yourself. A bit like Brexit really.

dmu

Another way of saying "fore-warned is fore-armed"!
If OP's friends have experienced his situation themselves, they can confirm what we're all saying. If not, far better to know what to expect and be prepared, than be unaware of the differences from the UK and plunge into the unknown.
A transition period is a good idea - OP could use his future property as a holiday home, meanwhile getting professional business advice and improving his French skills for when D-Day arrives.

EuroTrash

Oh THAT Wexford yes I drove through Co Wexford just a couple of weeks ago, had a holiday to Ireland using the Rosslare ferry
For some reason I though there must also be a town somewhere in the UK also called Wexford.
Doh.

EuroTrash

Personally that is what I would do. If I was planning to keep operating a UK business then no way would I complicate things by changing my tax residency to France before I retired, Up to that point I would spend time in France strictly as a "visitor", even if it meant keeping a careful eye on dates and restricting the time I spent there. But that is entirely up to the OP.